“50% of the population is not getting the support it needs to get into the sector”

Women are making strides in construction, with growing representation and leadership in sustainability. However, retaining talent through inclusive policies remains a challenge. Claire Pedini, Senior Vice-President, Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility, and Elizabeth Wangeci Chege, Board Member of the World Green Building Council and Energy Efficiency & Cooling specialist at SEforALL, share their visions on fostering equity across the industry.

Would you say that the building and construction field is increasingly feminized?

Elizabeth Wangeci Chege : Yes, but it is a very slow growth. It is almost two steps forward, five steps back. On the whole decade, there has been an increase of 15% of women in the construction trade, which is good. Yet we still lack an intentional effort to really consider the processes that would retain women, especially when they have children.

And we could do so much better! For example, the industry does lose a huge number of young women, because when they come back from their maternity leave, they are set back compared to other employees. We are not trying enough to consider this life process and help them to join back. So, it is a good thing to have a 15% increase of hiring, but we must make efforts to truly retain them in the sector during their whole career.

Claire Pedini: That is a reason why at Saint-Gobain, since 2012, we have a policy to increase the share of women within the Group, from a hiring but also from a career perspective, by supporting them with coaching, training, and support during maternity time. And by supporting the organization in such a cultural change, we did make some significant progress: twelve years ago, women in management were 16% of the workforce. Today, we are aiming for 25% women executives (Top150) before the end of 2025. I also remember when we were only 4% of women among the 150 top managers; at our last international meeting, we reached 27%! It is also a good achievement, especially in an industry that has always been largely male dominated.

It is up to us to fight the bias: we recently reviewed all our hiring advertisement, and we realized that the choice of the picture had an important effect. By putting a woman on hiring posters, more women were applying. And it did not discourage men to apply. I think our responsibility extends up until the way we portray who we are, because it makes a big difference in attracting women.

Is construction an industry where women can thrive?

Elizabeth Wangeci Chege : Of course. When you look at leaders of sustainable organizations or ESG leaders, they're mostly women. In fact 50% of the CEOs of the Established Green Building Councils – which represent the top tier of World Green Building Council – are women. And they're really driving the sustainability agenda forward. We see a lot of growing support networks and mentoring but I reckon there is still a huge room for improvement.

Today, approximately 50% of the population is not getting the support it needs to get into the sector and maybe that's part of the reason why the building industry is not performing that positively, especially towards responding to the climatic issues.

Claire Pedini: According to a study carried out by FEMCON's, an organization co-founded by the European Union to promote women's careers in the construction industry, women account today for 9% of the construction workforce in Europe. This figure rises to almost 11% in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Asia, the trend is similar, as in India, where 12% of construction workers were women in 2023.

With close to 24% of women in our Group, we are proof that indeed, construction – like any other business – is an industry where women can thrive and be successful. Why wouldn’t they be as successful as men? That is the way we see it at Saint-Gobain. And with a female representation steadily increasing, we are setting ourselves a new objective of reaching the target of 30% female managers in the Group by the end of 2025.

How can big companies or stakeholders or NGOs take action to involve more women in the trade?

Claire Pedini: It is not just companies and NGOs that must act but everyone. The building industry is a very fragmented value chain, there are many stakeholders involved. So, the push for diversity and the progress must come from everywhere, including the financial institutions.

In addition to our policies, we recently set up a structure to open up the conversation by creating a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Lab Accelerator. This group of managers is committed to helps us to accelerate on these topics and elevate the corporate culture. Because diversity and inclusion are key to our long-term growth and performance of the Group.

Elizabeth Wangeci Chege : We need to take action, yes, but it is never that straightforward. Firstly, we need to move away from stereotyping. Having a woman in the room for the sake of having a woman is not enough. We must ensure that women who are present at the table can actually contribute and are empowered in the subject matter. Then we also need to change the way the industry is perceived. The images that come to mind are the worksites. But there is a lot that happens before and after. We need to bring these other elements of the construction process to the forefront so that it attracts more women into that space to support and balance the images that we have out there.

There is a lot to gain to have flexible hours, or job sharing, but sometimes true progress comes from small gestures too. During one of my previous jobs, I tried to drive an excavator. Getting in such a machine is a challenge in itself! Even the tools are rarely made for smaller hands. Is it that hard to have gender-based consideration on tools across the value chain? It might sound like a trivial matter, but it is quite deterring to women today if they want to join the trade at different points of the value chain.