Attracting Students to Construction Education Programs: An Exploration of Perceptions by Gender

Why Australian female high school students do not choose construction as a career: A qualitative investigation into value beliefs about the construction industry

“…Second, this paper contributes to a growing base of research that has applied EVT to examine career decision-making in engineering and technologyrelated fields (Frome et al, 2008;Matusovich et al, 2010). Far less research has specifically focused on the construction industry, and this study is complementary to existing research on female high school students and trades (Struthers, 2016) and with female university students in construction management (Bigelow et al, 2018). The primary point of difference of this study is that it examines why female students are not choosing a male-dominated career in contrast to most of the research, which examines why female students choose such a career.…”

“…University pathways into the construction sector are not considered in these publications. Previous research has explored what factors attract female students to construction courses at the university level by surveying female students already enrolled in a construction management course (Akinlolu & Haupt, 2019;Bigelow et al, 2015Bigelow et al, , 2016Bigelow et al, , 2018Oo et al, 2018). Understanding these pathways and what influences female students who have already chosen construction management training is valuable research.…”

“…Researchers have been exploring the reason behind this result, but investigations tend to focus on the female students who have already chosen a construction management degreeessentially young women who have already chosen a career in the sector. Research into the pathways of students into construction management training conducted by Bigelow et al (2018) found that students of both genders identify with the construction sector's excellent career prospects as well as the opportunities for internships and industry experience. Other Australian research conducted by Oo et al (2018) interviewed female construction management students at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and found that the top reason behind their consideration of the construction management course was having a family member in the sector or having an awareness of the career opportunities that the construction sector presents.…”

“…Other Australian research conducted by Oo et al (2018) interviewed female construction management students at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, and found that the top reason behind their consideration of the construction management course was having a family member in the sector or having an awareness of the career opportunities that the construction sector presents. In the United States, female students in construction management programs were found to be influenced by their fathers, an awareness of construction career opportunities, internships, and work experience (Bigelow et al, 2015).…”

Changes in Job Situations for Women Workforce in Construction during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…There is a large collection studies on barriers faced by women and strategies aimed at improving their retention and career progression in the industry (Navarro-Astor, Román-Onsalo and Infante-Perea, 2017). Moreover, the recruitment of women into the industry has always been a challenge as demonstrated by previous studies that attempted to explore this subject area with the focus set on attracting and retaining female students in construction management undergraduate degree program (e.g., Bigelow, Saseendran and Elliott, 2018;Escamilla, Ostadalimakhmalbaf and Bigelow, 2016;Oo, Li and Zhang, 2018). It is hoped that if female enrolment and retention in construction management programs increased, so would the female participation in the construction industry (Bigelow, et al, 2015;Moore and Gloeckner, 2007).…”