While the world is shaken by change, one thing remains stable – men continue to dominate Lithuania’s construction sector. According to the State Data Agency, women make up only 12% of employees in the industry. Nevertheless, women are successfully finding their place in construction, choosing not physical work but positions requiring higher qualifications and competencies: they work as bridge, road and railway engineers, construction project managers and coordinators, IT specialists, and contribute to some of Lithuania’s most important infrastructure projects.

According to the agency’s data, 89,900 men and 12,800 women work full-time or part-time in Lithuania’s construction sector. Similar trends have persisted for many years.

“The construction sector today is very diverse – it requires not only technical or physical skills but also project management, finance and IT competencies. We notice that women often choose exactly these fields and work successfully in them. For example, they participate in recruitment processes for project manager, coordinator, finance specialist, IT specialist or engineering positions and thus find their place in the construction sector,” says Vita Baranauskienė, Head of Human Resources at Fegda grupė.

Currently, 101 women work within the group’s companies. In recent years, the number of female employees has increased by 2%.

“We encourage women to pursue careers in the construction sector, because every field benefits from having both women and men. In addition, there is a major shortage of engineers in Lithuania’s labor market, and the number of women engineers is gradually increasing. The change may not seem large, but the result is encouraging for us,” Baranauskienė notes.

On the eve of March 8, young engineer Gustė Stonytė from the design company SRP projektas and project coordinator Lina Pikūnė from the Alytus road and bridge construction company Alkesta shared their experiences of what attracts women to careers in the construction sector and what gender stereotypes they still encounter in everyday life.

Achievements not only in a career but also in motorsport

Gustė Stonytė, who is currently studying road and railway engineering at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VILNIUS TECH), has been working at SRP projektas for a year. Successfully balancing work and studies, the young engineer has already contributed to several important infrastructure projects together with her team. One of the most recent is the reconstruction of national road No. 119 Molėtai–Anykščiai.

The skills she developed during her studies—particularly teamwork—as well as the shortage of specialists in the labor market helped her integrate smoothly into professional life. Currently, only three women and eight men study road and railway engineering alongside her.

“Our group is very small, so there is a strong sense of solidarity among both the guys and the girls. The days of extreme competition are over. On the contrary, we focus a lot on collaboration, learning to work in teams and strengthening communication skills – the so-called soft skills that today are no less important than technical knowledge,” she says.

Stonytė also develops skills relevant to her profession outside the university. As soon as she turned eighteen, the motorsport enthusiast obtained her driving license and has been actively participating in automobile slalom competitions for three years. During this time, she has achieved more than 30 victories, and last year she placed second in the annual standings of competitions organized by the women’s team “Trys su puse vožtuvo”.

“In the future I plan to test my skills in the Slalom Championship organized by the Lithuanian Automobile Sports Federation,” she shares. For now, however, she continues to compete in races – the next one is scheduled for March 11 in Šakiai, where she will compete with the “Trys su puse vožtuvo” women’s team.

Curiosity for technology since childhood

Stonytė says she noticed early on that she was drawn to activities requiring engineering thinking and technical skills.

“I told my parents already in the tenth grade that after finishing school I would repair cars. Eventually I chose another ‘male-dominated’ profession – road and railway engineering. My mother is simply happy that I decided to go to university,” she laughs, adding that she has no doubt she made the right choice.

Although her love for cars did not turn into a career, an active lifestyle, competitions and sports have always remained an important part of her life.

“At school I played handball, which stereotypically is not considered the most feminine sport either, but it perfectly balances competitiveness, intensity and feminine grace,” she says.

Asked how she understands femininity, she replies:
“For me, a strong and feminine woman is someone who lives according to herself and does what is best for her.”

This description also fits Lina Pikūnė, project coordinator at the road and bridge construction company Alkesta. Growing up in a family of social field professionals, she was encouraged by relatives to choose a completely different career, but ultimately decided to follow her heart and pursue engineering.

“At first my relatives reacted rather skeptically – something like, where will a woman go walking around construction sites in rubber boots? Now they admit they were wrong. Still, similar attitudes can sometimes be heard in society – that female engineers cannot know much about roads or asphalt,” Pikūnė says.

“Sometimes we joke that the construction sector is full of women”

After completing a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering and later a master’s degree in law, Lina discovered her true calling in road engineering.

“This will be my profession until the end,” she says confidently.

Living in Alytus, Pikūnė has worked on major infrastructure projects in Lithuania, including the reconstruction of the Via Baltica and construction works on the A14 highway.

“I work with technical documentation, construction completion procedures and various project documents,” she explains.

Although women remain a minority in the construction sector, Pikūnė notes that their numbers are gradually increasing every year.

“Four years ago there were far fewer women in our department. Sometimes we even joke that now the construction sector is full of women,” she says.