More than 7,200 Quebec women worked in construction in 2022

More than 7,200 women are working in Quebec's construction industry (photo: Mikael Blomkvist / Pexels.com)

More than 7,200 women worked on Quebec construction sites in 2022 -- a record number, according to the Construction Commission.

That's 970 more women than the previous year, 2021.

Women's representation is far from proportional, however. They represented only 3.64 per cent of the total construction industry workforce in 2022.

This means that 4,300 companies, or 15.94 per cent of them, hired at least one woman that year.

The Quebec Construction Commission already had a Women's Equal Opportunity Program in place in 2015 to address women's under-representation in the industry.

Both construction companies and unions have committed to actively participating in the program to help hire and retain women.

In some trades, the proportion of women has exceeded the target set in the Equal Opportunities Program, including painters, carpenters, plasterers, insulators, floor covering installers, pipe welders and unskilled occupations.

For example, for the painting trade, the target had been set at 15 per cent of women. Instead, 24.71 per cent, or 1,700 painters, was reached, according to data from the Quebec Construction Commission.

For the floor covering installation trade, the target had been set at 3 per cent, but the proportion of women reached 5.66 per cent, or 70 women.

The commission's president and CEO, Diane Lemieux, said she was "pleased to see the increase in the presence of women over the past few years.

 "In light of this new reality, industry partners are working to support their continued employment, as well as provide a healthy and inclusive climate in developing the third phase" of the Women's Equal Opportunity Program.

 One of the industry's employer associations, the Quebec Construction Association, says it has "undertaken several concrete actions in recent years to inform contractors of the various measures available to promote their integration into the industry."

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 10, 2023