How common is it to see European women working in construction?
August 14, 2024
I’m curious to know whether european women work in labor-intensive construction roles. Specifically, I’m referring to positions such as masons, bricklayers, plasterers, and plumbers—rather than managerial or engineering roles within construction.
28 comments
I work in real estate and construction. I’ve seen women engineers and architects but I have yet to see one in any actual construction work. I’m sure there are a few but they are rare.
My friend had to work in more labor intensive roles before she started her job as an engineer. To really understand and get to know the work – otherwise i’ve never seen it. A lot of painters tend to be women? Idk if that counts
Not common since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the USSR, it was a common sight. As an aside, I don’t even remember the last time I heard construction workers talking in French…
Definitely not common. There’s a few female instagram influencers with decent followings who are bricklayers etc. because its so unusual.
I have seen women working as painters and I know one lady who owns a carpentry business and is very knowledgeable about the trade, so I think she actually is a carpenter and learned the trade.
I did a quick Google search, 1,2% of the manual labourers are female. Last year they did a tv show about women working construction to promote the industry
Pretty rare in the UK. I work in the design side and as others have stated I see plenty of women in architecture and engineering but rarely the labour side of things.
My brother, who works in construction in the Netherlands, says that there are a few women there and everybody is afraid of them lol, and that they do their job extraordinarily well
Austria. Near to 0. But I have good friend, who is an engineer and the boss of big construction sites. She is quite small and looks much younger than she is, but she has all the men under control. But that is an exception.
Will be more common in the years to come at least. Some article told that in 2009 only 18 female plumbers were educated in whole norway. Now they say it’s 205, which make 10% of alle those being educated to that profession this year. Many female within “men’s job” become influencers.. We have at least influence-plumber and influence-electrician.
Though think there are few women within raw construction.. like those working with concrete, rebar, carpenting, bricklaying, welding etc. You rather see them within such as plumbing, electricians, painting etc.. Though the engineers at the construction sites might often be female. Think the university now are educating more female civil engineers than men if I not remember wrong (even within construction and such stuff). Many also just work some years on construction to get the experience and the carry on to become engineers.
Fun if you google companies with construction and that kind of stuff, you will often find that many of them use women on their front page. Like here with [Mesta ](https://www.mesta.no/)and [Veidekke ](https://www.veidekke.no/)which are entrepreneurs/companies that do a lot of work on the norwegian roads etc.. Though if you look further into Veidekke’s site you get that only [2%](https://www.veidekke.no/aktuelt/pressemeldinger/flere-jenter-ma-velge-bygg–og-anleggsfag/) of their employees working “out”/(on construction sites) are female..So there’s some dicreapancy between the picture they “sell” and what the reality is.
Though a lot of the construction workers in Norway for the last decades have come from Poland. Hardly in my mind imagined a female polish construction worker..
I’ve not seen a single female construction worker in the Netherlands, but I will say that most of them I have seen are actually Dutch, even in Amsterdam.
My best friend was desperate for work and applying to construction jobs for a while because she was told “they always need people” and she stopped because they kept laughing on her face and demeaning her, so I guess not many.
My father has worked in the construction sector since he arrived in Belgium in the 1980s. He has only known one woman working on construction site with him and as a relatively conservative immigrant at the time was shocked by how ‘manly’ and capable she was. Even then he said she faced quite a lot of difficulties with the men on site but was impressed by the way she handled herself.
Tldr; they exist; not many, not easily
There seems to be a disproportionate amount of painters who are women in the construction industry here, the other branches are still male-dominated.
According to [this source](https://www.byggnads.se/regioner/vast/aktuellt/2022/8-mars/), in 2022 only 1,8 % of construction workers in Sweden are women. The number is based on members in the labour union Byggnads so some workers, male and female, are not included.
As for office jobs in the sector, 54 % were women in 2021 according to the same source. The year before, it was 36 %.
I’ve met one female Joiner and a local builder sometimes had his daughter do some labouring, but that’s all I’ve seen.
Pretty rare, tbh. You will find them as civil engineers, accountants, developers or architects, interior designers, sometimes as artisans like masons and increasingly as painters or carpenters, but the working environment in construction is honestly still rather hostile to women, I suppose.
I personally know a female carpenter and electrician. But women are pretty rare in such professions, and completely absent where moving heavier loads is involved, as Hungary is very traditional in this regard. During communism however, it was not uncommon to see some women in relatively labour intensive jobs. [For example asphalt laying.](https://fortepan.hu/hu/photos/?id=251341) Easy to notice from their characteristic head scarf.
