The Problem: The Numbers Don't Add Up — and That's the Opportunity

Let me share something with you that I find both baffling and, honestly, exciting.

After more than 40 years in this industry, I have watched the coatings and building protection trade grow into one of the most essential, economically resilient, and environmentally critical fields in the built world.

And yet when you look at who is doing the work, the gender imbalance is stark.

According to data compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women represent only about 8.9% of painters in construction — and that's actually the highest female participation rate among all hands-on construction trades.

In other words, painting is the most female-friendly trade in construction, and still only about 1 in 11 applicators is a woman.

Trades like brick masonry, steel work, and drywall installation see female participation rates of less than 1%.

Zoom out to the construction and extraction industries overall and the picture is even more striking. 

The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) reports that women hold only 4.3% of construction trade worker positions — despite constituting 47% of the overall employed U.S. workforce.

Women are roughly half the nation's labor force.

They hold fewer than one in eleven painter positions.

Something is not adding up — and that gap is opportunity.

Here is what I tell anyone who asks me about this: there is nothing in the physical act of applying protective coatings to a building that a woman cannot do as well as — or better than — a man.

Not one thing.

The tools are a brush, a roller, or a sprayer.

The physical demands are no greater than countless other tasks women perform every single day.

​The judgment, the eye for surface condition, the care and attention to detail, the commitment to doing the job right — these are qualities that have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with the individual.

STAT BOX: Women & The Coatings / Construction Trade Gap

• BLS / Construction Dive: Women make up approximately 8.9% of painters, construction and maintenance — the single highest female participation rate of any hands-on construction trade, yet still fewer than 1 in 11 applicators.

• Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), 2024: Women hold only 4.3% of all construction trade worker positions — despite being 47% of the overall employed U.S. workforce.

• NAWIC (National Association of Women in Construction): There was a 64% increase in women working as maintenance painters between 2014 and 2019 — the fastest-growing female trade category — signaling clear momentum, but from an extremely low base.

• Fixr.com / BLS, 2025: The total number of women in the construction industry reached 1,343,000 in 2024 — an all-time high — representing 11.2% of the total industry workforce. Still, that leaves nearly 89% of all construction jobs held by men.

​• BigRentz / BLS: More than half of all employed individuals in the United States are women. Women account for roughly 1.25% of all construction site workers — a gap that is simultaneously alarming and wide open.

The Escalation: Why the Gap Makes Even Less Sense When You Look at What the Trade Actually Requires

From my experience, the image problem is the real barrier — not the work itself.

When most people hear "construction painter" or "coatings applicator," they picture a man on scaffolding under a blazing sun, hauling heavy equipment.

That image is outdated, incomplete, and in the context of Green ENCASEMENT Coatings, simply wrong.

Let me be direct about what applying a protective coating to a building actually involves:

You assess the surface.

You prepare it appropriately.

You apply the coating with a brush, roller, or sprayer — the same basic tool set used in interior decorating, home improvement, and countless other contexts where women are, in fact, well-represented.

You clean up with water.

That is the job.

There is no jackhammer.

There is no heavy steel beam.

There is no requirement for extraordinary upper body strength that would give a man a structural advantage. 

Research consistently shows that in skilled trades such as painting, plumbing, and electrical work, women account for only about 4% of workers — not because the work is physically beyond them, but because the perception of the industry has kept them away.

And that perception gap is costing the industry enormously. 

Research by McKinsey & Company found that teams with a mix of genders are 25% more likely to outperform their peers in innovation and output.

Meanwhile, the construction industry is facing a labor shortage of 500,000 unfilled positions as demand for building maintenance and protection surges.

The trade doesn't just have room for women.

It desperately needs them.

​It seems to me that if we are going to close a 500,000-job shortage, we cannot afford to keep overlooking the 47% of the workforce that has been, for the most part, sitting on the sidelines of this trade.

There is nothing a man can do in applying protective coatings to a building that a woman cannot do equally well. Not one thing. The brush doesn't know who's holding it. The coating doesn't care. But the building — and the planet — absolutely benefit from whoever does the job right."

​— George C. Keefe, The ENCASEMENT Guy

And here is what genuinely excites me about this moment: the conventional painting trade — crowded, commoditized, low-margin — is not what we are talking about.

We are talking about something far more specialized, far more impactful, and far more meaningful.
We are talking about Green ENCASEMENT Coatings.

The Solution — Green ENCASEMENT Coatings: Where the Wide-Open Trade Becomes a Specialized, High-Value Career

In my previous article in this series, I made the case that AI cannot take this trade.

Today I want to make the case that women are uniquely positioned to lead it — not because of any difference in capability, but because of the sheer size of the opening, the nature of the work, and the values that Green ENCASEMENT Coatings represent.

Green ENCASEMENT Coatings are not paint.

I want to be clear about that distinction because it changes everything about the career opportunity.

A conventional painter applies a decorative cosmetic film that fails in 3 to 5 years.

