Women professionals’ participation in the nigerian construction industry: finding voice for the voiceless

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO 1995) stated that two-thirds of the world's adult illiterate population comprises women. In sub-Saharan Africa, only six in ten adults are literate. Women need to be enlightened and conversant about the potentials of choosing a career in the built environment profession. Clarke et al. (2005) observed that in most developed countries, the built environment profession is the most male dominated and one of the biggest industrial employer as well as a major contributor to the gross domestic product.

The 1999 Nigeria Constitution is explicit in Section 17, subsection 3a, where it asserted that “all citizens without discrimination on any ground (gender, race, etc) whatsoever, have the opportunity for securing adequate means of livelihoods as well as adequate opportunities to secure suitable employment” (Odivwri, cited in Bamgbade et al. 2014). Gender equality is taken to be very important globally, because at the Millennium Summit in 2002 at the General Assembly of the United Nations, the whole world vowed to encourage gender equality (Ricki 2007). In a related development, Bachelet (2011) stated that gender stereotyping is a major cause of occupational dichotomy, which has to be tackled holistically. Conventionally, women have not been employed in the built environment profession in any number to be considered. Therefore, research must be carried out to determine why women are not entering the built environment profession.

In the UK, from 1990 to 2005, the percentage of women employed in the built environment has remained broadly stable between 10% and 12% of the entire workforce (Ricki 2007). Whittock (2002) stated that the “UK construction industry is busier than it has been for a decade and is suffering from skills shortage at the professional level in engineering and quantity surveying.” Therefore, it is not surprising that the UK government is again looking forward to utilizing the talents of women and is examining ways to encourage women's entry into male-dominated jobs.

In the USA, Warren (2003) found that the built environment profession is the fastest-growing industry for women. Although only about 3% of those employed by the industry comprises women, an increasing number of women are starting new businesses in the field. Built environment profession is the fastest-growing segment for female business owners, as it has increased by >30% since 1997. Government efforts to award contracts to the less-privileged and women-owned businesses in the USA are responsible for this trend. Markets tend not to treat women equal to men but to treat women as individuals in their own right (Schrum and Geisler 2003).

The majority of the European Union countries employ an average of 10% female workforce (Labour Statistic, cited in Aulin and Jingmond 2011). Women constituted about 8% of all employees in the construction industry. Figure 1 shows the participation of women in construction sector in European countries, Austria and Germany had 13.5% and 12% respectively of active women participation in their construction sectors indicating the highest female employment rate among the European countries. Contrarily, women participation in Greece is the lowest with only 2%, while Malta and Portugal have 4.3% of women participation in construction.

Fig. 1

Most of the Member Countries have high-level participation of women in construction, ranging between 5% and 9%. Countries such as Romania, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Lithuania and France have between 9% and 10% of women participation in construction. Clarke et al (2005) observed that most women working in the construction industry within the European Union are administrators, technicians and professionals rather than tradeswomen. In UK, for instance, 78% of women employed in the construction industry are involved in administrative work (Michielsens 2004). Moreover, women constitute <6% of construction workers in the specialized and managerial levels of the industry.

Women are hidden resources, and these resources have remained untapped in many of the developing nations. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, women are not allowed or seen in the construction industry; women are more in number than men at construction sites in Asia. According to Wells (2004), in Thailand, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, women account for 95%, 88% and 78%, respectively, of all employees who are productive in the construction industry. In spite of being visible at construction sites, women account for only a small proportion of all employees in the construction industry in Asia.

Women in Asia are generally employed as labourers or helpers at construction and building material sites, unlike in Western countries, where women are employed in administrative, technical and professional work. In these countries, women are placed below in the job hierarchy, as unskilled workers and head-load carriers. They carry out some of the hardest and most difficult tasks and are paid less than men doing similar tasks. Sometimes, they are not paid at all and, in most cases, payment is made to the husband (Wells 2004).

In South Africa, a career in the construction industry has not been a popular choice for women. In reference to the occupational survey conducted by Statistics South Africa (2003), the percentage of posts filled by women in the construction industry in South Africa is 12.14% compared to the Social Industry, wherein 55% of the posts are filled by women. This percentage represents all job levels in the industry. If the percentage of professionals and women who are managing their own construction firms in South Africa in the construction industry is determined, then the percentages must be even lower.

The National Council for Research on Women, as quoted by Schrum and Geisler (2003), found that women had made significant progress in choosing careers in the sciences for the past few years, but in engineering, the gains noted previously had been stopped or even reversed. Statistics South Africa (2003) compared the percentage of South African women employed in 2001 to the percentage employed in 1995 and found that the percentage did show a significant growth, but it still showed that <10% of the employment in the construction sector is allotted to women.

Table 1 shows that the total percentage of women participants engaged in one activity or the other in the economy is 43.1%, as opposed to men's 56.9%. This is statistically perfect but quite confusing because the top sectors in the economy by way of revenue generation have not been satisfactory to women in terms of participation, where women participation is 0.2 compared to men's 3.2% (Okoyeuzu et al. 2008).

In Nigeria, research on women participation in construction is very low and unlike research in the developed countries. Though studies carried out on the informal housing delivery sector (a sub-sector of the Nigerian construction industry) found that women participation in construction is very low, this observation was presumed to be due to certain factors that are generated by a number of cultural ethics and values existing among the amalgamated ethnic groups that make up Nigeria (Adeyemi et al. 2006).

