A systematic review of the mental health of women in construction: future research directions

ABSTRACT

Globally, the construction industry presents a cause of concern for the wellbeing of its workforce. Mental health issues in the industry are on the rise, and literature trends are beginning to recognize this. However, women have been widely neglected from such literature. Thus, this paper aims to identify future research directions on the mental health of women in construction through a review of current related publications. The mental health review is approached from three lenses: challenges, consequences, and wellbeing outcomes. A total of 27 peer-reviewed English-language articles published from 2010 onwards are analysed and cross-examined. In each mental health study, the ‘challenges’, ‘workplace consequences’, and ‘wellbeing outcomes’ experienced by women in construction are highlighted. Within these three categories, 58 concerns are identified. The review reveals that the proportion of issues faced by on-site professionals is significantly larger than that of other construction occupations. Furthermore, the categories ‘workplace consequences’ and ‘wellbeing outcomes’ lack research compared with ‘challenges’. Lastly, there is little evidence of cause-and-effect analysis between the challenges, consequences, and wellbeing of women in construction to uncover systems-based connections between these concerns. The paper provides an insight into these issues that will inform future research investigations and quantifications.

KEYWORDS:

• Harassment
• sexism
• stereotype
• women in construction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the School of Future Environments Contestable Fund, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand [Grant Number SoFE 2021].