Total Worker Health® Approach to Improving Tradeswomen’s Safety, Health, Well-being, and Experiences of Respect

The skilled trades remain among the most gender-segregated occupations in the United States, with women continually underrepresented both in leadership positions and on construction job sites (Bridges et al., 2020). While attracting women to the trades is a critical part of any solution, the importance of retaining them as working professionals with thriving careers cannot be overstated. That’s why trades organizations, non-profits, networks, and occupational researchers have been mounting targeted efforts to promote inclusivity and diversity across industry sectors to improve workplace cultures, and support tradeswomen during all stages of their careers.

As part of these efforts, the Safety Climate Lab at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences within OHSU received funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to explore the most salient needs and challenges faced by tradeswomen working in the construction industry. The Lab specializes in occupational accident and injury prevention by conducting research on workplace factors that affect workers' safety, health, and well-being—three key elements at the core of the NIOSH Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach to health-centered workplace management. Leading this Lab is Dr. Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang, who is recognized as one of the most prolific contributors to Safety Climate research. She has dedicated her career to improving the working lives of employees across various industries, including construction, transportation, manufacturing, and utilities.

As the Principal Investigator, Dr. Huang began the project with 20 interviews of current tradeswomen, former tradeswomen, and industry professionals with substantial experience supporting tradeswomen in the construction industry. Stories and insights shared by the interviewees provided a valuable glimpse into both the opportunities and challenges associated with working in the trades. They also identified practical solutions that could improve the immediate and long-term experiences of tradeswomen. Based on these insights, the Safety Climate Lab developed a survey to capture the opinions and experiences of a broader sample. A total of 312 tradeswomen and non-binary tradespeople across the U.S. took the survey between September 2024 and February 2025. Three focus groups were subsequently held with tradeswomen and subject matter experts to review the survey findings and discuss potential strategies for addressing the issues identified by participants. Many of their recommendations could improve workplace conditions not only for tradeswomen, but for the broader construction workforce as well.

Efforts are currently underway to publish and disseminate the results of this study. For now, a short report highlighting several key findings is available below this paragraph. The results suggest that meaningful progress has been made in several areas, including the provision of appropriate PPE and the prevalence of onsite peer support. But progress could be undone or severely undermined if the collective efforts of trades organizations, non-profits, and support networks cannot be maintained or enhanced. It is our hope that the findings of our study can inform and guide improvements for tradeswomen while advancing the overall workplace conditions in the construction industry. Creating safer, healthier, and more inclusive workplaces is not the responsibility of any one group alone. Like any successful construction project, it requires commitment, coordination, and contributions from everyone involved.

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OHSU Tradeswomen Project Handout.pdf

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Project results have been presented in the following events, scientific conferences, and journal article:

• Huang, Y. H., Chlevin-Thiele, C., Lytle, B., Giordano, F. B., He, Y., Lee, J., Zhou, Y., Anger, W. K., Courtney, T. K., Kuhn, K., & Rameshbabu, A. (in press). Experiences of tradeswomen in construction: Creating safe, healthy, and respectful workplaces. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health.

• Huang, Y. H., & Chlevin-Thiele, C. (2025, September). A Total Worker Health® approach to improving tradeswomen’s safety, health, well-being, and respectful treatment: Excerpts from our survey [Oral Presentation]. National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues Annual Convening, Chicago, IL, United States.

• Lytle, B., Huang, Y.H., Chlevin-Thiele, C., Giordano, F., He, Y., Lee, J., Zhou, Y., Anger, W. K., Courtney, T.K., Kuhn, K., Chiu, N., Hua, J., & Rameshbabu, A. (2025, July). Fostering safe, healthy, and respectful workplaces for tradeswomen in construction [Poster]. Work, Stress, and Health (WSH) Conference, Seattle, WA, United States.

• Huang, Y. H., Zhou, Y., Lytle, B., He, Y., Chlevin-Thiele, C., Giordano, F., Lee, J., Anger, W. K., Courtney, T. K., Kelly, A., & Rameshbabu, A. (2025, April). Experiences of tradeswomen in construction: Creating a safe, healthy, and respectful workplace climate [Poster]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Annual Conference, Denver, CO, United States.

  
  

References:

• Bamel, U. K., Pandey, R., & Gupta, A. (2020). Safety climate: systematic literature network analysis of 38 years (1980-2018) of research. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 135, 105387.

• Bridges, D., Wulff, E., Bamberry, L., Krivokapic-Skoko, B., & Jenkins, S. (2020). Negotiating gender in the male-dominated skilled trades: A systematic literature review. Construction Management and Economics, 38(10), 894–916. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1762906