Downer Transport and Infrastructure Contract Manager Samantha Riley discusses why the push to support women in civil contracting needs more work.
There is a conversation I have been unable to stop thinking about recently. I was discussing support for a women-focused industry event when the response came back: “There are already so many women’s events.”
And perhaps that is true. There are women’s leadership forums, networking events, career days, mentoring initiatives, industry panels and internal company programs happening across the construction industry. But perhaps the better question is not why there are so many; it is why they still need to exist?
Despite years of conversation around increasing female participation, improving diversity and building inclusive workplaces, women still make up only 15 percent of the construction industry on average. More interestingly, that same percentage is reflected across many graduate intakes within Tier 1 contracting businesses.
Which tells us something important. Women are entering the industry, but they are not staying in construction delivery environments at the rate we should be asking for.
The trend emerging through graduate pathways is one many within the industry quietly acknowledge – women often transition away from contracting earlier in their careers, frequently moving toward consultancy environments instead. That alone should prompt some uncomfortable reflection.
If they are entering the industry yet continuing to step away from construction environments over time, then perhaps the challenge is no longer simply attraction. Perhaps the harder question is: What are they experiencing once they get here?
The construction industry has become very good at talking about diversity. We discuss targets, representation, leadership pathways and inclusion regularly. Panels are held. Strategies are launched. International Women’s Day posts are shared every March.
Yet if the numbers remain relatively stagnant year after year, we have to ask ourselves a difficult question: Are we creating measurable change, or simply creating conversation?
Because the true measure of inclusion is not how many women we recruit into graduate programs or feature in recruitment campaigns. It is how many stay. How many progress. How many lead. How many feel they belong long enough to build a career within contracting environments.
And perhaps that is why women-focused forums, support networks and leadership spaces continue to exist. Not because the industry has overcorrected, but because the gap itself still exists.
The existence of these forums is not evidence that the issue has been solved. In many ways, it is evidence that the issue still remains.
Ironically, many of these initiatives are still largely carried by women themselves. Women organising the events. Women mentoring emerging professionals. Women creating support networks. Women advocating for visibility and progression.
Meanwhile, much of the structural authority to influence real outcomes – leadership pathways, workplace culture, project environments, flexibility, sponsorship and funding – often sits elsewhere.
And this is where the conversation needs to evolve – because inclusion cannot remain a conversation women are expected to drive alone.
The next phase of progress may actually require more men to step into the conversation themselves – not simply as supporters approving budgets from the sidelines, but as active participants in reshaping workplace culture.
Are leaders genuinely reflecting on how women experience construction environments day-to-day? Are men being mindful of how they communicate, provide feedback, foster confidence and create growth opportunities alongside female colleagues, or face a more difficult conversation in dealing with a formal complaint against their male colleague?
Are workplaces evolving to allow greater flexibility – for example, for school drop-offs and pick-ups and working from home during school holidays – and greater psychological safety, without women feeling they must constantly adapt themselves to fit existing environments? Are senior men openly discussing inclusion and accountability with other men?
And perhaps most importantly: Are we prepared to measure success beyond recruitment statistics? Because female leadership representation tells a far more honest story about an organisation than recruitment campaigns ever will.
Women do not reach leadership through attraction strategies alone. They reach leadership through years of retention, sponsorship, opportunity, support and workplace environments that allow them to grow.
Culture is not defined by what companies say publicly. It is defined by what people experience daily onsite, in meetings, during promotions, through leadership interactions and across career progression.
The goal should not be to one day eliminate women’s forums because we are tired of funding them. The goal should be to eliminate the need for them entirely.
But, until women are staying, progressing and leading in significantly greater numbers across construction delivery environments, perhaps these spaces are not evidence of excess – perhaps they are evidence that the work is not finished yet.
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