What a 50% Gender Diversity Target Actually Looks Like on a Construction Project
A 50% gender diversity target in construction sounds aspirational to the point of fantasy in an industry where women represent around 13% of the workforce nationally. But one of Australia’s largest construction companies — with $53 billion in work on their books — is targeting exactly that on a major project in Sydney, supported by NSW Government funding for women-in-construction initiatives.
Angela Hucker and EPIC Services have been invited to pilot leadership training specifically designed for this target. If it works, the plan is to roll it out across every project this company runs nationally. This is not a diversity poster on the wall. It is a structural commitment with real accountability — and it requires a fundamentally different approach to how construction projects are set up and led.
Where the Industry Currently Stands
Source: WGEA, ACCI, ACIF estimates. Leadership figures refer to site supervisor level and above.
Why You Can’t Hit 50% Without Changing the Culture
The mistake most construction companies make when they set gender diversity targets is to focus entirely on the pipeline — recruiting more women — without addressing why women leave. The average retention rate for women in construction is significantly lower than for men. The reasons are not mysterious: exclusionary site culture, lack of mentoring, absence of appropriate facilities, inflexible rostering, and in too many cases, harassment and bullying that goes unaddressed.
A 50% target is a forcing function that makes those cultural issues visible and unavoidable. You cannot reach 50% with a leaky bucket.
What the Training Needs to Address
EPIC’s approach to this pilot project is not a generic diversity-and-inclusion module. It is targeted leadership training that addresses the specific conditions that make sites hostile to women and other underrepresented workers. The core elements:
Unconscious Bias Awareness
Understanding how bias operates in hiring decisions, task allocation, and daily interactions — without blame or defensiveness.
Psychological Safety on Site
Creating conditions where every worker — regardless of gender — feels able to raise concerns, ask questions, and challenge unsafe practices.
Bystander Intervention
Equipping workers and leaders with tools to intervene when they witness exclusionary behaviour — not just report it after the fact.
Inclusive Leadership Behaviours
Specific, observable leadership behaviours that signal to all workers that inclusion is the standard, not the exception.
The NSW Government’s Role and What It Signals
New South Wales has committed significant funding to women-in-construction initiatives, with this Sydney project positioned as a flagship pilot. The logic is sound: construction is a critical economic sector with a labour shortage, and excluding 50% of the population from effective participation in it is an economic problem as much as a social one.
If the pilot succeeds — and EPIC’s training delivers measurable culture change on this project — it creates a replicable model that could be applied across NSW’s construction pipeline. The implication is significant: a 50% target on one flagship project becomes the template for the industry’s next decade.
That is why this work matters beyond the single project. It is not about this site. It is about proving that construction culture can change — and providing the evidence base to demand it changes everywhere.
Read more about EPIC’s work with women in construction, or talk to us directly about piloting this training on your project.
Angela Hucker is a construction culture reform consultant with 30+ years of industry experience. Learn more about her and EPIC Services.