The values, as articulated by these authors, range from the “one man–many wives” tradition, preference for the male child, a general belief in not supporting female education and not recognizing unmarried women, on the one hand, to allowing some economic activities to be earmarked just for men, on the other (Orubuloye 1987; Oruwari 1992; Okewole 1997).

The UNESCO (1995) has recognized that, over the past two-and-a-half decades, women's status in terms of allowable activities has improved tremendously, with women now having equal opportunity and access to education; meanwhile, these changes would have enabled women to improve the situations under which they participate in various national economies. This may not be so because the current increasing trend in the level of participation of women in the Nigerian construction industry may not necessarily transform into adequate representation if strategies are not reviewed and new ways charted.

A reliability analysis was conducted for the scales using Cronbach's alpha. The reliability was used to indicate the degree of consistency, which measures the attribute of the scale used and what it is supposed to measure. The less variation an instrument produces during repeated measurements of an attribute, the higher is its reliability. Cronbach's alpha is used here to measure the reliability of the questionnaire for each construct, and the value was calculated for each construct of the questionnaire. The most identical values of alpha indicate that the mean and variances in the original construct do not differ much, and thus standardization does not make a great difference in alpha. Table 2 shows the values of Cronbach's alpha for each construct of the questionnaire and the entire questionnaire. For the construct, values of Cronbach's alpha were in the range of 0.812 −0.89. This range is considered high and acceptable; the result ensures the reliability of each construct of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha equals 0.804 for the entire questionnaire, which indicates a good degree of reliability of the entire questionnaire, as supported by Cohen et al (2000) and George and Mallery (2003). Hence, it is proved that the questionnaire is valid, reliable and suitable for the population sample.

Table 3 shows the analysis of factors that affect professional women's participation in the built environment profession; preference of other jobs over construction jobs and gender discrimination have very high influence, with a mean score of 4.62, amounting to 66.1% of the sampled population. This finding is in tune with the assertion of Azhar et al (2014), who argued that women face different forms of discrimination in the male-dominated construction industry, the most obvious among which is sexual harassment (Bagilhole 2003). “Family obligations” is ranked third and is deemed to be of very high influence. This is supported by Hatipkarasulu and Roff (2011), who considered family/work life balance as a significant factor affecting women participation in construction. Recruitment policies and procedures are of high influence, and this is ranked next to family obligations. The result affirmed the finding of Chun et al (2009) that negative perceptions of women capabilities is a hindrance to their interest in construction work. The analysis shows that lack of mentoring (mean score: 3.54) is also of high influence, as lack of mentor or role model dissuades women from participating in the construction industry (Yates 2001). Lack of career progression, as well as nature of the construction industry, is also of high influence (Dainty and Lingard 2006). Most of the factors are of high influence, if applied properly, in encouraging professional women participation in the construction industry.

From Table 4, we see that the mean score of 4.82, amounting to 85.2%, for the dominance of male culture in the construction industry and the attitudes, perceptions and behaviours of the society are deemed to be of high extent and ranked first. The mean score of 3.54 for the low level of females’ self-confidence at the career level when compared to males can be deemed to be of high extent and it is ranked fifth. The mean score of 4.58, amounting to 57.1%, shows that the inflexible and harsh working conditions are of high influence and ranked third. Most of the barriers/constraints that prevent women's entry into the construction industry are of high influence.

The results of the survey shown in Table 4 emphasize the significance of the barriers being faced by women in entering and continuing to participate in construction works. Although there are several barriers hindering the participation of women in construction, the few barriers that are highlighted lead to poor or low participation of women in the industry. According to the results obtained from the survey, construction industry is largely dominated by men, with women facing a lot of challenges ranging from lack of self-confidence to compete with their male counterparts, inflexible and harsh working conditions, limited number of women attaining senior positions in a firm and smaller proportion of women training in construction-related fields to unequal job opportunities for women. These findings are similar to the results of Dainty and Lingard (2006), Shanmugam et al (2007) and Azhar et al (2014), who found most of the barriers stated herein as impediments to women participation in construction.

From Table 5, the mean score analysis for professional women shows that making young women aware of opportunities in construction, better representation of women and extending the influence of women are ranked as the best strategies for continuous participation of women in construction. This is consistent with the results of Dainty et al (2000), who posited that when a clear path for career opportunities is provided, irrespective of gender, women are more prone to remain within the industry. It is interesting to note that making young women aware of opportunities in construction is ranked first by both the women professionals and the employers, which is an indication of the level of importance attached to this strategy by the respondents. The analysis also showed that flexible working hours and creating scholarship opportunities for women, especially for secondary school and university students, to pursue degree in the built environment are good strategies to improve women involvement in construction. These strategies are also supported by previous studies (such as that of Aulin and Jingmond 2011), which indicated that the Swedish Construction Federation's suggestion allowing a flexible work schedule and work hours is a positive way of encouraging female participation in construction. Networking and mentoring schemes are also considered ways of retaining female workers in construction. This type of peer support or mentor–protégé relationship is perceived to be important in attracting and retaining women in construction (Wangle 2009; Aulin and Jingmond 2011).