I had the benefit of two great mentors and managers who guided, supported and challenged me as I pursued my construction career. I gained invaluable experience, pursued further education and became a Member of the Chartered Institute of Building. From that point on, my career took off and for the last 15 years of my life, I’ve been working on building sites.

For the most part, I’ve been fortunate as a woman in a male-dominated industry and early on did not really see the issues related to gender discrimination. It made no difference that I was a woman, and if people treated me in an unfair way, I tackled it square on, but never felt it held me back or was part of a wider problem.

However, as my experiences broadened, and with more time on different projects and with varied teams, I began to see what others had accounted. At times, people devalue women’s roles, and this has motivated me to more proactively advocate for women working in construction.

For me, and for others, the challenge now is to provide inspiration to those following in our footsteps. What can you do to be an advocate? Here is my top advice:

See the whole person. The times I’ve felt most supported are those in which I’m treated and managed based on my expertise and performance. Managers in the construction industry should not treat their employees differently because they are women, but do what a skilled manager does and build on their strengths, figure out what motivates them and help them work on areas of development.

Face the facts. Acknowledge the challenges women face and be an advocate. When struggling to get the response I needed to progress a workflow from a client representative, I reached out to my manager and asked him what I was doing wrong. He analysed my work and concluded there was nothing amiss. He then met with me and the client representative, reiterating my position and authority. While it’s frustrating this was needed in the first place, a professional and diplomatic discussion can be a real game changer. (The client in this scenario requested I work on a further project with him based on the quality of my work.)

Be a mentor. Women working in construction need mentors and inspirational leaders as much as anyone else, and while it would be brilliant if those role models were also women, this doesn’t have to be the case. I would urge ALL leaders and managers to be role models regardless of gender. It’s helpful to meet other people who’ve been successful in our same roles to provide inspiration for the future. Having role models is important, the right ones even more so.

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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As I came to know WTS, I found that WTS focuses on the advancement of women, celebrating the strength we bring to the industry, and that this is done with support from both women AND men, and the industry as a whole. I subsequently joined the board of directors and now serve as the vice president of the Greater Chicago Chapter.

I’m proud to say that the Illinois Transportation Secretary is a strong WTS advocate and our ArchTam management also encourages employees who are members to attend local events, WTS-sponsored conferences and leadership training to further their professional development.

Some of the great benefits of WTS are the connections and community the organization provides. I’ve worked out of a client’s office for nearly 18 years and my exposure to a network outside of my small roadway group is limited. WTS provides a way to connect, not only with engineers in transportation, but also with urban planners and colleagues in other industries.

Those who join WTS find it extremely valuable for their careers and professional lives, and for building community within the transportation sector. To get an idea of who we are, these are some of my ArchTam colleagues and members of WTS:

Kim Jarosz

Being an active member of WTS has played an integral role in shaping me professionally. Fresh out of college, I was pretty overwhelmed in a field as expansive as civil engineering, let alone a male-dominated field. WTS gave me a support system and mentorship, as well as provided access to not only industry experts, but also women in various leadership roles throughout Chicago. Today, I’m glad to call many of these women my friends. It’s amazing to see what we can accomplish when we all come together as one.

Irma Romiti-Johnson

I’ve worked for ArchTam as a documentation engineer for roadway construction projects for 10 years. I joined WTS in 2017, primarily for the camaraderie of professional women in transportation. As an organization, WTS has the unique goal of connecting, sustaining and advancing the careers of women in order to strengthen our industry.

I currently serve as a Partnership Committee co-chair for the WTS Greater Chicago Chapter. I was interested in this role to maintain and hopefully increase the chapter’s partnerships with other organizations. These partnerships help our chapter provide informative programs, development seminars, networking events, mentoring programs and scholarship awards aimed at attracting, retaining and advancing women in our field. This year, we’ve succeeded in increasing our overall partnership commitments by roughly 20 percent and have established two new public agency partnerships. We certainly appreciate the continued support of all of our 2018 partners!

Julie Suprock

WTS is a little bit of a paradox: It’s a gendered organization (focused on women) that allows professionals to interact in the absence of gender expectations. An engineer is just that — an engineer. Not a female engineer, just an engineer. And the same thing goes for all of the planners, economists, financial experts, policy advisors and other transportation professionals who compose the organization.

In an industry where maleness is the norm, WTS provides an invaluable forum for women (and their male allies) to come together to network, build technical skills, support the next generation, and recognize outstanding talent and industry contributions — celebrating professionals who happen to be women.

If you’re interested in learning more and would like to become a member, visit: https://www.wtsinternational.org/members/membership-benefits

Pictured from left to right are members of WTS Greater Chicago Chapter: Irma Romiti-Johnson, Jenna Brose, Kim Jarosz and Bridget Malinowski.

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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Through the Mali ACCORD Project, implemented by ArchTam on behalf of USAID, we’re working to expand the horizons of women in rural areas of Mali through the deployment of something very simple — small diesel generators, referred to as multifunctional platforms. These platforms help reduce daily time spent on chores, providing affordable electricity for refrigeration, lighting and other appliances, as well as pumping water and grinding millet.

