Women in Spanish construction: 147,337 registered, 11.1% of sector

Women in Spanish construction: 147,337 registered and 11.1% of the sector

In a workshop in Badalona, ten students have just finished the practical painting module and are starting the construction one. Two are men. The rest are women referred by social organizations seeking certification to enter the industry. The initiative is led by Fundació Laboral de la Construcció (Construction Labor Foundation) and Grup Efebé, with a dual goal: placing people at risk of exclusion and breaking the stigma of male-only bricklaying. The data supports this, to an extent.

By the end of 2022, women registered with Social Security in construction totaled 147,337, representing 11.1% of the sector’s total workforce. This is 7,711 more than the previous year and the highest female percentage share since 2016. The industry boasts pogre. However, the fine print emerges when examining exactly where these women work.

How many women actually work in construction

The INE (Spain’s National Statistics Institute) paints a profile that doesn’t match the scaffolding stereotype. The woman working in the sector in 2022 averages around 43 years old, holds Spanish nationality in 85.7% of cases, and has higher education qualifications in 62.3%. Conversely, the student seeking training is younger—between 36 and 45 years old in 27.3% of cases—Spanish in 89.6% of instances, and often has primary education, school-leaving certificates, or lower secondary education (ESO) in 28.5% of cases. Many already work while studying: 71.1% combined training and employment, and 80.5% did so in-person.

Geographically, the weight of female students relative to total workers is concentrated in Las Palmas (29.96%), Catalonia (14.1%), and the Community of Madrid (10.1%). In short, female training in construction is an uneven and highly localized phenomenon, not a nationwide tide.

The bottleneck: nearly half occupy administrative roles

Here lies the uncomfortable data point. 46.8% of women hired in construction hold administrative roles. Grup Efebé interprets this as the raison d'être for their programs: if half of the available talent cannot access other jobs in the sector, the industry is leaving capacity on the table. “Empowerment to access other jobs in the sector is key to not excluding 50% of our population’s talent,” summarizes Anna Fornt, the group’s general director.

Student selection is handled by Fundació Ared in Barcelona, dedicated to labor insertion for socially marginalized individuals. The itinerary has three levels, ends with a professional competency certificate, and includes its own job pool. Completing it also offers entry into the first level of intermediate vocational training in similar specialties. Part of the success, Fornt emphasizes, is getting students back into the educational system. The curriculum is less epic than it sounds: auxiliary construction tasks, mixing pastes, mortars, adhesives, and concrete, equipment preparation, rendering, plastering, and protective primers. Upon completion, the training equates to that of a laborer.

Classroom profiles are diverse. Yanet Rubiano, 48, arrived from Colombia and lives in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat; she wants to start her own painting and restoration finishing business. Nouria Ariara, 37, with a young daughter, asserts that “we can do any job” and sees herself between painting and drywall installation. Jaouadi Achabar, 34, hopes the course will resolve his work permit through residency-by-training.

Does construction pay better? 30% above minimum wage and permanent contracts

The economic argument is the strongest part of the narrative. According to Grup Efebé, construction has demand for professionals and salaries that exceed the interprofessional minimum wage by 30%. Additionally, 21% of contracts for women in the sector are permanent, a ratio Lucía López, manager of Fundació Laboral de la Construcció, attributes to women’s efforts to integrate into a traditionally male-dominated trade.

The percentage pogre is the hardest evidence to dispute: in 2017, women represented 3% of construction jobs; in 2023, it was 12%. Most of the jump occurred in the latter part of the period, and the foundation itself expects training programs to raise this figure further.

Doubts: training is not the same as employment

Not everyone buys the story. Some argue that these courses have been offered for years, that no one hires afterwards, and that only hiring subsidies close the gap: “Guasonry, tiling, electrical, etc. courses for women have been running for many years. And the REALITY is that then no one hires them. If they now subsidize those hires, only then will they succeed,” summarizes one of the most repeated objections.

Another critical line focuses on the images accompanying such news: much skepticism points out that they show classrooms rather than construction sites, and that the verdict will come in a year, when we see how many remain active. “Welcome if you want to work, but the photos illustrating the news are all from the training course and not the actual site,” notes another circulating objection. Suspicions about hiring quotas and corporate diversity goals also appear, along with a cross-cutting diagnosis: the sector’s real problem is generational replacement, the cohort of skilled tradespeople lost after the housing bubble burst and never replaced.

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The historical series summarizes the situation better than any classroom photo: from 3% in 2017 to 12% in 2023. A huge leap in relative terms and still modest in absolute numbers, with 147,337 women registered and nearly half in administrative posts. What happens in a year with the ten people in Badalona will say more than any press release.