Building Women's Careers Program

Big ideas. Real action. The Building Women’s Careers Program is driving structural and cultural change across Australia.

We’re funding bold, inclusive projects that support women and benefit everyone.

The story behind Building Women’s Careers

The Building Women’s Careers (BWC) Program is funding large-scale partnership projects and smaller, place-based partnerships across Australia.

The BWC Program aims to drive structural and cultural change to improve women’s access to flexible, safe and inclusive training and work opportunities in male-dominated industries.

Focus industries include construction, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and digital and technology.

How are projects delivered?

The Building Women’s Careers Program invests $54.5 million in grant funding to support partnership projects led by a range of groups with direct impact on focus industries, including:

industry representatives
employers
registered unions
training organisations
community organisations.

By combining Commonwealth funding with local delivery, projects can make a genuine impact on the ground at a community level.

Project partnerships were selected in March 2025 through a grant application process; partnership arrangements continue to change and grow to reflect project needs and developments. Ongoing support is provided by the department to ensure projects are successfully implemented, and lessons learned and new practices shared so the improvements achieved are sustainable beyond the life of the program itself.

How does the BWC Program benefit Australians?

The Australian Government is committed to advancing gender equality as a national priority.

Industry and community-led partnership projects aim to break down barriers and encourage women to join, remain and advance in focus industries. The projects will also build skills and training and help address workforce shortages in focus industries.

The suite of Building Women’s Careers projects range from allyship programs that encourage industry-wide male advocacy for women, promoting recruitment of women in focus industries, to rolling out flexible workplace policies that benefit all employees.