Women taking top construction roles to fill skill needs is spurring “a major transformation in this industry,” said construction-management educator Barbara Jackson at the National Association of Women in Construction’s annual gathering. “I’m convinced beyond any doubt that, at this moment in this industry, there has never been a more critical need for women to be leading.”
The traditional command-and-control style of leadership still in the industry today has proven ineffective, said Jackson, director of the University of Denver’s Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management. “Today, leaders must influence a wide range of groups, and extensive research shows how women are better suited to this kind of leadership by far,” she noted.