By the numbers | More women take on leadership roles in construction industry
The number of women employed in the construction industry continues to increase, according to a recent study.
According to the Construction Coverage 2026 edition of Cities with the Most Women in Construction, the Cape Coral and Fort Myers metro ranked No. 4 among the 100 major U.S. metros with women making up 14.6% of construction employees, compared to the national average of 11.7%. The report said that prior to 2016, approximately 9% of the construction workforce was women.
The report also stated that the median earnings for full-time workers in the construction industry in this area is $50,569, compared to the median earnings of $60,419 for full-time workers for the entire United States.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that women make up 81.4% of the construction industry’s office and administrative roles
With Women in Construction Week concluding Saturday, Women in Southwest Florida confirm an increase in women working out in the field.
Ivette Galarza, with FCC Services (Ferrer’s Custom Carpentry Services), said when she got licensed, only 8% of general contractors were female.
“While I am sure it has increased in the last eight years, it’s still not significantly comparable to males in the industry,” Galarza said. “I love my male counterparts. I would not trade them out for anything in the world.”
“I encourage women to really start looking more into this industry,” Galarza added. “I feel like some of us are really shaping it in a way that it hasn’t looked like in a sometime. I encourage women to get involved.”
She said when she first started it was rare to walk into a job site to see women doing the work. Now there are full drywall teams of women.
“There is a difference in some of the finished products. There is a touch that we bring to the table,” Galarza said. “The industry at this point with more females coming to the table – it’s an element of wholeness of all of us coming to the table.”
As a woman in the field, Blossom Construction SWFL Owner Nathalie Monfiston said she brings compassion to the job, as she went through the process as a 19-year-old with a child.
“I am a strong believer that your home is a sanctuary,” she said.
To be a part of the group, Southwest Florida Women in Construction, Monfiston said is wonderful as she has the support of strong women who are in the same line of work.
“You have a reference point. They created a space that provides comfort to have dialogue,” she said, adding that it is valuable to have connection with strong key leaders and subject matter experts. We “choose to show up and support each other. We like to lead with a lot of information. It’s amazing to share and pick each other’s brains.”
It’s still not an easy path.
“We still face our challenges,” Annette Carrasquillo, chief financial officer and human resource manager with LAI Construction Management said, as the industry still remains male dominated in terms of employment. “We have a lot of really strong women in the industry. They need to be held up. They need to be recognized because they work hard.”
Carrasquillo said it’s about helping and mentoring each other.
“When I hire a female in our office, maybe fresh out of high school, a couple years out of college, (I become a) leader and I guide them and show them what they can do, what is possible, so they can achieve them,” she said of setting goals.
Galarza has a master’s degree in clinical social work and worked in the nonprofit industry for many years. She pursued organizational leadership on a micro and macro level.
“About eight years ago I got licensed as a contractor,” Galarza said.
She said the goal was to change the trajectory of how her family saw wealth. Galarza said they were doing as much as they could with the licenses they had before she decided to join forces with her cousins.
“We built a company, a multi-million-dollar company with lots of backgrounds and passions coming together,” Galarza said.
She recalled watching her mom at an early age fight for the housing needs for folks that could not do it for themselves, which led to her desire to continue that battle.
Galarza began a nonprofit Her Homes, which will eventually built houses for kids that age out of the foster care system.
After Hurricane Ian, their business catapulted, and now is the structure and strength.
“The nonprofit was left on the shelf because of lack of time really,” she said. “It is the five-year plan to bring that dream into fruition. From the beginning when I went into the business, I knew I would want to create a for profit business that would eventually be able to fund work that we did in the nonprofit,” Galarza said.
With almost 30 years in the nonprofit realm, she said a lot of work was funded by government grants – federal, local and county funding streams, which left them always dependent on someone else.
“There is a lot of bureaucracy attached to any dollars that come from state or federal funding,” she said, adding that she knows what needs to happen. “There’s no better structure – let’s build a for profit business that contributes to the nonprofit. That was the thought behind it. We have been busy within our for-profit business.”
Galarza began working with FCC Services, a family owned and operated business with her cousins. The first eight years they had an office and showroom in the Gateway area before transitioning to the foot of the Fort Myers Beach bridge.
