Introduction
Women have entered the construction industry in increasing numbers over the last twenty five years. As a result, male employees and their male dominated employers been forced to adjust their behaviors about women working in the trades they once monopolized. Thanks in part to women's lib and organizations like Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) and National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), this has become possible. Women have increased opportunities to advance in the field of construction more than ever before. These opportunities are not merely available for women looking to fill administrative positions but women looking to become craft workers, Engineers, Project Managers or even industry Executives. Unfortunately, the progress made over the years in the initiative to bring women into the construction industry has not completely eliminated the unique diversity issues.
While a younger generation of male workers may be more open minded to the idea of a woman working alongside them in the field, companies are still finding discrimination and a lack of enthusiasm from men resistant to change (http://www.csinet.org,
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil R...
Civil Rights Act of 1964
English: Final roll call vote in the U.S. House of...2006). It is important that companies in the construction industry create a diversity action plan to address this growing situation. Without a good action plan, many companies will ultimately fail to meet the needs of all of their employees, primarily women who are challenged in select workgroups.
Description of Selected Workgroup
Many women working in the construction industry may find it hard to find equality working alongside men. Most often, it is the women who are working in administrative functions of a construction company. In the construction world, women attain more respect among the men they work with because of an administrative role because it is perceived to be a female dominated position. However, the women who put their hard hats on and get their...