Homophobia rife in construction industry, survey finds

Homophobia is rife in construction, with 85% of gay men and women in some parts of the industry encountering homophobic comments in the workplace over the last year, a new survey has found.

Less than half of all gay employees trust their managers to handle sexual orientation issues, and only one in 10 would recommend the industry as a great place to work for gay men and women.

These are some of the findings of an industry-wide survey into the experiences of LGBT employees in the construction and property industry, carried out by the Architects’ Journal.

Some of the key findings from the survey, which was conducted anonymously among almost 1,000 respondents, include:

• 63% of gay employees have encountered homophobic comments in the workplace in the last 12 months.
• This jumps to 85% for gay employees working for contracting firms.
• Just 16% of gay employees believe the wider construction/property industry is inclusive of LGB workers.
• A third of gay employees feel their sexuality creates barriers to career progression.
• Just 11% of gay employees would recommend the industry to other gay people. 

The investigation was launched following the AJ’s report into the experiences of gay architects in 2013, which revealed that half had encountered homophobia in the workplace. Evidence from that investigation indicated that there were even bigger problems in the wider industry, leading the AJ to launch this year’s survey.

According to Stonewall, not a single construction company appears on the charity’s Workplace Equality Index for 2015, a list of the UK’s 100 leading firms for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. This year’s index includes several law and financial services firms, 10 emergency services, energy companies and – for the first time – all of the armed forces.

Matteo Lissana, client account manager, Stonewall said: ‘The construction and built environment sectors are historically very traditional, and changes in the industry take a long time to implement. The industry is still struggling with gender equality, which has remained the main focus of the sector for years,” said Matteo Lissana, client account manager at Stonewall.

“But for most industries things have moved forward. The [construction] sector must realise that this approach is outdated and that diversity does not operate in separate compartments

“The sector is coming to realise now that the shrinking talent pool is setting firms further and further away from an extremely vast and diverse number of employees.”