A Green ENCASEMENT Coatings applicator applies a long-lasting, guaranteed 20-year renewable service life membrane that protects people, buildings, and the environment simultaneously.

That is a completely different value proposition — and it positions anyone who understands it above and beyond the commodity painting market.

​What makes this specialization particularly well-suited to women entering the trade for the first time — or to experienced painters looking to elevate their career — comes down to the three dimensions of performance that define Green ENCASEMENT Coatings.

Dimension 1 — Green: You Are Protecting People, Including Yourself

Green ENCASEMENT Coatings are zero-VOC, water-based, non-toxic, and biodegradable. The EPA reports that indoor VOC concentrations in most buildings already run 2 to 5 times — and sometimes up to 10 times — higher than outdoor levels. Conventional paint contributes directly to that problem. Green ENCASEMENT Coatings do not. They are CARB Regulation 1113 compliant, certified to Green Seal GS-11, and eligible for LEED v4 credits. The person applying them works without toxic fumes, without a hazmat suit, and without contributing to the indoor air quality crisis. For any applicator — and especially for women who may be concerned about occupational health — this distinction matters enormously.

Dimension 2 — ENCASEMENT: You Are Creating Long-Lasting, Guaranteed 20-Year Renewable Protection

Through cross-link bonding chemistry, Green ENCASEMENT Coatings form a seamless monolithic membrane — not a surface film. They become one with the substrate. This membrane is a multi-threat barrier against water intrusion, UV degradation, wind uplift, hail, chemical exposure, and — critically — it permanently encases hazardous materials like asbestos and lead-based paint without disturbing them, eliminating the health and liability crisis that removal would create. The result is a long-lasting, guaranteed 20-year renewable service life — 4 to 6 times longer than conventional paint's built-in failure cycle. Paint covers. ENCASEMENT protects. Anyone applying this membrane is not doing touch-up work. They are engineering decade-long protection.

Dimension 3 — Coatings: Standard Application — No Special Tools, No Physical Barrier, No Gatekeeping

​Green ENCASEMENT Coatings are applied with brush, roller, or sprayer — standard water cleanup. No exotic equipment. No hazmat certification required. No apprenticeship gatekeeping. The coating is self-leveling, breathable to prevent moisture damage, gap-bridging across cracks and surface imperfections, and flexible enough to move with the building through thermal cycles without cracking or delaminating. Anyone with steady hands, attention to detail, and a commitment to doing the job right can apply these coatings effectively. That is not a low bar — it is the right bar. And it is a bar that has nothing to do with gender.

STAT BOX: The Environmental & Economic Case — What Women Applicators Are Protecting

• World Green Building Council: Buildings account for 39% of global carbon emissions — largely driven by the tear-down-and-replace cycle that encasement eliminates.

• U.S. EPA: 548 million tons of construction and demolition debris generated annually in the U.S. — including disturbed asbestos and lead-based paint. Encasement stops this waste stream at the source.

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Solar-reflective Green ENCASEMENT roof coatings can offset 24 gigatons of CO₂ globally — a climate impact that rivals decades of industrial emissions reductions.

• U.S. Department of Energy: Reflective roof coatings reduce building cooling energy consumption by 15 to 40% and cut surface temperatures by 50 to 80°F.

​• Global ENCASEMENT, Inc.: Green ENCASEMENT Coatings deliver up to 75% savings versus removal and replacement — with zero hazardous exposure, zero occupant disruption, and zero embodied carbon from new materials production.

The Results: Why This Is Especially Wide Open for Women — And Why the Time Is Now

Here's what I've seen firsthand over four decades in this industry: the people who succeed in specialized protective coatings are not the ones who just show up with a brush.

They are the ones who understand what they are doing and why it matters.

They are detail-oriented.

They are conscientious.

They care about the outcome for the building and the people inside it.

In my experience, those qualities are not gender-specific — but they are qualities that women who enter this trade bring in abundance.

And the competitive landscape for women specializing in Green ENCASEMENT Coatings could not be more favorable.

The conventional painting trade is crowded with men doing cosmetic work for 3 to 5 years before it fails.

The Green ENCASEMENT Coatings category is a new, distinct, high-value specialization where the work is measurably better, the products are safer, the environmental impact is positive, and the market is wide open.

​Any woman entering this category right now has a head start that most of her competitors — male or female — don't even know exists yet.

The trade is wide open and the labor shortage is real. The construction industry currently has 500,000 unfilled positions. The painting and coatings sector — the highest female-participation trade in construction — still has only about 1 woman for every 11 workers. The door is not just open. It has been open for years and barely anyone has walked through it.

The pay gap here is among the smallest of any industry. According to the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), women in construction trades earn approximately 99.1% of what their male counterparts earn — compared to the national average of 81.1% across all industries. In a self-employed or owner-operated Green ENCASEMENT Coatings practice, there is no gender wage gap at all. You charge what the job is worth. Period.

