Homophobia still ‘rife’ within construction industry

A survey by Architects’ Journal revealed that homophobia is rife in construction, with more than 80 per cent of gay men and women in some parts of the industry encountering homophobic comments in the workplace.

Just 14 per cent of gay employees said they would be open about their sexuality on site, with less than half of all gay employees saying they would trust their line managers to handle sexual orientation issues.

Shockingly only one in ten would recommend the construction industry as a great place to work for gay men and women.

These are some of the findings of the first industry-wide survey into attitudes towards sexuality, launched by the Architects’ Journal working with sister titles New Civil Engineer and Construction News.

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

Altogether, almost 1,000 respondents from across the industry took part in the poll, which explored issues such as visibility of sexual minorities in the workplace, management, and the problems of working in countries with poor records on gay rights.

Once again no company from the built environment sector appears on Stonewall’s annual Workplace Equality Index, a list of the UK’s 100 leading firms for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. The 2015 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 for years the main focus of the sector.”