Constructing change through a more inclusive industry

Despite decades of advocacy and investment, women remain drastically underrepresented across the construction sector. According to research by Simian Risk, women make up just 14% of the overall UK construction workforce – with only 1% represented in manual, site-based roles.

In the wake of Women In Construction Week and International Women’s Day, we spoke to our country head for Germany, Sara Purvis to get her take on where some of the challenges and opportunities lie.

I’ll be honest: until recently, I hadn’t a great deal of time reflecting on the significance of WIC Week. Perhaps, like many, I assumed things were steadily improving. Yet the more I’ve looked, the more I’ve felt that progress has stagnated – and in some areas, may even be slipping backwards.

In our sector, senior leadership remains imbalanced, with women holding just 7% of management and boardlevel positions, and although 15% of construction apprentices are now female – an improvement from under 10% a decade ago – progress remains slow. Only 13% of construction firms in the UK are femaleowned, and the industry continues to carry a 20% gender pay gap, one of the highest across all sectors.

These statistics highlight something undeniable: this has to change. Not only because equality matters on principle, but because the industry faces significant skills shortages that cannot be solved while 50% of the population remains underrepresented.

30 years of (personal) perspective

2026 marks thirty years since I first stepped onto a construction site. I was a year-out student working as an assistant in the land and planning team at Wimpey Homes and remember feeling no sense of disadvantage – just optimism, excitement, and the confidence my radically feminist high school had instilled in me.

Throughout my career, I’ve often (though not always) been the only woman in the room. And yet, I felt equal. I felt like I belonged. I now recognise how lucky – and how privileged – that makes me. So the question that I’m asking is: “If it felt so straightforward three decades ago, why does construction still have the lowest female participation of any UK industry today?”

A wider context – UK vs Germany

Some of the answers lie in history. In Germany, for example, women were legally barred from many construction trades until 1994 – the same year I was walking onto sites in North Yorkshire. It’s hard not to see the echo of that law in today’s very low representation of women in the German trades.

But the UK picture raises its own questions. Women now make up far higher proportions in construction professions such as architecture, engineering and project management – yet not in the skilled trades.

Is Germany’s highly regulated, formalised route into apprenticeships part of the issue there? And is the UK seeing a similar pattern because the culture on-site has been slower to evolve than the culture in the professions?

Looking ahead…

Faye Allen’s book Building Women sheds new light on the lived experience of women in construction today. Drawing on survey data from more than 1,000 participants, it highlights barriers still faced by women – from inconsistent site facilities to hostile micro-cultures –and lays out what can change for the better.

And crucially, the improvements the industry needs aren’t simply ‘women’s issues’. They are everyone’s issues – because a safer, more inclusive, more professional environment benefits the full workforce, improves retention, and strengthens industry reputation.

At Agilité, we’re committed to being part of that change. Currently, we have a 40:60 female to male ratio across senior roles, and our goal is not simply to celebrate representation, but to build environments where women can thrive, progress, and shape the future of our industry.