The career challenges and success factors for professional Asian women career development in New Zealand construction industry

Abstract

Though construction is the fifth largest sector in New Zealand(MBIE, 2021) and the number of professional Asian women entering construction industry in New Zealand has been increasing significantly in the past ten years, evidence has indicated that that women are struggling to succeed for their career development in such a traditionally male dominant industry. Since 2003, there are over 30,000 female specialists working in construction industry accounting for approximately 13% of the total workforce, however, there have been limited studies on women’s career development in New Zealand construction industry. Questionnaire survey was conducted with Asian women practitioners in New Zealand construction industry. The quantitative data collected from questionnaire will be ranked with Likert scale to evaluate the relative importance of challenges and critical success factors for improving women’s career success in New Zealand construction industry. This study aims to fill the research gap by investigating the challenges and success factors for Asian women in construction industry in New Zealand. Findings are useful for universities and polytechnics when developing or reviewing their curriculum of their construction-related programmes and for four-parties partnership – tertiary institutes, government, companies and professional institutes to put into action the strategies to support women’s career development in the future.