Placing gender equality at the core of buildings can accelerate the transition to resource efficiency while advancing broader socio-economic development outcomes. Achieving this requires addressing the structural and societal barriers that shape gender inequalities, including unequal access to education, skills development, and employment opportunities that influence participation across the sector. The buildings and construction sector remains structurally male-dominated, with women in all their diversity underrepresented in technical, financial, and decision-making roles. Addressing the root causes of these disparities can help expand pathways to economic empowerment, access to decent work, and leadership opportunities, while enabling more diverse perspectives to shape the built environment. Initiatives targeting women as both agents of change and participants of a building’s transition exist, but they face typical obstacles to gender equality in the so-called “technical” fields. Furthermore, those initiatives suffer from insufficient visibility, as the topic remains secondary in global agendas and knowledge about it remains fragmented. 

This workshop aims to serve as a stepping stone toward implementable action to strengthen gender equality in the building and construction sector. It will focus on identifying key barriers and opportunities for mainstreaming gender considerations into construction decision-making and sectoral practices. Through facilitated discussions and group work on specific dimensions of the challenge—such as finance, enabling policy environments, and codes and standards—the workshop will generate actionable priorities and identify practical solutions. Case studies and existing experiences will be used to inform discussions, gather knowledge, and highlight good practices that can support gender-responsive approaches across the sector.

The workshop will also identify key knowledge and capacity gaps, potential strategic partners, and concrete follow-up activities to advance gender-responsive action across GlobalABC networks.

• Identification of priorities for action and main factors to consider for the mainstreaming of gender equity in buildings, each illustrated by the case studies in a structured manner
• Based on this identification, development of a pool of stakeholders and ideas for implementing follow-up knowledge exchange and agenda-setting activities about gender and buildings
• Formulation of (3–5) concrete, short- to medium-term recommendations to be integrated into GlobalABC programming, including event design, knowledge products, and stakeholder engagement strategies, contributing to improved gender-balanced participation and dedicated gender-focused sessions.