[IN PRINCIPLE, THIS CAN BE DEVELOPED EITHER AS A THESIS OR A DISSERTATION]

Gender equality is a key element of sustainability representing one of 17 United Nations Sustainable development goals. Sexism in the workplace relates to sustainable development goals 5 and 8 which “promotes sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all” (United Nations, 2021). One of the sectors which seems to be struggling with this issue is construction. Construction is a male-dominant sector thus exposing women and not Cis-male to sexism and gender bias. The consequences of gender bias and experience of everyday sexism by women and not Cis-male working in construction project organisations have been identified as mental health and well-being related impacts, lower performance and efficacy and high retention rates

Although different interventions are in place for addressing gender inequality and sexism, in project organisations and particularly construction, there is no systematic analysis on which intervention works and which does not. The anecdotal information is scattered in different fields and journals. This research intends to fill the gap in understanding the effectiveness of existing interventions applied by construction project organisations. This will lead to a clear guidelines and strategies on how barriers and challenges for female employees in construction organisations can be addressed and overcome.

• Research questions

The research questions are:

RQ1: What kinds of gender equality interventions are utilised in construction project organisations to deal with sexism?

RQ2: What kinds of gender equality interventions are effective and which are not in dealing with sexism in construction project organisations?

• Proposed methodology

to conduct a systematic review and synthesis of articles published on gender equality interventions in project organisations and particularly construction.

semi-structured interviews to investigate the existing interventions and their effectiveness, along with the enablers and barriers to applying them from the participant’s perspective. The participants will include: (1) women at different stages of their careers, focusing on their experience with the effectiveness of anti-sexism intervention (2) Middle/project managers, testing their awareness about sexism and investigating the interventions that they are putting in place and 3) HR managers, who have a significant role in diversity and inclusion through recruiting for gender equality and addressing the gender pay gap