Australian State Mandates Gender Quotas on Construction Sites

Victorian premier Dan Andrews has mandated a minimum quota for women in the construction industry. Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

In an Australian-first Building Equality Policy (BEP), the Victorian government has announced that the country’s most male-dominated industry will need to employ a minimum number of women by 2024 or face penalties.

Aimed at “disrupting gender stereotypes,” women now need to make up at least 38 percent of roles in government-contracted projects to help more women enter the construction, infrastructure, and civil engineering sectors.

It also requires women to make up three percent of trade roles, which currently sits at 2.5 percent, seven percent of non-trade roles, and 35 percent of roles in management, supervision, and specialist labour.

All government projects valued at more than $20 million, including the state’s North East Link, the largest road project investment in Victoria’s history, will be included.

But the matter needs to be addressed at a grassroots level, such as in classrooms and workshops, Empowering Women in Trade founder Atherton Hacia says.

“We can go back as far as Bob the Builder; there’s no Britney the Builder stuff out there,” Hacia told Sky News.

However, a Randstad report has also said that government quotas can create a backlash within the construction industry.

“A better approach instead would be asking companies to set out qualitative and quantitative objectives on inclusion and the benefits they hope to achieve (e.g. improving employee well-being and retention),” the report said.

The number of women in the construction industry may also be lower than in other sectors due to the uniqueness of the industry, such as the temporary nature of projects and the physically demanding tasks requiring strength and stamina, including the use of heavy equipment and machinery.

American company Comer Construction says this is why many positions in construction have the requirement to be able to load a certain weight in their job descriptions.

“While these lift requirements do eliminate people who lack exceptional strength, these restrictions are necessary to ensure that the person doing the job is able to safely complete common tasks that are required within the position,” Comer Construction said.

“While many jobs in construction rely on mind over muscle, some parts of construction are still physically challenging and require brute strength.”

Federal, state, and local governments account for a significant proportion of construction contracts and promoting gender equality is an obligation under the Australian government’s Commonwealth Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.