Construction Industry Boosts Push for Women Builders
The construction sector is making a visible push to attract more women, with 84 Lumber launching a "Women Who Build" campaign to recognize female leaders. This initiative runs alongside a broader industry effort to create clearer apprentice pathways and recruit new perspectives into the field.
The push to diversify the construction workforce comes as women constitute about 10.9% of the industry's employees in the U.S. as of 2024, a gradual increase from 8.9% in 2010. While the majority of these roles are office-based, the industry's gender pay gap is notably smaller than the national average, with women in construction earning on average 99.1% of what their male counterparts make. For business majors, common entry points into the industry include roles like Assistant Project Manager, Project Engineer, or Field Project Management Trainee. Companies like Turner Construction—the nation's largest contractor by revenue—and Bechtel have structured programs and entry-level positions designed for recent graduates. Hiring managers in construction look for transferable skills from business backgrounds, such as financial management, budgeting, and strategic planning. Emphasizing experience in project management, even from academic or extracurricular activities, demonstrates the ability to coordinate complex operations and manage deadlines. When interviewing without direct field experience, candidates should highlight their knowledge of project management software and their ability to solve problems under pressure. It's effective to quantify past achievements, such as managing a budget for a university project or improving a process at a previous internship, to show tangible results. In construction sales and business development, success hinges on navigating long B2B sales cycles with multiple stakeholders, from architects to contractors. The focus is less on single transactions and more on building long-term relationships by providing solutions that reduce costs, increase efficiency, or solve a specific challenge for the client.
