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Assessment and Effectiveness Analysis of the Women Workers in Construction Projects in Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Received: 27 March 2017    Accepted: 28 April 2017    Published: 26 June 2017
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Abstract

For a construction project to be completed successfully there must be an effective and efficient utilization of resources. One of these resources is human resource which includes women worker. This research focus on the effectiveness analysis of women worker in construction projects at Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and analyzing its impact towards personal safety and construction accidents, quality of construction, project completion or lead time, and effectiveness in project management as a whole. Descriptive survey research method were utilized and questionnaire was administered to 200 randomly selected respondents which comprised of women workers, foreman, project managers and contractor firm owner. The results of the overall analysis shows that most of the workers in construction are women in Debre Berhan, whereas the construction industry in Addis Ababa is dominated by males and most of the job positions in Debre Berhan are equally distributed among male and female employees except the foreman position but all job classifications in Addis Ababa are dominated by male workers especially the key positions like Project Manager and Project Supervisors. There is no wide disparity in the salary of construction employees in Debre Berhan except for the Foreman Position. Males are compensated higher than the females while in Addis Ababa there are obvious variations in the average salary of the male and female employees. Male takes higher overtime than females. Women workers committed low frequencies of quality defects. The study also shows that there is a low rate of safety violations, major & minor injuries incurred by women in the workplace yet they have low safety awareness. There is a low absenteeism rate to women workers &they have medium productivity rate. Finally, based on the results recommendations were forwarded that trainings should be given for women workers on safety and awareness should be created on construction firms on the effectiveness of women workers.

Published in International Journal of Engineering Management (Volume 1, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13
Page(s) 54-62
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Safety, Quality, Cost and Effectiveness, Project Management

References
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[4] Clarke, L, Pedersen, F, Michielsens, E and Susman, B. 2005. The European construction social partners: Gender equality in theory and practice. European Journal of Relations. 11:2, 151-177
[5] Wangle, A. M. 2009. Perceptions of traits of women in construction. PhD thesis. University ofFlorida.
[6] Chandra, V and Loosemore, M. 2004 Women’s self-perception: an inter-sector comparison of construction, legal and nursing professionals. Construction Management and Economics, 22:9, 947-956.
[7] Agapiou, A. 2002. Perceptions of gender roles and attitude towards work among male and female operatives in the Scottish construction industry. Construction Management andEconomic, 20:8, 697-705.
[8] Whittock, M. 2002. Women’s experiences of non-traditional employment: is gender equality in this area a possibility? Construction Management and Economics. 20:5, 449-456.
[9] Fielden, S. L., Davidson, M. J., Gale, A. W. and Davey, C. 2000. Women in construction: the untapped resource. Construction Management and Economics. 18:1, 113-121.
[10] Wells, J. 2007. Informality in the construction sector in developing countries. Construction Management and Economics, 25:1, 87-93.
[11] Chen, M. A., 2001, Women in the Informal Sector: A Global Picture, the Global Movement SAIS Review, Volume 21, Number 1, Winter-Spring 2001, pp. 71-82
[12] Olofsson, B., 2004. Kvinnorochmänibyggyrken – en jämförandestudie. Byggkommissionen, Stockholm. (In Swedish).
[13] Clarke L, Pederson E. F. & Michielsen E. 2004. Women in construction. CLR Studies.
[14] Wangle, A. M. 2009. Perceptions of traits of women in construction. PhD thesis. University of Florida
[15] OSHA, 1999. Women in the construction workplace: Providing equitable safety and healthprotection, US Department of Labour
[16] Dainty, A. R. J., Bagilhole, B. M. and Neale R. H., 2000. A grounded theory of women’s careerunder-achievement in large UK construction companies. Construction Managementand Economics, 18:2, 239-250
[17] Hossain J. B. and Kusakabe K. 2005. Sex segregation in construction organisation in Bangladesh and Thailand. Construction Management and Economics, 23:6, 609-619
[18] Bless, C. & Higson-Smith, C. 2003. Fundamentals of social research methods: an African perspective. Cape Town: Juta Education.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Gene Macabodbod, Patrick Cerna, Mary Charlemaine Abas. (2017). Assessment and Effectiveness Analysis of the Women Workers in Construction Projects in Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. International Journal of Engineering Management, 1(2), 54-62. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13