“We’ve done a lot of work on Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach. The universe had it for us to move there at this point,” she said.
One of their larger clients is the Estero Beach and Tennis Club, as they remodeled at least 50 units there.
“At the same time, we were actually working on one of the largest projects we had ever been on thus far. We categorize that as our heart project of the decade,” Galarza said of the nonprofit Our Mothers Home. “I am the contractor that did that new building.”
The work was a major undertaking as it was a 7,000-square-foot building that sat vacant for at least seven years. The space was transformed from a dentist office to a home for girls.
“Every challenge that you could imagine, we encountered. It was disastrous. That is our heart project of the decade right now,” Galarza said.
Monfiston said she became involved in the construction space in 2014 before starting her own company in 2023 after she became licensed.
She said when a builder raised the price of a home by $40,000 after Hurricane Ian, she said enough was enough.
“I sat for my test and took it so I could control the outcomes for my customers,” she said.
Monfiston bought her first house when she was 19 and learned lessons along the way.
The name of her business, Blossom Construction, stems from a story of growth.
“Every person that moves into their house is blossoming in their life,” Monfiston said, adding that the word blossom has always been significant. “Something has changed, evolved and grown. There is a significance behind it. We are blossoming – everything we touch, we want it to blossom. looking more into this industry,” Galarza added. “I feel like some of us are really shaping it in a way that it hasn’t looked like in a sometime. I encourage women to get involved.”
She said when she first started it was rare to walk into a job site to see women doing the work. Now there are full drywall teams of women.
“There is a difference in some of the finished products. There is a touch that we bring to the table,” Galarza said. “The industry at this point with more females coming to the table – it’s an element of wholeness of all of us coming to the table.”
As a woman in the field, Blossom Construction SWFL Owner Nathalie Monfiston said she brings compassion to the job, as she went through the process as a 19-year-old with a child.
“I am a strong believer that your home is a sanctuary,” she said.
To be a part of the group, Southwest Florida Women in Construction, Monfiston said is wonderful as she has the support of strong women who are in the same line of work.
“You have a reference point. They created a space that provides comfort to have dialogue,” she said, adding that it is valuable to have connection with strong key leaders and subject matter experts. We “choose to show up and support each other. We like to lead with a lot of information. It’s amazing to share and pick each other’s brains.”
It’s still not an easy path.
“We still face our challenges,” Annette Carrasquillo, chief financial officer and human resource manager with LAI Construction Management said, as the industry still remains male dominated in terms of employment. “We have a lot of really strong women in the industry. They need to be held up. They need to be recognized because they work hard.”
Carrasquillo said it’s about helping and mentoring each other.
“When I hire a female in our office, maybe fresh out of high school, a couple years out of college, (I become a) leader and I guide them and show them what they can do, what is possible, so they can achieve them,” she said of setting goals.
Galarza has a master’s degree in clinical social work and worked in the nonprofit industry for many years. She pursued organizational leadership on a micro and macro level.
“About eight years ago I got licensed as a contractor,” Galarza said.
She said the goal was to change the trajectory of how her family saw wealth. Galarza said they were doing as much as they could with the licenses they had before she decided to join forces with her cousins.
“We built a company, a multi-million-dollar company with lots of backgrounds and passions coming together,” Galarza said.
She recalled watching her mom at an early age fight for the housing needs for folks that could not do it for themselves, which led to her desire to continue that battle.
Galarza began a nonprofit Her Homes, which will eventually built houses for kids that age out of the foster care system.
After Hurricane Ian, their business catapulted, and now is the structure and strength.
“The nonprofit was left on the shelf because of lack of time really,” she said. “It is the five-year plan to bring that dream into fruition. From the beginning when I went into the business, I knew I would want to create a for profit business that would eventually be able to fund work that we did in the nonprofit,” Galarza said.
With almost 30 years in the nonprofit realm, she said a lot of work was funded by government grants – federal, local and county funding streams, which left them always dependent on someone else.
“There is a lot of bureaucracy attached to any dollars that come from state or federal funding,” she said, adding that she knows what needs to happen. “There’s no better structure – let’s build a for profit business that contributes to the nonprofit. That was the thought behind it. We have been busy within our for-profit business.”