Using a context-specific approach, the ACCORD team was able to access traditionally isolated communities that historically have not been supportive of women’s participation in activities outside the home. The team’s strategy was unique in that they gained support from village male elders first, emphasizing the advantages villages stood to gain from the income generation that the multifunctional platforms could bring.

The project saw doors being opened that improved women’s well-being beyond freeing up their time. Providing a setting where women could come together regularly gave them the opportunity to network and discuss priorities in their communities — particularly issues related to their participation in economic and social life, the challenges they face when it comes to advocating for their needs, and the potential contributions women could make to minimize conflict.

The project also demonstrated that these women, given the right training and tools, are fully capable of managing business operations. The ACCORD team supported the training of platform management committees in financial oversight, basic literacy and numeracy, and association management, as well as helped facilitate dialogue around preventing/reducing conflict and gender-based violence.

A village community comes together around one of the multi-functional platforms. 

The women from the platform management committees, including Safarou, traveled to the city of Gao to attend an event that attracted more than 500 women leaders and organizations from across the region to highlight women’s priorities and help influence a national policy agenda. These women, the same women who’d never left their villages, traveled by boat for the very first time to speak up for themselves and share their experiences. Their presence on a national stage is the direct consequence of increased autonomy and greater self-confidence.

I’ve followed the activities supported by the Mali ACCORD Project closely and have been personally marked by the women’s courage and resiliency. The reallocation of women’s time results in greater visibility, increased access to disposable income and improved skills — all of which enable women to gain greater recognition for the work they do. I call that progress. These women are certainly pressing forward with renewed strength and hope, not only for their families, but for their communities as a whole.

I’ve worked with ArchTam’s International Development team for the past five years as a gender and social inclusion adviser, and I’ve seen the impact our projects are making in the lives of women in many corners of the world. However, the success of the Mali ACCORD Project speaks to me on a deeper level, particularly because it resonates so strongly with this year’s International Women’s Day theme #PressForProgress.

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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I’ve enjoyed this experience so much, I’m now starting my fourth year as board chair and president of the board of directors. There aren’t too many organizations out there that can keep my attention and passion around a mission like the Girl Scouts has. Especially now, with my day job is in Los Angeles and my home, and Girl Scouts commitment, in Ohio. I’m very fortunate to work for a company like ArchTam, which has encouraged me to keep the commitment I made to this organization.

When approached to get involved with the Girl Scouts, I knew I would say yes to a board role. How could I say no to an organization whose focus is building a girl’s courage, confidence and character? I’d just finished volunteering as a mentor to a 14-year-old girl through Franklin County Children Services who was being bullied at school. It was a difficult situation, and her home life was not stable. “If only she had been in Girl Scouts,” I thought to myself. She would have had the resources and support to better cope with the situation. And that’s when my journey began.

During my time with the Girl Scouts, I’ve met some amazing girls and young women who will impact the world and their communities in tremendous ways. One person who stands out in particular, who I’ve worked with more closely over the past couple of years, is Taylor. I met Taylor when she was a junior in high school. She has a passion for journalism and television and wants to be a news anchor one day. Taylor started emceeing our large fundraising events at the age of 17. She would speak like a seasoned professional to rooms filled with hundreds of people and not break a sweat. Most experienced executives I know cannot do that.

Taylor is now a sophomore in college and over the past five years, she has been recognized in a number of ways. She served on the Ohio’s Heartland Board of Directors as a student member, was selected as one of only 12 National Innovators by Girl Scouts of the USA, and has been awarded her bronze and silver awards through Girl Scouts. Within her first two years at college, she hosted shows on college radio and television stations and served as a university ambassador — welcoming prospective and new students. This coming summer, she has an internship in Spain where she’ll add international experience to her resume. All of this by the age of 20. She’s just one example of the hundreds of young women I’ve witnessed excelling at what they love and pressing for progress in their career pursuits.

Being a Girl Scout is a lot more than cookies, camping and crafts. While selling cookies is what this organization is known for, the cookie sale experience teaches girls how to be entrepreneurs and builds their business skills and confidence. Girl Scouts as a whole provides incredible opportunities to girls around the world who otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to experience them. Each member, during their scouting journey learns how to be a G.I.R.L.: Go-getter. Innovator. Risk-taker. Leader.

So, the next time you pass by a cookie booth or get asked to place an order, know that you aren’t just buying a box of cookies. You’re helping create opportunity and experience; you’re playing a part in building girls of courage, confidence and character who will be our future leaders.

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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Listed as one of the United Nations’ 17 goals to transform our world, Sustainable Development Goal Number 4 states that we must “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning opportunities.” In many places, children (girls in particular) don’t have access to education or are not encouraged to use their education to create a better future for themselves and their families.

One of the benefits of a strong Corporate Responsibility program is that it provides a platform to see where inequity exists as a real issue in our own communities. It gives us context in which to build a better world, and education has come to the forefront of our review of the issues that need to be tackled. By helping girls benefit from a good education, they’re more likely to grow into women with full contributing power and economic stability.

