Breaking ground to empower women in the Kenyan construction industry

With a look of intense focus, Sharon Okiya scooped a dollop of plaster onto her scraper and applied it smoothly over the rough cement wall of an unfinished apartment building outside Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Reflecting on her work, Okiya said that she enjoyed the physical nature of the job and drew satisfaction from knowing that her interior finishes would be admired by the building’s future occupants. 

Okiya’s work in construction provides her with the kind of steady income that is unattainable to many Kenyan women. Her daily earnings of approximately CAD13 reflect not only her growing expertise but also her ability to sustain herself as an independent tradeswoman. 

Now in her mid-twenties, Okiya is a 2022 graduate from Buildher, a non-profit social enterprise that uses an innovative, holistic approach to help get more women into Kenya’s booming but overwhelmingly male-dominated construction industry. 

Throughout East Africa, gender segregation in work results in most women having low-paying jobs and a higher share of the unpaid care work required in the home. Getting more women into lucrative but traditionally male-dominated industries could have a major impact not only on their lives, but also on their families, communities and society. Women still account for just 3% of the workforce in Kenya’s construction industry, which was worth more than CAD20 billion in 2023. The obstacles to addressing the imbalance are considerable.

Dalberg Research in Kenya has teamed up with Buildher to identify valuable lessons from the innovative training model that could help drive women’s empowerment in construction and other sectors throughout the region. The research is supported by the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women – East Africa initiative, which IDRC supports with other funders to combat gender inequality in the world of work. 

Okiya has faced many of the challenges of being a woman in Kenya’s construction industry. She said that her time at Buildher prepared her both technically and mentally for the rigours of the job and to deal with the doubts of her employers.  

“Buildher made me feel like I’m a strong lady,” she said. “The supervisors don’t accept women easily here, but you just have to show them what you can do.” 

At the Buildher academy, women busied themselves in everything from carpentry training to wellness classes. A group of students in a downstairs classroom delved into the topic of self-awareness during a session on soft skills — interpersonal traits like problem solving, teamwork and communication that complement hard skills — while dance music blared through the ceiling from a physical fitness class on the floor above.

Over the beat of the music, the soft-skills teacher asked the women what positive adjectives they would use to describe themselves. They began listing words in their exercise books. “I am bold,” wrote one. “I am determined,” wrote another. 

Buildher’s approach uses everything from yoga classes to money-management sessions to prepare women technically, physically and emotionally for the challenges they will face. But its courses were not always this diverse. The program has adapted in response to the feedback it has received from graduates and employers alike. 

When employers reported back that the early Buildher graduates lacked stamina, the academy introduced physical fitness classes. When it emerged that the women’s transitions into work often caused friction with their spouses or parents, and that this was causing some to quit, Buildher increased their outreach efforts in the community to persuade families of the benefits of women joining the workforce. And when a combination of harassment at work and low self-esteem was impacting the women’s ability to obtain and keep jobs, Buildher introduced mental health coaching and “Wellness Wednesdays.” 

Buildher’s lead mental health officer, Taruri Gatere, believes that many women in male-dominated industries, particularly those from marginalized or under-resourced communities, are hampered by a lack of self-confidence that makes it harder for them to find and hold down jobs.

“There’s a lot of harassment and stereotyping [in the workplace] and if they’re not equipped with the skills to deal with that, it can be very detrimental to their careers,” said Gatere.

As Rahab Kiarie, 33, who graduated from Buildher in 2021 explained: “At first, people underestimated us, but now they respect us.” In a cramped series of corrugated zinc buildings in the informal settlement of Kariobangi North, she and five other Buildher graduates ranging in age from their mid-20s to early 50s were putting their carpentry skills to use making coffins. They were the first women ever to work for their company and the first female coffin makers anyone in the area could recall.

“Buildher taught me how to work with wood. But it also taught me how to face my stress, how to manage my anger, how to know myself,” Kiarie explained.

When she had gained enough confidence and saved enough capital, she launched a profitable business in the beauty and cosmetics sector that brings in CAD13 to CAD65 a day. 

The research team used scientific methods to assess the Buildher model’s effectiveness and what strategies work best to address the barriers — whether at home, in the workplace and in the job market — that prevent women from participating in the construction sector. The team surveyed Buildher students and men and women in the industry who have trained elsewhere. Interviews and small group discussions shed light on the behavioral and attitudinal motivations specific to Buildher graduates, employers, male colleagues and community members.

The research found that 65% of Buildher graduates still work in the construction industry one year after completion of the training program. Not only do the graduates value both the technical and soft skills they have learned, but their employers also appreciate Buildher trainees for their methodical approach to work and the professionalism they bring to the workplace.

Dalberg and Buildher are sharing results with industry stakeholders, such as other training institutions, employers, industry associations and the National Construction Authority. Collaboration with the BSD Group is ensuring that the lessons reach policymakers to stimulate policy development.

Through a local partnership, Buildher is sharing its curriculum with local technical and vocational education and training institutions. It has developed gender-sensitive guidelines for other institutions to improve training delivery, recruitment practices and facility design.

The research findings are also helping to create a receptive environment for more women to enter the construction industry. For example, the National Construction Authority waived accreditation fees for 200 Buildher trainees. Together with the networking and advocacy organization Women in Real Estate Kenya, Buildher and Dalberg worked with the Affordable Housing Program, an initiative of the Government of Kenya, to integrate gender-specific facilities and equipment on construction sites — from women’s toilets to the right-sized overalls.

Both Dalberg and Buildher are engaging in the development of a new Kenyan building code to ensure it takes gender into account. Among the issues they are raising are the need to impose a minimum percentage of women to be hired on construction projects, the obligation for employers to provide facilities and equipment suitable to women, and the need to build systems that enable women to safely report incidents of sexual harassment.

Buildher’s CEO, Tatu Gatere, believes that the culture around women in construction is finally beginning to change. Her goal is to raise the percentage of women in Kenya’s construction industry from 3% to 10% over the next decade. 

Better training for tomorrow’s women construction workers and more welcoming policies and practices are not only good for the women who are breaking into the industry: women’s access to higher-paying jobs that have traditionally been the preserve of men is an avenue towards women’s economic empowerment that reduces poverty and drives economic growth and prosperity for all.

Meanwhile, every Buildher graduate who successfully enters the industry acts as an unofficial ambassador for women in male-dominated sectors, chipping away at misconceptions about their ability to perform the work and becoming role models for other women.

“It’s on us to raise awareness now,” said Caroline Jonathan, another Buildher trainee. “It is important that we believe in and empower women because women are still marginalized in the construction industry. Right now, my niece knows I’m training to be a carpenter and she’s so excited. She’s going to grow up knowing that she can do anything she wants to.