Women in Construction Hit a 20-Year High. Look One Level Up.

The headline is true, and it’s worth celebrating. Women now hold 11.3% of U.S. construction jobs, about 1.37 million people, the highest share in two decades.

Now look at where those jobs are.

A 20-year high, with most of it in the office

The same NAHB analysis shows what the average hides. Women hold 78% of office and administrative support jobs in the construction industry and 24% of professional occupations. Out on the tools, the picture is different.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research puts women at 4.3% of construction trades workers in 2025, unchanged from 2024. In three of the five largest trades, the share is lower still.

There is a bright spot in the pipeline. Active women apprentices in construction rose from 11,216 to 13,200 in 2025, in the 43 states with data by sex, taking women’s share from 4.9% to 5.3%. IWPR also points out that in five states the share is at least 9%, which suggests that policy and program design make a real difference. Apprenticeship is worth watching because it’s how a lot of careers start.

How many women are construction managers?

Here’s the figure we’d put on the front page. IWPR estimates there were 102,000 women construction managers in 2025, down from 131,355 a year earlier. Their share of those jobs fell from 10.5% to 8.5%.

Hold that with some care. IWPR notes that no data was collected in October 2025 because of the federal government shutdown, so annual averages for the two years aren’t fully comparable. One year is not a trend, and survey estimates for a smaller occupation can swing.

But it’s hard to wave away entirely. Construction manager jobs are where pay and influence concentrate, and the hard-to-fill list in the 2026 AGC and NCCER survey is full of them: 75% of firms with superintendent openings and 74% with project manager openings report difficulty filling them. An industry that can’t fill its leadership roles has little reason to lose ground with half the population.

Does commercial real estate look any different?

The 2025 CREW Network benchmark study, run with the MIT Center for Real Estate and the fifth in a 20-year series, has a similar shape. Entry isn’t the main issue. Advancement is. One caution on the sample: 2,450 professionals took part and 86% identified as women, so read it as a benchmark of respondents rather than a census of the industry.

There’s real progress here, with a catch. The fixed salary gap narrowed from 10% to 4%, with average base salaries of $146,103 for women and $151,418 for men. But CREW says the fall in the overall gap was driven almost solely by a decline in men’s average commission and bonus revenue, from $122,826 in 2020 to $68,857. In other words, the gap closed mostly because men’s variable pay fell.

Women still earn 35% less in commissions, bonuses, and profit sharing, the pay tied to revenue roles and senior seats. And the full report finds the gap wider at the top, with men in C-suite positions earning 24% more than women.

The culture numbers are harder to read. For the first time in the study’s history, women named gender discrimination in the workplace as their primary barrier to success. About one-third reported experiencing sexist behavior in the past year, down from 45% in 2020, and nearly 6% experienced sexual harassment, against less than 1% of men. Family is another drag: 27% of women say family status or care has hurt their career or pay, up from 21% in 2020.

There’s a newer risk to watch. CREW reports that professionals now spend 56% of their time in the office, that women work remotely about 2.5 hours a week more than men, and that people who spend more time in the office tend to be promoted at higher rates. It warns that could contribute to a future promotion gap.

The study also points to what helps. Women again ranked an internal senior executive mentor as the top contributor to their future success.

If you’re a woman building a career in this industry

• Ask about the path, not just the role. Who has moved from this seat to the next one? How long did it take? If nobody can name an example, that tells you something.
• Ask how variable pay gets assigned. That’s where the biggest remaining gap sits. Find out which accounts and deals are in play, and who decides.
• Look for a sponsor as well as a mentor. Advice helps, and an executive who says your name in a room you’re not in helps more.
• Ask how flexibility affects promotion. If remote days are on the table, find out who has been promoted from a hybrid schedule, and how visible your work will be to the person deciding.
• Find your people. Peer networks carry a lot of careers. Alix Spratley, Prax’s co-founder, started Girls Who Golf in Houston for exactly this reason: it connects women across commercial real estate and related industries, in a setting where real relationships tend to form.

If you’re hiring

This is a business problem as much as anything else. A market short of qualified people can’t afford to overlook half of its potential candidates.

• Look at your numbers by level. Your overall percentage may look fine while your project manager and superintendent ranks tell a different story. In AGC’s Texas sample, only 15% of firms added outreach programs directed at women and minorities in the past year.
• Check the basics on site. Fit of PPE, restroom access, and how people are treated on day one all decide whether someone stays long enough to advance.
• Open the door from office to field. With women holding most of the industry’s office roles, you may already employ people who’d make excellent assistant project managers if someone asked.
• Name the executive sponsors. If mentorship is what women in the industry say helps most, make it someone’s actual job rather than a hope.

What to take from a 20-year high

Progress at the top line is real, and the people who made it deserve the credit. Just don’t stop reading at the headline. The next gains come from looking one level up.

If you’re thinking about your next step, or trying to build a team that doesn’t look like this chart, we’d like to hear from you.