The Andrews Labor Government is taking action to directly boost the representation of women in the construction industry.

Minister for Women and Industrial Relations Natalie Hutchins today announced funding of $585,000 to diversify the traditionally male-dominated construction industry.

Currently women’s participation in the building and construction industry remains low at all levels, including the board-level.

In this funding package, $500,000 will go towards creating Victoria’s first Women in Construction Strategy in conjunction with the Building Industry Consultative Council

The Building Industry Consultative Council is a forum for dialogue between Government, employers, industry associations and unions on significant economic and industrial relations issues in the building and construction industry.

The strategy will aim to increase the proportion of women working in the construction industry. Key themes addressed in the strategy will include:

• Attraction and promotion of the industry for women
• Improving workplace culture to attract and retain women in the construction industry
• Qualitative experience and industry benchmarks
• Structural barriers to increasing women’s participation in the industry
• Potential solutions and initiatives to improve participation in the industry.

The Labor Government will provide a further $85,000 funding boost to Leadership Victoria to address the low representation of women on boards in the construction and building industries.

This funding boost is supported by the founding reforms of Safe and Strong: Victoria’s Gender Equality Strategy.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Women and Industrial Relations Natalie Hutchins

“There will only be an equal representation of men and women in the construction industry when we take the necessary steps to attract and retain women workers. This strategy will help deliver just that.”

“We know that fixing the underrepresentation of women in traditionally male-dominated industries is key to closing the gender pay gap.”