Driving change through a more inclusive sector.
Despite decades of advocacy and investment, women remain severely underrepresented across the construction sector. According to a study by Simian Risk, women make up only 14% of the total workforce in the UK construction sector, and only 1% hold manual labor positions on construction sites.
To mark Women in Construction Week and International Women’s Day, we spoke with our Country Manager for Germany, Sara Purvis, to hear her perspective on the challenges and opportunities ahead.
I’ll be honest: until recently, I hadn’t really stopped to think about the importance of WIC Week. Perhaps, like many others, I thought things were gradually improving. However, the more I thought about it, the more I got the impression that progress was stalling and that, in some areas, we were even seeing a setback.
In our sector, leadership positions remain skewed, with women holding only 7% of executive and board positions. And although 15% of apprentices in the construction sector are now women—an improvement from less than 10% a decade ago—progress remains slow. Only 13% of construction companies in the UK are owned by women, and the sector continues to have a 20% gender pay gap, one of the highest across all sectors.
These statistics highlight an undeniable reality: this has to change. Not only because equality is a matter of principle, but also because the sector is facing a significant shortage of skilled labor that cannot be resolved as long as 50% of the population remains underrepresented.
30 Years in Retrospect (A Personal Perspective)
In 2026, it will be thirty years since I first set foot on a construction site. At the time, I was a student on a gap year working as an assistant on the land-use planning team at Wimpey Homes. I remember feeling no sense of being at a disadvantage, only optimism, enthusiasm, and the confidence instilled in me by my decidedly feminist high school.
Throughout my career, I have often (though not always) been the only woman in the room. And yet, I felt just like everyone else. I felt like I belonged. Today, I realize how lucky—and privileged—I am because of that. The question I ask myself, therefore, is this: “If it seemed so simple three decades ago, why does the construction sector still have the lowest rate of female participation of any British industry today?”
A broader context: the United Kingdom versus Germany
Some answers can be found in history. In Germany, for example, women were legally barred from many construction trades until 1994—the same year I was taking my first steps on construction sites in North Yorkshire. It’s hard not to see an echo of that law in the current underrepresentation of women in German manual trades.
But the situation in the United Kingdom raises other issues. Women now make up a much larger proportion of the workforce in construction-related professions such as architecture, engineering, and project management, but not in the skilled trades.
Is the highly regulated and formalized learning process in Germany part of the problem there? And is there a similar situation in the United Kingdom because the culture in the construction industry has evolved more slowly than that of the liberal professions?
Future prospects…
Faye Allen’s work, titled *Building Women*, sheds new light on the realities faced by women in the construction industry today. Drawing on the results of a survey of more than 1,000 participants, it highlights the obstacles women continue to face—whether it be a lack of facilities on construction sites or hostile microcultures—and proposes ways to improve the situation.
Above all, the improvements the industry needs are not simply “women’s issues.” These are challenges that affect us all, as a safer, more inclusive, and more professional environment benefits all staff, improves retention, and strengthens the industry’s reputation.
At Agility, we are committed to being part of this change. Currently, women and men hold 40% and 60% of our leadership positions, respectively, and our goal is not simply to celebrate this representation, but to create environments where women can thrive, advance, and shape the future of our industry.
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