It's Women in Construction week and, today, March 8, is International Women's Day. This year, the United Nation’s theme for International Women’s Day is “Invest in women: Accelerate progress.” According to a report produced by UN Women and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, gender-equity measures across 17 sustainable development goals show gender equality to be “an increasingly distant goal.”  

One of these development goals concerns the percent of women in the workforce compared with men, which is 61 percent globally. In Minnesota, the overall percentage is similarly 61 percent. But in construction, only 3.1 percent of Minnesota’s workforce are women. On MnDOT construction projects in calendar year 2023, the percentage of women in the construction workforce was 6.1 percent.

The difference in percentages between men and women workers is primarily because women experience occupational segregation, discrimination, and interrupted career paths owing to childcare and other caregiving responsibilities. This is significant because wage disparities due to gendered occupational segregation persist. In Minnesota, for every dollar men earn, women earn only 79 cents. This gender wage gap accumulates significantly over a women’s working years. The National Women’s Law Center finds that, on average, women earn $447,960 less than men during a lifetime.

Monitoring workforce goals is one way that MnDOT works to reduce occupational segregation and gender wage disparities. Highway construction projects have workforce goals for women. The goals are expressed as a percentage of total labor hours performed by women on the project.

The goal on state-funded projects is set by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the goal on federally funded projects is set by the Federal Highway Administration to match the state goal. For currently active projects, the goal is for 13 percent of total labor hours to be performed by women. MnDOT Office of Civil Rights oversees compliance of these goals on state-funded and federally funded highway construction contracts.  

Another way MnDOT works to reduce gender disparities on MnDOT contracts is through the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. MnDOT’s DBE Program was established by the federal government to ensure, in part, that women-owned businesses can participate in contracts financed by the U.S. Department of Transportation. MnDOT surpassed its DBE goal last year for FHWA-funded contracts.

Not all DBEs are women-owned – the program also uplifts BIPOC-owned businesses. To break down the numbers, in federal fiscal year 2023, over $115 million federal contracting dollars went to women-owned businesses, an increase from federal fiscal year 2022, in which nearly $95 million went to women-owned businesses. MnDOT supports small business development and continues to work to provide opportunities to reduce disparities for women-owned businesses in contracting.

Committing to workforce goals and DBE goals are two of several ways that MnDOT, through its strategic plan, promotes gender-equitable distribution of tax dollars at work and uplifts this year’s theme for International Women’s Day. Investing in women does accelerate progress.