Posted by Hopper on 22/03/2020 12:33:11:
Okay Boomers. 
Seriously, have you blokes been self-isolating for the past 30 years? In 2016 there were 296,000 women working in construction in the UK, according to the Office of National Stats. Still a small minority overall but hardly a new or strange thing. It's been going on since the 70s. It's nothing new and it's nothing particularly unusual any more.
I've been working in construction for more than 30 years and whilst there are many more women working 'in construction' now they are almost all in 'soft' jobs. For example:
Surveyors
Site engineers
Site managers
Project managers
Document controllers
Environmental managers
Safety managers
Compliance
Office/welfare support staff
I've seen a few on the tools, but only very few. Saw a female brick layer, and you get quite a few women in M&E installation. One of the best crane operators I've ever known was a Polish lady.
What I've never seen women doing on the tools in the whole of my working life is:
Driving any diggers or other mechanical plant
Working in demolition (on the tools)
Steel fixing
Steel erecting
Concrete gangs
Or any of the other heavy-labour jobs in construction. So yeah whilst they are 'in construction' they are not generally fulfilling the roles that you associate with the stereotypical brawny male, and that's by choice- it's not like the opportunity is not there – it's that the typical female physique is not suited to the heavier work and they don't want to present too masculine an image.
This isn't bigotry or sexism, it's my observations and in my mind women are perfectly welcome to work in any role and in any industry they choose. In construction they very much tend to choose the non-physical roles.