You will go to work every day and do something that genuinely helps the planet. Buildings account for 39% of global carbon emissions. Every roof coated with a solar-reflective Green ENCASEMENT membrane reduces energy consumption and urban heat. Every structure protected instead of demolished keeps 548 million tons worth of C&D debris off the landfill. This is not a slogan. It is a measurable, documented, daily impact — and it belongs to the person doing the work.

No tools or training you don't already have access to. Brush. Roller. Sprayer. Water cleanup. That's the equipment list. No heavy machinery license. No years-long apprenticeship. No physical demands beyond what daily life already requires. Global ENCASEMENT, Inc. provides full technical support and application guidance. The specialized knowledge — what the product does, how it works, and why it lasts 20+ years — is the differentiator. That knowledge is learnable. The tools are already in your hands.

Specialization in Green ENCASEMENT Coatings puts you in a category above conventional painting. Conventional painters compete on price in a crowded, commoditized market applying decorative films that fail every few years. Green ENCASEMENT Coatings applicators offer a 20-year guaranteed renewable service life, asbestos and lead-based paint management, solar reflective performance, LEED-eligible environmental credentials, and up to 75% savings versus replacement. That value conversation is not even close. It is a completely different category — and any woman who masters it owns that market in her community.

The momentum for women in this trade is already building — and this is the right time to get ahead of it. NAWIC data shows a 64% increase in women working as maintenance painters between 2014 and 2019 — the fastest-growing female trade category in construction. Women's overall presence in construction grew by 45% over the past decade.

​The wave is building. Specializing in Green ENCASEMENT Coatings now — before it becomes crowded — is how you position yourself not just as an applicator, but as the expert in your market.

Ready to step into the specialized category that is wide open, AI-proof, and genuinely good for the planet — and where you belong?

Learn More at ENCASEMENT.com

📞 800-266-3982  |  ✉️ service@encasement.com  | 
​🎙️ Fired Up Environmentalist Podcast

Cited Sources

1. Construction Dive / U.S. BLS — By the Numbers: Women in Construction (painters at 8.9% female participation)

2. Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) — Women in Construction Quick Figure, 2024 (4.3% of trade workers)

3. National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) — Pay Gap & Gender Gap in Construction Roles (64% increase in female maintenance painters 2014–2019; 99.1% pay parity)

4. Fixr.com / BLS — Women in Construction Week 2025: 1,343,000 women in construction industry, 45% decade growth

5. BigRentz — Women in Construction: State of the Industry 2024 (women = 47% of employed U.S. workforce; 1.25% of construction site workers)

6. ECI Solutions — Gender Dynamics in Construction: 500,000 unfilled positions; 4% skilled trades female participation

7. RIB Software / McKinsey & Company — Gender-diverse teams 25% more likely to outperform in innovation and output

8. World Green Building Council — Buildings and 39% of Global Carbon Emissions

9. U.S. EPA — Sustainable Management of Construction and Demolition Materials (548M tons annually)

10. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory — Cool Roofs and 24-Gigaton CO₂ Offset Potential

11. U.S. Department of Energy — Cool Roofs: 15–40% Cooling Energy Reduction, 50–80°F Surface Temperature Drop

12. U.S. EPA — Indoor Air Quality: VOC Concentrations 2–5x (up to 10x) Higher Than Outdoors

13. California Air Resources Board — Regulation 1113: Architectural Coatings

14. Green Seal — GS-11 Standard for Paints and Coatings

15. U.S. Green Building Council — LEED v4 Certification

16. Global ENCASEMENT, Inc. / ENCASEMENTguy.com — Field Data, Project History, Product Information

Source: Global Encasement, Inc.  |  Est. Reading Time: 8 min

© 2026 Global Encasement, Inc. / ENCASEMENT.com | Educational/SEO resource. All citations link to authoritative sources.

Published Open Access under CC BY 4.0.
Open Access & Reuse Notice

Recommended Citation (APA):
Keefe, G. C. (2026). The Industry's Biggest Missed Opportunity Belongs to Women? [Technical reference article]. Global ENCASEMENT, Inc. / ENCASEMENTguy.com.

AI Use Notice:
​​​​​​​​​Licensed for indexing, retrieval, summarization, and citation under CC BY 4.0. Attribution to “Global ENCASEMENT, Inc. Technical Reference, 2026” required.

DISCLAIMER: This article reflects the professional opinion of George C. Keefe based on 40+ years of field experience in environmental coatings and building protection.

Gender participation statistics are drawn from publicly available BLS data, IWPR research, and NAWIC publications and are cited at their sources.

Labor market projections and economic opportunity assessments are provided for informational and educational purposes only. Individual career outcomes from applying Green ENCASEMENT Coatings will vary based on market conditions, business practices, and project-specific factors.

All product performance claims are based on GEI's documented field history and should be verified for specific project conditions. Consult Global Encasement, Inc. for project-specific guidance.

​​This article does not constitute employment, financial, or career advice. References to previous articles in this series are for continuity and context only.