Female construction workers are celebrating International Women's Day by building alliance to increase participation in the industry.

Over 100 men and women attended the Construction Industry Federation's (CIF) Breakfast Briefing on Increasing Female Participation in Construction today, 08 March.

CIF Director of Industrial Relations, Jean Winters, said: "The Construction industry is a very male dominated industry, we have about 136,000 people in the sector and just 8% of these are women. Unfortunately we don't see too many of the women involved in CIF activities and we would like that to change. We need more women participation and getting involved and being moved into more senior roles within the industry.

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"We want to get the message out there that the construction industry is not just for men. We know that the industry is in growth mode and we know that we are going to be looking for more than 112,000 workers up to 2020, so why would we exclude 50% of the population?

"This International Women's Day the CIF we have gathered to celebrate the many pioneering women involved in the industry over the years, such as our former President Mirette Corboy and those like her, who have become not only leaders in their field of expertise, but role models for the generations of young women and girls following them."

The CIF International Women's Day Breakfast Briefing, which took place at CIF headquarters in Construction House in Dublin, was held to address the chronically low levels of female participation within the industry and heard from a number of speakers including Paypal Vice President Louise Phelan, Phil Kane, Country Manager for Eaton Group, Claire Solon, President of Society Chartered Surveyors, Jen Kelly of Women in Trades Network Ireland and Deirdre Hennessy, Senior Associate with ByrneWallace.