Towards a Sustainable Construction Industry: A Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation of Critical Barriers to Entry and Retention of Women in the South African Construction Industry

Over the past few decades, numerous efforts have been made to increase the proportion of women in the construction industry, coupled with various calls for legislation and rules to prohibit gender discrimination. Despite these efforts, research reveals that there have been few noticeable changes in the construction industry. While recruitment remains crucial, the current culture in construction reveals a knowledge gap in translating qualifications into employment and employment into retention—a concept known as a ‘leaky pipeline’. Lack of awareness of career options and the challenges of working in a male-dominated, occasionally discriminatory workplace are some of the significant barriers to attracting and keeping women in the construction industry. Much of the research in South Africa shows that most construction companies employed few women but only in lower secretarial and administrative positions. Therefore, this study investigated the barriers facing women’s transition from construction-related higher education to employment in South Africa using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) to understand and prioritise the barriers. Data was collected through the administration of online and paper-based questionnaires. The results of the analysis show that the barriers in the order of criticality include support and empowerment issues (SE), educational/academic-related barriers (AB), barriers from professional conditions and work attributes (BP), social perception and gender stereotypes barriers (SP), professional perceptions and gender bias (PP), and individual confidence/interest/awareness/circumstances related barriers (IB) respectively. Based on the findings of the study, several recommendations, including liaising between construction organisations and higher institutions, amongst others, were provided.