Galarza began working with FCC Services, a family owned and operated business with her cousins. The first eight years they had an office and showroom in the Gateway area before transitioning to the foot of the Fort Myers Beach bridge.
“We’ve done a lot of work on Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach. The universe had it for us to move there at this point,” she said.
One of their larger clients is the Estero Beach and Tennis Club, as they remodeled at least 50 units there.
“At the same time, we were actually working on one of the largest projects we had ever been on thus far. We categorize that as our heart project of the decade,” Galarza said of the nonprofit Our Mothers Home. “I am the contractor that did that new building.”
The work was a major undertaking as it was a 7,000-square-foot building that sat vacant for at least seven years. The space was transformed from a dentist office to a home for girls.
“Every challenge that you could imagine, we encountered. It was disastrous. That is our heart project of the decade right now,” Galarza said.
Monfiston said she became involved in the construction space in 2014 before starting her own company in 2023 after she became licensed.
She said when a builder raised the price of a home by $40,000 after Hurricane Ian, she said enough was enough.
“I sat for my test and took it so I could control the outcomes for my customers,” she said.
Monfiston bought her first house when she was 19 and learned lessons along the way.
The name of her business, Blossom Construction, stems from a story of growth.
“Every person that moves into their house is blossoming in their life,” Monfiston said, adding that the word blossom has always been significant. “Something has changed, evolved and grown. There is a significance behind it. We are blossoming – everything we touch, we want it to blossom. We are planting a seed that will grow into something amazing.”
A great deal of focus for her company is affordable housing. They are based in Babcock Ranch.
When she brought new builders to the program to build affordable housing, she would get them to do a handful of houses, as they wanted to control their cost.
“Anything affordable that we can partner and help with,” she said is their focus. “We are trying to figure something out with Habitat for Humanity. We are always looking for opportunities to help in areas that are not as sexy.”
Monfiston said when contractors hear affordable and low-income they think of the end user and understand the cost associated with that.
“Your margins are not as high – there is still money to be made from a business standpoint. The do good, is the feel good. Getting them through the process – that for me is key,” she said. “Sometimes with affordability it is a harder process – coming into a space where a person is usually told no way.”
Monfiston said she is working on a special project to try to bring an affordable community to the area with an all-women construction team bringing the development to life.
Monfiston said to be a little glimmer of someone’s process of getting into a home is the amazing part of what she does.
“That is the thing that keeps you up and wakes you up to do it again. The result is always positive,” she said. “The experience is almost like I am healing a version of myself — that girl who went to Home Depot.”
Carrasquillo began in the construction industry in the early ’80s when she answered an ad and began working with a residential builder.
Her first job in the ’80s was a receptionist before she became self-taught by working with field superintendents that taught her about building a home and how commercial construction worked.
“I have had a lot of really good mentors over the years (that were) able to broaden what I can do,” Carrasquillo said.
She changed from residential to commercial when the market took a turn.
“I changed during the downturn when the market crashed. An opportunity presented itself with a commercial company in Fort Myers. I was working under the owner of our com-pany today,” Carrasquillo said, adding that when they both got laid off, he formed his own company and she began working with him.
She has been with LAI Construction Management for 13 years.
Carrasquillo is a commercial general contractor.
“The owner of the construction company has a design engineering company. I started with him 16 years ago and then created the construction company,” she said.
The company, which she said is small, does a lot of charter schools, office remodels and renovations.
“The residential industry has gotten so complicated with all that is available with homeowners. I feel like the commercial sector is a little more streamlined in that respect,” Carrasquillo said.
The company does builds across the state of Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and is now going into Georgia.
LAI Construction Management has a lot of repeat clients.
“It makes the process a little more streamlined. You get to know the clients, their needs, what they expect and want,” she said. “A lot of clients that we build a school for in one city want to build a school in another city.”
Carrasquillo said any sector in the industry runs its challenges from pricing to labor.
“Labor is probably the biggest challenge whether in residential or commercial. We need to get the younger generation back involved in construction. They can make really good money,” she said.