The share of women working in the construction industry is on the rise and now at its highest rate in the past 20 years.
Women made up 11.2% of the construction industry workforce in 2024, while men still dominate the sector, according to an analysis this month of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data by the National Association of Home Builders.
That’s a total of about 1.34 million women and a year-over-year increase of 0.4%.
Historically, construction has always been a male-dominated field. A 2022 survey by the nonprofit Institute for Women’s Policy Research found nearly 50% of women reported feeling some kind of discrimination on the job site, while the other half felt respected and enjoyed their work. Nearly 45% of respondents said they seriously considered leaving the industry.
Expanding the share of women in the workforce has been an industry effort as it battles a skilled trades shortage that worsened after the Great Recession, according to a 2024 report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. The share of women in the industry dropped by 30% by 2010.
Still, as the share rises, most women choose non-trade professions. Women make up 4% of construction and maintenance jobs in the industry, while they make up 65.7% of sales and office roles, according to BLS data.