(Montreal) The progression of women in the construction industry continues; it reached a peak of 7,470 workers having worked on a construction site during the year 2023, i.e. 250 more than the previous year.
Although the absolute number may seem impressive at first glance, it only represents 3.8% of the total workforce in the industry, the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) indicated on Friday.
“We are getting closer to the Canadian average, which is 3.9%. It has always been a challenge for us. We were more significantly different from the Canadian average” before, underlined Audrey Murray, president and CEO of the CCQ, in an interview on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
“Of course more needs to be done. And everyone is concerned by this: both the CCQ, the unions and the construction companies. In fact, the good news is that I think everyone recognizes that we need to do more. »
4,460 construction companies hired women that year, or 16.2% of them.
Among these construction workers, there were 1,820 painters, 1,390 carpenters and 1,390 who had an unskilled occupation.
Also, in professions where there were at least 10% women, we note those of painter, insulator, plasterer and surveyors.
Although more women are entering the industry, they are known to drop out at higher rates than men. Mme Murray cites a dropout rate after five years of 30% for men and 50% for women.
“We have documented the factors leading to abandonment. What is difficult for women? », relates Mme Murray. First comes the working climate; secondly, work-family balance; then thirdly, the difficult conditions of practicing the profession.
Regarding the working climate, Mme Murray senses “a real desire to work on this” from everyone in the industry.
As part of the next Equal Access Program that it wants to adopt, the CCQ will launch a survey among workers still active in the industry, those who left five years ago and among companies. She wants to better understand the situation. “What helped them?” What didn’t help? What makes it difficult? »
The Commission set itself the objective of reaching 4.5% women in 2024, but the target will be difficult to achieve, given the slowdown in the residential construction sector, for example.