Cities With the Most Women in Construction

Note: This is the most recent release of our Cities With the Most Women in Construction study. To see data from previous years, please visit the Full Results section below.

Construction has long been a male-dominated field. According to recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau, only 11.5% of payroll employees in the construction industry are women. However, a promising shift is underway. In recent years, the Department of Labor’s Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) grant program has allocated millions of dollars to bolster women’s participation in industries like construction. And with the construction industry facing a massive worker shortage—estimated to exceed half a million workers—recruiting women into construction roles has become not just a priority, but a necessity for sustaining growth and meeting demand.

Female Construction Employment Over Time

The share of women in construction has increased steadily over the past several years

The share of women in construction has increased steadily over the past several years
Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage

The share of women in construction has steadily increased over the past several years, marking progress in diversifying the industry. While women remain underrepresented in the workforce, the data reveals a gradual yet consistent upward trend in female employment within the construction sector.

Prior to 2016, women comprised approximately 9% of the construction workforce. This figure held relatively steady for over a decade, fluctuating slightly between 8.9% and 9.5% from 2003 to 2015. However, since 2016, the share of female employees in construction has climbed nearly every year, reaching 11.1% in 2022 and continuing to rise to 11.5% by 2023. This growth reflects both industry efforts to address workforce shortages and initiatives aimed at increasing diversity, such as targeted training programs and grants.


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Female Construction Employment by Occupation Type

Women in the construction industry are most likely to work in office positions

Women in the construction industry are most likely to work in office positions
Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage

Nationwide, over 1.3 million women are employed in the construction sector, compared to more than 10 million men. This gender disparity is evident not only in overall employment numbers but also in the types of roles occupied by men and women. Women are far more likely to work in office and administrative positions, while men dominate field-based roles.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up nearly 80% of the construction industry’s office and administrative roles. They also are more highly concentrated in professional, sales, and management roles compared to other occupations in the sector. However, female representation is significantly lower in roles traditionally associated with fieldwork. Only 4.5% of transportation positions and 4.1% of construction and extraction roles are filled by women. Representation is even lower in maintenance and repair jobs, as well as production roles, where women account for just 2.0% and 3.5% of workers, respectively.

Construction Industry Wages by Sex

Full-time female workers earn more in construction than in other industries; face smaller wage gaps

Full-time female workers earn more in construction than in other industries; face smaller wage gaps
Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage

A major benefit for women in the construction industry is that they tend to command higher wages than female workers in other fields. The median annual wage for full-time female construction industry workers is $54,044, exceeding the median of $52,458 for women across all industries. This wage advantage highlights the potential of construction as a lucrative career path for women.

Interestingly, the opposite is true for men in construction, who typically earn less than their counterparts in other sectors. Male workers in the construction industry have a median annual wage of $56,805, compared to $64,705 for male workers across all industries.

Another noteworthy aspect of wages in construction is the narrower gender pay gap. While the national gender pay gap across all industries sits at approximately 18.9%, the gap in construction is significantly smaller at just 4.9%.


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Geographic Differences in Female Employment in the Construction Industry

Alaska has the highest share of women working in the construction sector

Alaska has the highest share of women working in the construction sector
Source: Construction Coverage analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data | Image Credit: Construction Coverage

While the construction industry remains male-dominated nationally, the underrepresentation of women in construction is less pronounced in certain parts of the country. This variation highlights regional differences in workforce dynamics, compensation levels, and diversity efforts within the industry.

Alaska and Hawaii lead the nation in female construction employment, with women making up 13.8% and 13.4% of the industry’s workforce, respectively. These states likely benefit from the relatively high wages offered in the construction sector, which can be an attractive factor for women entering the field. States in the Pacific Northwest, such as Washington (12.7%) and Oregon (12.5%), and parts of the South Atlantic, including Florida (13.3%) and Maryland (12.4%), also report female representation above the national average of 11.5%.

Similar trends can be observed at the metropolitan level. Metros like Jacksonville, FL (17.4%), Orlando, FL (16.1%), and New Orleans, LA (14.4%) rank among the top metros for female construction employment. At the opposite end of the spectrum, several locations in Texas, California, and the Northeast report concentrations of women in construction below 9.5%. In McAllen, TX, just 6.7% of construction industry workers are female—the lowest of any major U.S. metropolitan area.

Below is breakdown of female construction employment across the top and bottom states and metropolitan areas. The analysis was conducted by Construction Coverage, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau. For more information, refer to the methodology section.

States With the Most Women in Construction

Top StatesFemale Share*
1. Alaska13.8%
2. Hawaii13.4%
3. Delaware13.4%
4. Florida13.3%
5. Washington12.7%
6. Oregon12.5%
7. Colorado12.4%
8. Maryland12.4%
9. Virginia12.1%
10. Arizona12.1%
11. South Carolina12.1%
12. Wyoming12.1%
13. Georgia11.9%
14. North Carolina11.6%
15. Idaho11.6%
Bottom StatesFemale Share*
1. Vermont8.6%
2. Arkansas8.6%
3. Iowa8.7%
4. South Dakota8.8%
5. New Hampshire9.4%
6. New Mexico9.4%
7. Connecticut9.4%
8. Pennsylvania9.4%
9. West Virginia9.5%
10. Maine9.5%
11. Mississippi9.5%
12. New York9.5%
13. Nebraska9.6%
14. Montana9.9%
15. Kansas9.9%

Cities With the Most Women in Construction

Top MetrosFemale Share*
1. Jacksonville, FL17.4%
2. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL16.1%
3. New Orleans-Metairie, LA14.4%
4. North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL14.4%
5. Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, VA-NC14.3%
6. Urban Honolulu, HI14.3%
7. Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD14.2%
8. Greenville-Anderson-Greer, SC14.1%
9. Colorado Springs, CO14.1%
10. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA13.8%
11. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL13.8%
12. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL13.8%
13. Charleston-North Charleston, SC13.8%
14. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC13.6%
15. Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL13.6%
Bottom MetrosFemale Share*
1. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX6.7%
2. Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC7.9%
3. Worcester, MA8.2%
4. Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, PA8.7%
5. Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY8.9%
6. Bakersfield-Delano, CA9.0%
7. El Paso, TX9.0%
8. Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT9.1%
9. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA9.2%
10. Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA9.3%
11. Providence-Warwick, RI-MA9.4%
12. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA9.4%
13. Jackson, MS9.5%
14. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA9.5%
15. Birmingham, AL9.5%

*Female employment share in the construction industry


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Methodology

The data used in this analysis is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey. One-year estimates were used for national statistics, while five-year estimates were used for state and MSA statistics. To determine the locations with the most women in construction, researchers at Construction Coverage ranked locations by the percentage of employees in the construction industry that are female. In the event of a tie, locations with the higher total female employment in the construction industry were ranked higher. Additionally, due to statistical significance limitations of the dataset, only the top 100 metropolitan areas by population with complete data were included in the analysis.

References

  1. U.S. Department of Labor. WANTO Grant Program. Retrieved on December 23, 2024 from https://www.dol.gov/agencies/wb/grants/wanto.
  2. Associated Builders and Contractors. (2024, January 31). ABC: 2024 Construction Workforce Shortage Tops Half a Million. Retrieved on December 23, 2024 from https://www.abc.org/News-Media/News-Releases/abc-2024-construction-workforce-shortage-tops-half-a-million.
  3. U.S. Census Bureau. (2023). American Community Survey [Data set]. Retrieved on December 23, 2024 from https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs.

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