Women’s career development in the construction industry across 15 years: main barriers

Abstract

Purpose Through a systematic literature review covering 15 years, this paper aims to identify and annotate the barriers that hinder the career development of women working in the construction industry. Furthermore, it describes publication trends that have contributed to the evolution of the topic. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review of credible sources in different databases has been carried out for the period from 2000 to 2015. By means of thematic analysis, a data set of 60 articles has been analysed. Findings The topic has been and still is of interest to the research community. Women who work in the construction industry in different countries confront numerous career barriers, the more frequent being the difficulty of balancing work and family, and the lack of professionalism in human resource management. Research limitations/implications Some publications related to the topic might have been inadvertently omitted. Hopefully, this paper can be valuable for informing future research directions. Practical implications The paper is useful to human resource managers to understand how their practices influence women’s career development, gender equity and organisational injustice, and how to improve them. It informs policies to reduce gender discrimination and guides researchers interested in gender diversity in the industry. Social implications A clear vision of career barriers affecting women is required to find solutions and improve the fairness and justice of business practices. Originality/value Previous studies do not offer a comprehensive and up-to-date review covering such a wide time period and so many countries. It will have implications in the identification of initiatives critical to achieving lasting change in gender equity in the construction industry.