Dive Brief:

• The National Women's Law Center has issued a report that says that while female workers hold 47.2% of wage and salary jobs in the U.S., they represent 2.6% of the construction workforce.
• The report cited "sexual harassment and hostility, lack of mentors, and stereotyped assumptions about women’s capabilities" as reasons for the disparity.
• The organizational also reported that white and Hispanic women are over-represented in construction relative to their share of all jobs and black women are under-represented, 7% versus 13%.

Dive Insight:

"In career and technical education (CTE) programs, young women are often subtly encouraged and explicitly steered into occupations that align with traditional gender stereotypes instead of being encouraged to enter traditionally male programs such as construction," the report states. The Center called for stronger efforts to bring women into federal-contract construction jobs and for states to enact requirements for their contracted work.