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    ACS Style

    Gene Macabodbod; Patrick Cerna; Mary Charlemaine Abas. Assessment and Effectiveness Analysis of the Women Workers in Construction Projects in Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Int. J. Eng. Manag. 2017, 1(2), 54-62. doi: 10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13

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    AMA Style

    Gene Macabodbod, Patrick Cerna, Mary Charlemaine Abas. Assessment and Effectiveness Analysis of the Women Workers in Construction Projects in Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Int J Eng Manag. 2017;1(2):54-62. doi: 10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13,
      author = {Gene Macabodbod and Patrick Cerna and Mary Charlemaine Abas},
      title = {Assessment and Effectiveness Analysis of the Women Workers in Construction Projects in Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia},
      journal = {International Journal of Engineering Management},
      volume = {1},
      number = {2},
      pages = {54-62},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijem.20170102.13},
      abstract = {For a construction project to be completed successfully there must be an effective and efficient utilization of resources. One of these resources is human resource which includes women worker. This research focus on the effectiveness analysis of women worker in construction projects at Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and analyzing its impact towards personal safety and construction accidents, quality of construction, project completion or lead time, and effectiveness in project management as a whole. Descriptive survey research method were utilized and questionnaire was administered to 200 randomly selected respondents which comprised of women workers, foreman, project managers and contractor firm owner. The results of the overall analysis shows that most of the workers in construction are women in Debre Berhan, whereas the construction industry in Addis Ababa is dominated by males and most of the job positions in Debre Berhan are equally distributed among male and female employees except the foreman position but all job classifications in Addis Ababa are dominated by male workers especially the key positions like Project Manager and Project Supervisors. There is no wide disparity in the salary of construction employees in Debre Berhan except for the Foreman Position. Males are compensated higher than the females while in Addis Ababa there are obvious variations in the average salary of the male and female employees. Male takes higher overtime than females. Women workers committed low frequencies of quality defects. The study also shows that there is a low rate of safety violations, major & minor injuries incurred by women in the workplace yet they have low safety awareness. There is a low absenteeism rate to women workers &they have medium productivity rate. Finally, based on the results recommendations were forwarded that trainings should be given for women workers on safety and awareness should be created on construction firms on the effectiveness of women workers.},
     year = {2017}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Assessment and Effectiveness Analysis of the Women Workers in Construction Projects in Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
    AU  - Gene Macabodbod
    AU  - Patrick Cerna
    AU  - Mary Charlemaine Abas
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13
    T2  - International Journal of Engineering Management
    JF  - International Journal of Engineering Management
    JO  - International Journal of Engineering Management
    SP  - 54
    EP  - 62
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2640-1568
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijem.20170102.13
    AB  - For a construction project to be completed successfully there must be an effective and efficient utilization of resources. One of these resources is human resource which includes women worker. This research focus on the effectiveness analysis of women worker in construction projects at Debre Berhan and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and analyzing its impact towards personal safety and construction accidents, quality of construction, project completion or lead time, and effectiveness in project management as a whole. Descriptive survey research method were utilized and questionnaire was administered to 200 randomly selected respondents which comprised of women workers, foreman, project managers and contractor firm owner. The results of the overall analysis shows that most of the workers in construction are women in Debre Berhan, whereas the construction industry in Addis Ababa is dominated by males and most of the job positions in Debre Berhan are equally distributed among male and female employees except the foreman position but all job classifications in Addis Ababa are dominated by male workers especially the key positions like Project Manager and Project Supervisors. There is no wide disparity in the salary of construction employees in Debre Berhan except for the Foreman Position. Males are compensated higher than the females while in Addis Ababa there are obvious variations in the average salary of the male and female employees. Male takes higher overtime than females. Women workers committed low frequencies of quality defects. The study also shows that there is a low rate of safety violations, major & minor injuries incurred by women in the workplace yet they have low safety awareness. There is a low absenteeism rate to women workers &they have medium productivity rate. Finally, based on the results recommendations were forwarded that trainings should be given for women workers on safety and awareness should be created on construction firms on the effectiveness of women workers.
    VL  - 1
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Civil Engineering, Debre Berhan University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  • Department of Information Technology, Haramaya University, Oromia, Ethiopia

  • Department of Electronics and Electrical Technology, Federal Technological Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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