Two male relatives of mine, my father and uncle, work/have worked in construction, and a male friend of mine, I'll refer to him as "Alan", is a laborer/operator (Mostly commercial. Blacktop, pipes, manholes, building pads, retaining walls, bridges, basins, salt/plow snow routes in the winter, etc.). My father worked in residential development, and my uncle laid flooring/carpet, removed trees, and worked for the same company as Alan before sustaining an injury at work and leaving with a small payout.
99% of what they do can easily be done by women.
Aside from hand digging, raking for grade, concrete work, hay matting (for grass), some aspects of demolition, and other work done manually, a good portion of the "hard" labor is done by machines. The hardest thing (according to him) Alan has ever had to do was carry bags of sand through hip deep water all day in the middle of summer and hand dig a basement.
This is something I've discussed with him. Women, as another user pointed out, are kept out of male dominated fields by the threat of harassment, abuse, and workplace bullying. An inspector sued the company he's currently working for (before his time there) because she was being sexually harassed by the laborers while on the jobsite.
He's spoken to me about the mental toll of working there because of the behavior of other men. He's had his hardhat smacked off his head because his coworker, with whom he has always been on friendly terms, was having a bad day. He's dealt with ass grabbing, jokes about him sucking dick for rides or being under the boss' desk, being smacked in the dick "playfully", badgering by "friends" to change his voting habits and political views, seen altercations and grown men crashing out... Who in their right mind would want to work in that environment?
Women aren't underrepresented in infrastructure, the trades, tech, or any other occupation because they're biologically inadequate, it's because men make male dominated workplaces a nightmare for us.
The work is demanding, yes, but it is not especially difficult to do, and women are dissuaded by the constant assertion that manual labor is "too much" for them.
It's not, and if it were, then why aren't we seeing women filling other roles? Operating, transporting materials via haul truck, overseeing jobsites, repairing machinery and vehicles, working in trades that are less physically taxing, such as: electrical work, tile work, cement masonry, or HVAC? Because men's bullying, sexual aggression, and gatekeeping is a massive discouragement.
Also, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of 2024, women are approximately 11.2% of those in construction, 14% in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (19.8% in oil and gas extraction specifically), 38.3% in chemicals manufacturing, 21.4% in machinery manufacturing, 24.9% in transportation and warehousing, 22.1% in utilities, 8.4% in commercial and industrial machinery and equipment repair and maintenance, and 8.8% in logging, so 3% is a number you pulled out of your ass.
And, again, the knowledge of how to do these jobs would not be lost without men. Do you think it's just...passed down via telepathic connections from master to apprentice? The resources would still be available.
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