International Institute for Women in Construction
27 episodes listed below
Building a more equitable construction industry.
Women Thriving in Construction follows conversations with women shaping construction, education, marketing, and industry leadership. The show focuses on what actually helps women enter, stay, lead, and thrive in the field.
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Women Thriving in Construction is a focused interview series about the people trying to make construction more welcoming, more competitive, and more durable for women. The show sits at the intersection of careers, workforce strategy, and industry culture. Its conversations are professional, warm, and direct. Guests describe how they entered construction or adjacent fields, then trace what helped them build credibility, networks, and leadership opportunities. The episodes return often to a core tension: construction needs talent, but the industry still has to change if it wants a wider range of people to choose it and stay. That makes the show less about inspiration alone and more about systems. Leadership events, company sponsorship, research, conferences, and peer networks all become part of the story. The tone is optimistic, but not vague. Laura Miranda’s episode brings equity, privilege, accessibility, ethnicity, and unconscious bias into the conversation. Jennifer Wilkerson’s episode connects education and research to harassment, discrimination, inclusion, and the business case for change. Erica Jones’s episode highlights the power of events where attendees leave with stronger networks, new friendships, and a desire to volunteer or advocate inside their companies. Even when the conversations are personal, the lens stays industry-wide. Men are discussed as necessary participants, not distant observers. The show is especially interested in what happens when people notice a gap and decide to act. It values practical advocacy. It also respects the emotional force of seeing women connect across roles, companies, and communities. For listeners in construction, workforce development, or industry associations, the series offers a clear view of change as daily work: deliberate, relational, and measurable over time.
Made for: For construction professionals, association leaders, educators, and advocates focused on workforce development and women’s career advancement. It also suits men and company leaders looking for practical ways to support inclusion.
What sets it apart: The show grounds inclusion in construction’s real workforce pressures, using guest experience, industry events, and research rather than broad corporate language. It treats equity as both a human issue and a business issue.
The International Institute for Women in Construction exists to accelerate the attraction, development, and retention of women in construction and related industries globally. We are an ignitor, a think tank, fostering improved sharing of data, implementation of effective strategies, and bold thinking throughout the world. Our podcast is one strategy for doing this! Connect with us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/international-institute-for-women-in-construction/ and visit our website at https://iiwic.org/.
A $20 million change order meets the daily tax of proving you belong.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical look at retention, attraction, and the people work behind construction's talent shortage.
Women Thriving in Construction follows Gretchen Gagel in conversation with Erica Jones, VP of Marketing for MMC in Kansas City, and keeps its focus on the global construction talent shortage.
A construction conversation that treats equity as workplace design, not slogan.
The episode positions Gretchen Gagel and Laura Miranda in a clear conversation about equity in construction and in the workplace more broadly.
A clear case for making construction the industry women choose.
Women Thriving in Construction makes a familiar talent problem feel concrete by tying Gretchen Gagel’s conversation with Jennifer Wilkerson, Vice President of Innovation and Advancement for the National Center for Construction Education and Research, to the practical question of…
Unhurried FT conversations about bosses, burnout and the office.
Howard Ross explains how his Jewish family history, including the murder of 43 relatives by Nazis in 1942, shaped a career in social justice and organizational culture change.
Denise Burgess describes entering her family's Colorado construction company after a career in broadcasting and becoming its successor during her father's final five years.
Erica Jones, VP of Marketing for MMC in Kansas City, says she moved from consumer marketing agency work to construction after being placed on the MMC account about 16 years ago and later joining the company full time.
Laura Miranda, co-founder of You Don't Look Like an Engineer, explains how a 2015 move from Colombia to Australia led to English study at 17, an associate degree in civil engineering at TAFE, and a first job through a recruiter at Arup.
Gretchen Gagel interviews Suzanne Arkle, President and CEO of Zahn, about strategies to attract, develop, and retain women in construction to address the global talent shortage.
Jennifer Wilkerson says NCCER found women were 3.9% of the field at the start of its research and 4.2% when she discussed it.