I’ve seen plenty in Sweden, but none in Poland. In Germany where I worked for a while, it wasn’t a consturction, but engine building work, there was a typical butch lady (lesbian) quite good build, like a man, and she was also working at those engines – she changed position when I joined there, before she was doing this easier work for women (picking, packing) but was bored. She went to this other position and did great, and was happy with it.
Sadly in countries like mine – Poland – you won’t be even considered for these types of work, your CVs will be automatically rejected.
I have seen a couple of women working on road construction.
I have seen a decent amount of women working on garden work for the council, but I think that’s because the local council hires people who are either mentally ill or struggle to find work in those positions.
I know zero women working in construction, but I also know zero men working in construction. Hope this helps.
There’s a lot of road work and construction happening around here I live, and I constantly have to deliver stuff to such sites too, and there definitely are women working there.
Not at all the majority, but definitely there.
Next to my office is a construction sight, there are two women working. They seem to be doing the same as the men. Currently the building has 3 stories and we can see pretty clearly, they don’t seem to be carrying the heavy shit but the rest they do the same.
You can recognize them because they never work topless and are one of the few who always have a hard hat on.
I know a few women who work (or used to work) in construction. One was a roofer (had to quit because she became pregnant and had a “nearly fell 20m off a roof” scare), one’s a carpenter (like scaffolding and such), one works in her family business operating frontend loaders and things of that nature.
That’s all though, it’s not that common.
So I’ve worked with construction for 14 years now and I would say I’ve probably seen maybe 25-30 women working as exclusively painters or electricians during those years.
On the other hand I’ve seen 100+ in managerial roles, such as logistics or engineers.
I have seen few in Sweden. Quite rare I assume
However I do see a lot of women as truck, tractor drivers as well as electricians.
I’m from northern Germany and seing some women work on construction sites among the men isn’t that unusual in my area. I know a female plumber and a female roofer, and female painters or carpenters aren’t even that rare.
But I live in an area with lots of construction and a higher demand on construction workers than supply, so it’s not so suprising that women fill in the positions and no one bats an eye, because rather a female colleague than no colleague to work with you on site.
I’m around construction sites regularly. But Shell Construction is still very much in male hands. Everything after that is getting more and more diverse. Or carpenter, painter, floor layer, and electricians all have women on site. The painter has an all female team that specialises in the more complex stuff like complicated, multi step layering.
28 comments
I work in real estate and construction. I’ve seen women engineers and architects but I have yet to see one in any actual construction work. I’m sure there are a few but they are rare.
My friend had to work in more labor intensive roles before she started her job as an engineer. To really understand and get to know the work – otherwise i’ve never seen it. A lot of painters tend to be women? Idk if that counts
Not common since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the USSR, it was a common sight. As an aside, I don’t even remember the last time I heard construction workers talking in French…
Definitely not common. There’s a few female instagram influencers with decent followings who are bricklayers etc. because its so unusual.
I have seen women working as painters and I know one lady who owns a carpentry business and is very knowledgeable about the trade, so I think she actually is a carpenter and learned the trade.
I did a quick Google search, 1,2% of the manual labourers are female. Last year they did a tv show about women working construction to promote the industry
Pretty rare in the UK. I work in the design side and as others have stated I see plenty of women in architecture and engineering but rarely the labour side of things.
My brother, who works in construction in the Netherlands, says that there are a few women there and everybody is afraid of them lol, and that they do their job extraordinarily well
Austria. Near to 0. But I have good friend, who is an engineer and the boss of big construction sites. She is quite small and looks much younger than she is, but she has all the men under control. But that is an exception.
Will be more common in the years to come at least. Some article told that in 2009 only 18 female plumbers were educated in whole norway. Now they say it’s 205, which make 10% of alle those being educated to that profession this year. Many female within “men’s job” become influencers.. We have at least influence-plumber and influence-electrician.
Though think there are few women within raw construction.. like those working with concrete, rebar, carpenting, bricklaying, welding etc. You rather see them within such as plumbing, electricians, painting etc.. Though the engineers at the construction sites might often be female. Think the university now are educating more female civil engineers than men if I not remember wrong (even within construction and such stuff). Many also just work some years on construction to get the experience and the carry on to become engineers.
Fun if you google companies with construction and that kind of stuff, you will often find that many of them use women on their front page. Like here with [Mesta ](https://www.mesta.no/)and [Veidekke ](https://www.veidekke.no/)which are entrepreneurs/companies that do a lot of work on the norwegian roads etc.. Though if you look further into Veidekke’s site you get that only [2%](https://www.veidekke.no/aktuelt/pressemeldinger/flere-jenter-ma-velge-bygg–og-anleggsfag/) of their employees working “out”/(on construction sites) are female..So there’s some dicreapancy between the picture they “sell” and what the reality is.
