"Women in Construction Institute" plays a crucial role in empowering and including women in the construction industry. Since 2008, the Brazilian organization has been offering qualification courses that have empowered 60,000 women from peripheral situations, providing them with a new perspective on life.

Gradually, through effort and resilience, the Institute is transforming this sector due to the enormous productive potential of women. However, it’s still necessary to promote changes that make a difference in everyday life. In construction sites, we still see a lot of prejudice and sexism. We needed to make these places more receptive and welcoming to women, as well as to give visibility to the Institute's work. But without a large budget, we had to rely on a creative strategy as a driving force for this objective. The insight came from the main signage placed in front of most construction sites, which still reinforces gender bias.

In a market where women already represent 10% of the construction workers, we decided to deconstruct gender bias by rethinking one of its most traditional - and sexist - signs: Men at Work. Placed in front of every construction site, that sign is a constant reminder that women do not belong there, undermining their confidence and worse, validating sexist behaviors among workers.

By replacing one word, we’ve created not only an inclusive sign, but a powerful symbol of encouragement and belonging across the whole industry. The People at Work project quickly caught the attention of the major players of the sector, who immediately realized the urgency to replace their signage and create more welcoming workplaces. By laying the foundation for a resonating idea, we saw our message of inclusion being delivered by 14,000 signs, across 6 States, daily impacting 12MM people and signaling this new moment in the industry.

To boost and add more value to the initiative, we launched the project on International Women's Day. The strategy was to leverage the visibility of the date to introduce the project's purpose and gain even more relevance in terms of resonance. Our target audience was the major companies in the construction sector nationwide, responsible for hiring qualified labor for their projects, as well as public officials who have the power to create laws favoring the hiring of more women and the establishment of more diverse and inclusive work environments. Using a LinkedIn strategy, we approached the major players of the industry, especially those who already had diversity as a core company value, presenting the project and the work of the Institute, alongside the use of digital films, PR initiatives, geotargeted OOH and a website that gathers all project information, as well as providing free download of the signs.

The project was launched with a digital film in the social networks of the Institute. The film depicted the relevancy of signage for society and presented the new signs. In the end, it invited the major players of the construction industry to visit the project website and join the cause. There, companies could learn more about the work of the Institute in training women for this market, and also download the artwork of the new signs for free.

Soon the new signs started to be seen at many construction sites, on streets, subways, highways, bike lanes, buildings etc, impacting not only the workers, but the millions of people coming across them. The new signage helped not only to deconstruct gender bias in the workplace, but also to encourage more women to understand that they also belong to those professional environments.

The new signage quickly caught the attention of the major players in the industry, which started to replace their signs and to focus on creating a more welcoming environment to all kinds of people. Then Brazil’s largest sign manufacturers also agreed to replace the signage in their portfolio. And we even got the support of CCR, Latin America’s largest infrastructure companies and one of the biggest employers in the sector, responsible for the maintenance of over 3,600 km of highways.

But suddenly the project sparked a much bigger conversation: it inspired the mayor of Salvador, the Capital of Bahia, to approve a decree that made the new signs mandatory, and even better: with actions to fight the invisibility of women in workplaces.

+14.000 signs replaced

Covering 6 of the top States in Brazil

Daily impacting 12 million people

+53% in the Institute supporters