Women Engineers’ Occupational Safety in Iraq’s Construction Sector: Site Exposure, Gender-Responsive Working Conditions, and Digital Safety Reporting

Safe and inclusive construction workplaces require more than conventional hazard control; they also depend on suitable welfare provision, personal protective equipment (PPE), reporting arrangements, and gender-responsive working conditions. This study examines women engineers’ occupational-safety experiences in Iraq’s construction sector through site exposure, welfare and privacy conditions, PPE suitability, gendered workplace interactions, reporting climate, and perceptions of digital and AI-enabled support. A survey-based design combining quantitative items with open-ended responses was used with 215 valid responses from women engineers in construction-related roles. Quantitative analysis included descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, ranked item means, Kruskal–Wallis tests, effect sizes, and Dunn post-hoc comparisons, while open-ended responses were analyzed thematically. Respondents strongly supported sanitary facilities, safe transportation, suitable PPE, contractor obligations, rest areas, managerial training, confidential reporting, women’s participation in safety committees, and anonymous digital reporting. Significant unadjusted differences were found across site-exposure groups for several safety, reporting, gender-related, and improvement dimensions. After adjustment, the associations remained significant for preparedness, safety concern, reporting barriers, and improvement priorities, but not for gender barriers. Open-ended responses emphasized male-dominated workplace culture, weak safety enforcement, welfare and privacy gaps, management practices, and transportation constraints. Digital and AI-enabled reporting options were viewed positively, alongside concerns about privacy, confidentiality, and organizational response. The findings suggest that safer and more inclusive construction workplaces should address site-exposure-sensitive arrangements, gender-responsive safety provisions, trusted reporting mechanisms, and carefully governed digital support.