NOVEMBER 2022CONSTRUCTIONBUSINESSREVIEW.COM8In terms of worker ages, the construction industry is already diverse. From newly graduated Gen Z's entering the workforce (born 1997­2012) to the last of those in the Post War generation (born from 1928­1945), there are five (5) generations of employees actively working in our industry. That diversity equates to a wide range of experiences, qualifications, and education, and forces organizations to understand and work with generational nuances we see every day. But diversity in our industry is not so widespread that it effectively includes women, persons of color, ethnicity, and social diversity. In the construction industry, white males make up about 70% or more of our organizations. When women make up 50.8% of our general population, and ethnicity other than white equates to about 40% (US Census 2020 data ­ Table DP05), why is construction so exclusively white male? Why is it so challenging for women to gain more than 9 or 10% inclusion in construction?Our industry is deeply ingrained in family--business owners passed on their businesses to (mostly) their sons. In the building trades, (mostly) sons followed their dads, uncles, brothers, and grandfathers in the craft they grew up around. Only in the last 40 years or so, we have seen an increase in women and persons of different ethnicities enter the built industries. Unfortunately, we still see some of the long-standing thoughts, concerns, prejudices, and biases against those groups in our industry. Things I've heard ­ "someone doesn't have the brain power to run that project; she'll be too emotional; they'll never get anything done ­ you'll have to do it yourself because they're lazy; they're shifty; they're going to pull a knife on you if they disagree"...AND SO MUCH MORE. That's uneducated fear, and that's why we need to learn about DE&I and how it will strengthen the industry.One of the best ways for me to think about diversity and inclusion is to think of a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces scattered across a table. There are lots of colors, lots of sizes, lots of shapes, but you don't know what it will look like until you put all the pieces together. To me, that's what a successful team is. There is lots of diversity in thought, plenty of collaboration through the challenges, and in the end, a pretty awesome project. For the most part, construction does a better job than other industries in terms of wage equity. In the unionized business trades, women fare equally when they work the equivalent amount of time as their male counterparts. (an apprentice is an apprentice is an apprentice ­ likewise, a journeyman status means you will make the same wages as your counterpart, regardless of your sex.) Unlike the general population, where there is significant wage disparity--on average, a white woman makes 79 cents on the dollar as compared to her male colleague, for women of color and women of Hispanic makeup, the numbers are much worse; our industry is much more equitable. When we think of equal versus equitable, think of a job site where gloves BUILDING THE CASE FOR DE&I IN CONSTRUCTIONBy Kathleen Dobson, Safety Director, Alberici ConstructorsKathleen DobsonIN MYOPINION
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