Though a lot of the construction workers in Norway for the last decades have come from Poland. Hardly in my mind imagined a female polish construction worker..
I’ve not seen a single female construction worker in the Netherlands, but I will say that most of them I have seen are actually Dutch, even in Amsterdam.
My best friend was desperate for work and applying to construction jobs for a while because she was told “they always need people” and she stopped because they kept laughing on her face and demeaning her, so I guess not many.
My father has worked in the construction sector since he arrived in Belgium in the 1980s. He has only known one woman working on construction site with him and as a relatively conservative immigrant at the time was shocked by how ‘manly’ and capable she was. Even then he said she faced quite a lot of difficulties with the men on site but was impressed by the way she handled herself.
Tldr; they exist; not many, not easily
There seems to be a disproportionate amount of painters who are women in the construction industry here, the other branches are still male-dominated.
According to [this source](https://www.byggnads.se/regioner/vast/aktuellt/2022/8-mars/), in 2022 only 1,8 % of construction workers in Sweden are women. The number is based on members in the labour union Byggnads so some workers, male and female, are not included.
As for office jobs in the sector, 54 % were women in 2021 according to the same source. The year before, it was 36 %.
I’ve met one female Joiner and a local builder sometimes had his daughter do some labouring, but that’s all I’ve seen.
Pretty rare, tbh. You will find them as civil engineers, accountants, developers or architects, interior designers, sometimes as artisans like masons and increasingly as painters or carpenters, but the working environment in construction is honestly still rather hostile to women, I suppose.
I personally know a female carpenter and electrician. But women are pretty rare in such professions, and completely absent where moving heavier loads is involved, as Hungary is very traditional in this regard. During communism however, it was not uncommon to see some women in relatively labour intensive jobs. [For example asphalt laying.](https://fortepan.hu/hu/photos/?id=251341) Easy to notice from their characteristic head scarf.
I’ve seen plenty in Sweden, but none in Poland. In Germany where I worked for a while, it wasn’t a consturction, but engine building work, there was a typical butch lady (lesbian) quite good build, like a man, and she was also working at those engines – she changed position when I joined there, before she was doing this easier work for women (picking, packing) but was bored. She went to this other position and did great, and was happy with it.
Sadly in countries like mine – Poland – you won’t be even considered for these types of work, your CVs will be automatically rejected.
I have seen a couple of women working on road construction.
I have seen a decent amount of women working on garden work for the council, but I think that’s because the local council hires people who are either mentally ill or struggle to find work in those positions.
I know zero women working in construction, but I also know zero men working in construction. Hope this helps.
There’s a lot of road work and construction happening around here I live, and I constantly have to deliver stuff to such sites too, and there definitely are women working there.
Not at all the majority, but definitely there.
Next to my office is a construction sight, there are two women working. They seem to be doing the same as the men. Currently the building has 3 stories and we can see pretty clearly, they don’t seem to be carrying the heavy shit but the rest they do the same.
You can recognize them because they never work topless and are one of the few who always have a hard hat on.
I know a few women who work (or used to work) in construction. One was a roofer (had to quit because she became pregnant and had a “nearly fell 20m off a roof” scare), one’s a carpenter (like scaffolding and such), one works in her family business operating frontend loaders and things of that nature.
That’s all though, it’s not that common.
So I’ve worked with construction for 14 years now and I would say I’ve probably seen maybe 25-30 women working as exclusively painters or electricians during those years.
On the other hand I’ve seen 100+ in managerial roles, such as logistics or engineers.
I have seen few in Sweden. Quite rare I assume
However I do see a lot of women as truck, tractor drivers as well as electricians.
I’m from northern Germany and seing some women work on construction sites among the men isn’t that unusual in my area. I know a female plumber and a female roofer, and female painters or carpenters aren’t even that rare.
But I live in an area with lots of construction and a higher demand on construction workers than supply, so it’s not so suprising that women fill in the positions and no one bats an eye, because rather a female colleague than no colleague to work with you on site.
I’m around construction sites regularly. But Shell Construction is still very much in male hands. Everything after that is getting more and more diverse. Or carpenter, painter, floor layer, and electricians all have women on site. The painter has an all female team that specialises in the more complex stuff like complicated, multi step layering.
Management and design are also very diverse.