Welcome to the Broad Experience, the show about women, the workplace and success.

I'm Ashley Milthight. This time on the show, a lot of women steal themselves when they walk past construction sites.

We're waiting for the wolf whistle or crude comment that often follows us down the street.

So what's it like working with those men?

In fact, managing them.

The first thing they see is that I'm a woman,

and the second thing is,

am I going to sell them out or throw them under the bus when something goes wrong?

And it's really important for me

to get them to understand that, no,

as long as you're being honest with me,

there's no reason for that.

Coming up.

Construction jobs pay well, but few women do them.

In the U.S., women hold 9% of construction industry jobs,

but that figure includes positions from administrative assistant to executive.

The percentage of women who spend their days shoveling, hammering or drilling is even smaller.

The same goes for the UK.

Renee Mercado is a field inspector for a utility company in Chicago.

She's worked in construction in one form or another for about 18 years.

She started off as a painter's assistant.

Today, on this job, she's overseeing the aftermath of a large pipe installation. Workers are filling in a

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