Occupational health and safety barriers for gender diversity in the Australian construction industry

The construction industry in many countries is faced with skill shortages. Attracting more female workers in the male-dominated construction industry can help alleviate this issue. However, perceived concerns of increased or specific Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) risks for females could be a significant deterrent. Due to their marginal representation in various trade roles, the overall analyses of OHS incident data fail to capture the specific OHS concerns that apply to female construction workers. This study presents an empirical analyses of workers' compensation data obtained from Safe Work Australia for 12 years (2008-2019) to investigate specific OHS risks for female construction workers. The annual average incident trend does not present a steady increase or decrease in permanent and temporary incapacities among female construction workers. Moreover, the incident number, severity, and employment data together reveal that female workers in both professional and manual or trade occupations have lower incident rates than their male counterparts. However, the findings also reveal that: (1) building and plumbing women laborers and earthmoving plant operators are more prone to injuries that result in permanent incapacities; (2) fractures, soft tissue injuries, deafness, anxiety, stress, and depression lead to permanent incapacities among female workers; and (3) falls on the same level, muscular stress while handling objects, long-term exposure to sounds, work pressure, workplace harassment, and bullying result in permanently incapacitating injuries. The study also noted the differences in the occupations, mechanisms of incidents, and injury types that contribute to most incidents among male and female construction workers.