Improving Gender Equality : What Construction Companies Could Consider

Abstract: It is by now well known that the construction sector has challenges regarding reaching equal gender balances and despite various types of actions to increase the share of women, the industry remains one of the most gender-segregated industries in the world with hardly ten percent of women in the Swedish construction sector. However, the previous industry initiatives for gender equality solely focused on increasing the share of women have been criticized by research as it disregards what may lie behind the skewed gender balances. Consequently, this thesis has investigated what gender inequalities, barriers, and opportunities that are experienced within a construction company to identify improvement areas for gender change. This was done by interviewing four men and four women in a construction company from an interpretivism standpoint and the results were found to be contradictory where proequality could be opposed with inequalities. The findings from this study could be considered by construction companies that attempt to improve gender equality. Particularly as this study has found that it exists internal barriers linked to culture and gender that may impede gender change.