Retention over Attraction: A Review of Women’s Experiences in the Australian Construction Industry; Challenges and Solutions
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- What are the key factors influencing women’s retention and engagement in Australia’s construction sector?
- What solutions in the literature have been proposed to retain women in the Australian construction sector?
2. Methodology
- Female* OR women OR woman OR girl* OR feminist* OR “gender diversity” AND “construction industry” OR “building industry” OR “construction management” OR “construction companies” OR “construction company” OR “property industry” OR “built environment”.
- Female* OR women OR woman OR girl* OR feminist* OR “gender diversity” AND “construction industry” OR “building industry” OR “construction management” OR “construction companies” OR “construction company” OR “property industry” OR “built environment” AND Retention or Retain.
- Work Hours and Family (WHAF);
- Gendered Culture and Informal Rules (GCIR);
- Career Opportunities and Available Roles (COAR);
- Perception of Women’s Ability (POWA).
3. Results
3.1. Descriptive Analysis
3.2. Content Analysis
3.2.1. Work Hours and Family (WHAF)
3.2.2. Gendered Culture and Informal Rules (GCIR)
3.2.3. Career Opportunities and Available Roles (COAR)
3.2.4. Perception of Women’s Ability (POWA)
4. Discussion
4.1. Retention Strategies
4.1.1. Improving Work–Life Balance for Everyone
4.1.2. Changing the Gendered Culture and the Informal Rules
4.1.3. Facilitating Career Progression
5. Conclusions
Future Research
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Quality Assessments (QA) | Scoring Method |
---|---|
QA1—Does the study include the factors/variables affecting women in construction | Yes No |
QA2—Does the study includes the Australian construction context across the different disciplines? | Yes No |
QA3—Does the study present a detailed description of the research aims and objectives? | Yes No |
QA4—Does the study present a detailed description of the research philosophy, method, and design? | Yes No |
Source Name | No. of Articles |
---|---|
Journals | 22 |
Construction Management and Economics | 7 |
Construction Economics and Building | 4 |
Gender, Work, and Organisation | 2 |
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management | 1 |
Australian Journal of Civil Engineering | 1 |
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion | 1 |
Australian Journal of Management | 1 |
Journal of Management in Engineering | 1 |
Construction Innovation | 1 |
Work, Employment and Society | 1 |
Buildings | 1 |
International Journal of Construction Management | 1 |
Conferences | 1 |
IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering | 1 |
Factors | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Citations | Institutionalised Work Practices | Lack of Flexible Working Solutions/Long Hours | Lack of Available Roles/Career Opportunities | Lack Of Senior Female Mentors | Gender Discrimination | Work/Life Responsibilities | Lack of Career Support | Workplace Culture/Informal Rules/ Industry Culture | Stereotypes about Females’ Abilities | Stress | Family | Policies | Masculine Culture | Inability to Fit in | Health Needs | Human Capital/Resilience/Personal Growth |
1 | [37] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||
2 | [38] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||
3 | [39] | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||||
4 | [7] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||
5 | [40] | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||||
6 | [11] | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||||
7 | [18] | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||||
8 | [41] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||
9 | [42] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||
10 | [43] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||
11 | [44] | ■ | |||||||||||||||
12 | [45] | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||||
13 | [46] | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||||
14 | [47] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||
15 | [48] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||
16 | [20] | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||||
17 | [49] | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||||
18 | [31] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ||||||||||||
19 | [50] | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||||
20 | [51] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||
21 | [9] | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||||
22 | [45] | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | ■ | |||||||||||
23 | [5] | ■ | |||||||||||||||
3 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
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Share and Cite
Ghanbaripour, A.N.; Tumpa, R.J.; Sunindijo, R.Y.; Zhang, W.; Yousefian, P.; Camozzi, R.N.; Hon, C.; Talebian, N.; Liu, T.; Hemmati, M. Retention over Attraction: A Review of Women’s Experiences in the Australian Construction Industry; Challenges and Solutions. Buildings 2023, 13, 490. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020490
Ghanbaripour AN, Tumpa RJ, Sunindijo RY, Zhang W, Yousefian P, Camozzi RN, Hon C, Talebian N, Liu T, Hemmati M. Retention over Attraction: A Review of Women’s Experiences in the Australian Construction Industry; Challenges and Solutions. Buildings. 2023; 13(2):490. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020490
Chicago/Turabian StyleGhanbaripour, Amir Naser, Roksana Jahan Tumpa, Riza Yosia Sunindijo, Weiwei Zhang, Parinaz Yousefian, Ranka Novak Camozzi, Carol Hon, Nima Talebian, Tingting Liu, and Mina Hemmati. 2023. "Retention over Attraction: A Review of Women’s Experiences in the Australian Construction Industry; Challenges and Solutions" Buildings 13, no. 2: 490. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020490