Why She Stays: A Role-Based Analysis of Women’s Motivations in Construction

The construction industry is actively promoting female participation, but the motivation to drive their entry and stay, particularly into different job roles, remains underexplored. Previous studies typically treated extrinsic motivation as a single, undifferentiated construct. This study therefore examines the motivations shaping women’s entry into the construction industry across on-site, off-site, and fluid job roles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 female construction professionals in Australia across different roles. Data were thematically analysed using ATLAS.ti (version 25), producing twelve initial codes that were refined into seven core motivational codes and synthesised into three key motivational factors. The three main identified factors aligned with three distinct theories: intrinsic drivers with career choice theory, career opportunities with social cognitive career theory, and external/social drivers with social capital theory. Across 428 coded quotations, personal and social factors outweighed financial considerations. Interest in construction subjects/studies (21.0%) and early exposure (20.8%) were most frequently cited, while financial incentives were least cited (3.3%). Finally, motivational patterns were found to vary across the three roles. This study developed a role-sensitive motivational framework that is informed by the intrinsic/extrinsic career choice model to explain women’s motivations across construction roles and to guide the design of recruitment, education, and career pathway strategies in male-dominated industries.