Vistas funding – Gender diversity in construction: a global cross sectorial collaboration

CIB announces an international collaboration on gender diversity in construction as a recipient of Vistas funding for 2023.

The construction industry is historically homogenous, where over the past 30 years, women have consistently comprised only two-to-three per cent of the construction workforce.

Through a cross-sectorial global collaboration approach, this research aims to bring synergies of academia, industry and peak bodies attempting to address a common problem, often in isolation. More specifically, it will bring together the representatives from the participating organisations and countries, including Western Sydney University in Australia, the University of Huddersfield in the UK, Purdue University in the USA  and the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil.

The award will lead the team to research the project “Gender Diversity in Construction: A Global Cross Sectorial Collaboration”

Leading the international collaborative project is Dr Ruwini Edirisinghe. Ruwini is a senior lecturer at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. She is a strong advocate for gender diversity in the built environment and engineering fields. Ruwini currently leads and represents a number of gender diversity committees at local, national and international levels.

The research  team is as follows:

The research team is composed of an established global team of researchers as well as ECRs, including Prof Mike Kagioglou, Prof Dayana Bastos Costa, Dr Sajani Jayasuriya, Prof Patricia Tzortzopoulos  and Prof Makarand (Mark) Hastak.

The worldwide built environment researchers are in the process of formulating the Women in Architecture and Construction Group, currently representing 17 Universities from countries such as UK, Australia, Canada, Brazil, USA, South Africa and India. This project will bring together the diverse male and female participants and thought leaders of the group together to solve this global issue.

The research aims to explore and compare the wide spectrum of drivers for gender diversity ranging from policies, regulations and guidelines to industry/organisational practices. These policies and practices will be captured at the participating country, industry and organisation levels, both in academia and industry. The research will also investigate the pertaining issues and challenges to gender equality holistically. It is expected to develop best practice guidelines for the construction industry, which are fundamental for systemic change.