Systemic Gender Barriers in the Building and Construction Industry: Co-Preneurs as Managers

Systemic Gender Barriers in the Building and Construction Industry: Co-Preneurs as Managers

Megan Alessandrini, Romy Winter
Copyright: © 2019 |Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-7314-2.ch044
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Abstract

This chapter examines structural gender-based disadvantage experienced by women in the building industry. This is found in trade and technical occupations, but is much more prevalent in administrative and management roles in small and micro businesses where female family members and spouses carry out work often for little or no remuneration or recognition. Nor does this group have any protection in income support, injury or sickness cover or retirement benefits. This also contributes to inefficiency in the industry as there is minimal opportunity for professional development or skill enhancement. Using a non-positivist methodology, the authors found that this phenomenon is particularly prevalent in the building and construction and that many were unpaid and were employed in other occupations. This disadvantage contributed to status driven tensions between these women, often called co-preneurs, and those women working on site in trade and technical roles.
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Background

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reports that as at October 2010 the building and construction industry was Australia’s fourth largest industry in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employed around 9% of the Australian workforce (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010). There are some 352,000 construction businesses in Australia, of which 60% have no paid employees. Strikingly, only about 3% of building and construction enterprises have more than 20 employees (ABS 2010, 2012). Thirty per cent of all independent contractors work in the Construction Industry (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012), often sole trader owner-operators with the support of their spouse.

Typically women in Australia have rarely found employment in the building and construction industry. In 2011, women comprised 11.7% of the industry workforce (ABS, 2012). While there has been some movement since the 1980s with young women entering trade occupations, these tend to be women with existing family connections to the industry with the benefit of robust mentoring (Dee & Cowling, 2011; Fielden et al, 2000). Nevertheless, women still constitute less than two per cent of tradespeople in the Australian building and construction industry (ABS. 2012). Larger firms in Australia are more likely to appoint women. In recent times Australian women have increasingly found employment in managerial and executive roles in the industry, such as in site management and project design in larger enterprises (Fielden et al, 2000).

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