Contribution of women managers towards construction industry development: Methodological perspectives Menaha Shanmugam, Research Institute for the Built and Human Environment, University of Salford (email: m.shanmugam@pgr.salford.ac.uk ) Dilanthi Amaratunga, Research Institute for the Built and Human Environment, University of Salford (email: r.d.g.amaratunga@salford.ac.uk ) Richard Haigh, Research Institute for the Built and Human Environment, University of Salford (email: r.p.haigh@salford.ac.uk ) Abstract This paper endeavours to explain the methodology for researching the contribution of women managers to the construction industry development. The research is concerned with gender segregation in the industry and its impact on skills shortages. It further identifies how an increased number of women managers in the construction industry will help to change the gender segregation pattern and how this may contribute to the development of the industry by resolving the problems within it. This paper therefore mainly focuses on the research methodology that has been adopted in this research. Justifications are made for the most appropriate choice of methodology in terms of its philosophy, strategy and techniques. This paper further elaborates the chosen methodology, by explaining the data collection and analysis techniques, the research design and the design tests. Keywords: Research philosophy, Research strategy, Research techniques, Research design, Research tactics. 1. Introduction A research, in simple terms, is defined as something that people undertake in order to find out things in a systematic way, thereby increasing their knowledge [1, p.3]. The overall research process contains several activities such as topic selection, literature review, scoping, choice of research methodology, data collection, data analysis, provide findings and drawing conclusions. The appropriate selection of research methodology is very important in order to achieve valid and reliable findings. Thus, the choice of methodology plays a vital role in the overall research process. This paper endeavours to justify and explain the methodology for researching the contribution of women managers towards the construction industry development. The first section provides the overview of the study within which the background, research problem, aim, and research questions are briefly discussed. The next section justifies the selection of 1788