Mike Rowe Weighs In on How to Close the Gender Gap in Construction

Last week, I had the opportunity to ask Mike Rowe a question. Here’s the backstory…

Procore is a sponsor of the Mike Rowe podcast “The Way I Heard It.” This has given us the opportunity to work with Mike on a few projects, including a weekly “Behind the Dirt” Q&A (where I originally asked my question), and a “Hard Hat Hero” campaign to honor the men and women on your jobsites.

My question to Mike was: “How do we bridge the gender gap in construction?” Luckily, for me, he selected my question:

Here’s his answer:

In his response, he brings up an excellent point – Only 5% of the trades are occupied by women. Instead of focusing on the shockingly low percentage, he goes on to explain that we should instead look at this as an opportunity.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the low percentage. One of them stems from young women lacking visibility into the work that women are already doing in the trades. This includes everything from Madison’s welding (in the video) to plumbing to carpentry to masonry, and everything in between.

As I’ve recently started exploring ways to increase the number of women in construction, this is a perfect opportunity to celebrate many of the women who are already here, but may play bigger roles behind the scenes.

Men and women, I encourage you to nominate your exceptional female colleagues to showcase the trades and construction as an industry with a challenging, but accessible and rewarding career path.