As part of our Australia/New Zealand Give Back program, we wanted to choose a partnership that would influence the SDG Goal 4 in our region. The Smith Family was perfect, because it focuses on supporting young disadvantaged Australians through education and provides opportunities for our ArchTam team members across the country to give back in a tangible way through volunteering, mentoring, donating and fundraising.

Last year, I volunteered as an iTrack mentor through The Smith Family and had the privilege of working with a Year 9 student as she considered her future career. My mentee, a very bright person with amazing potential, had not been encouraged to think about or start planning her career path. It was a humbling and rewarding experience to give her focused attention, help her build confidence, and provide support and ideas with regard to what her future could look like. It reaffirmed my belief that a good education, coupled with career counselling, can make a huge difference in the lives of so many.

As a mother of three daughters, I’m also driven to #PressforProgress in my personal life. Recently, my eldest daughter came home and told me she had been interviewed as part of a film being shown at the United Nations about gender parity. Apart from being amazed that she’s been listening to me, I was also heartbroken that my intelligent, capable daughter needed to be interviewed about gender equality.

My wish is that through our collective efforts, she and all women can just get on with being amazing and not have to campaign for what should be basic, fundamental rights.

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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I’d recently graduated with a degree in civil engineering and was working as an engineer trainee for the Virginia Department of Transportation. My family was visiting from South Carolina, and I was eager to show them my new steel-toed boots, safety vest and hard hat. When my niece made her declaration, I knew there was work to be done.

Twenty years later, I’m grateful that the mere appearance of a woman on a construction site is no longer an oddity. However, according to the findings of the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report, gender parity is still more than 200 years away. For me, that only means there’s no time to lose — we need to do everything we can right now to accelerate the movement. The most rewarding way I’ve found to do that is by investing in the next generation.

As a young girl, women in my small-town community made an investment in me. My teachers recognized my aptitude for math and science and found ways to cultivate my interests. Women who looked like me, and who were members of service and non-profit organizations, invested their time to help me better understand myself and my world. I especially recall my time as a part of a girls club founded by African American women leaders. Their motto was “Lifting as We Climb,” signaling their understanding that no individual woman could rise without the improvement of the whole race. Their agenda was focused on job training, wage equality and child care — issues that, if addressed, would lift up all women. This organization was founded over a century ago, but their ideas still hold true.

As the incoming president of the Central Virginia Chapter of WTS, I take pride in the work that our chapter does in the community through the Transportation YOU program. By introducing middle school girls to a wide variety of transportation careers, we’re helping shape the future of our industry and taking strides toward gender parity. But there’s always more to be done.

I’ve sought additional opportunities to collaborate with community organizations and increase the outreach and diversity of our programs. In partnership with the Richmond (VA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, WTS was able to provide a transportation-based STEM session to female cadets at Franklin Military Academy in Richmond. As chair of the Environmental Ownership Committee of my sorority, I’ve sought opportunities to create partnerships to improve local parks infrastructure, establish new green spaces and build community gardens. There are opportunities to affect change and deliver a better world all around us.

We learned last week that my oldest nephew will start at the United States Naval Academy this summer. We’re all very proud! I’m particularly proud because he’s graduating from South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, and he has always aspired to be an engineer like his Aunt Unwanna. Despite all this, when I recently told him that I met a NASA astronaut who was a Naval Academy grad, he said “Really? Is he a recent grad?” I proudly said, “SHE was actually one of the first women to graduate from Annapolis.”

There’s still work to do. But I’m up for it. I’m a woman!

NASA Astronaut Kay Hire with Unwanna Dabney.

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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The road to success is never easy and straightforward, and in the developing world, it can be even harder for women to stand up and find opportunities to grow. With these challenges to overcome, role models are so important to inspire future generations.

With this sense of responsibility, we serve as mentors for the Engineering Girls of Turkey (EGT) initiative of Limak Holding, one of the biggest Turkish contractors. The initiative is carried out in partnership with the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Family and Social Policies and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Now entering its third year, the program provides scholarships and mentoring for 100 university students from more than 50 universities.

Through the program, we help guide young students to become future engineers and represent our industry. It has been a unique journey for us — sharing experiences, exchanging views, exploring each student’s potential and, most importantly, helping them believe in themselves.

From left to right: Burcu Yazgan Kayabali (mentor), Meral Yildirim (mentee) and Hande Yukseler (mentor) at an EGT event.

As part of the EGT initiative, the third annual meeting of students and mentors took place on 24 February in Istanbul with well-known keynote speakers — an actor who’s also a goodwill ambassador of UNDP Turkey, a woman CEO, a woman author and a social entrepreneur. They shared their inspiring stories and underlined the importance of gender balance across all sectors. As ArchTam Turkey, we were among the engineering companies participating in this initiative with the highest percentage of employees who are women.

Diversifying the makeup of our ArchTam teams in Turkey has been at the core of our own efforts. Fifty percent of our employees are women, and we’ve made great inroads in supporting and advancing them so they can achieve their full potential. And we believe we can achieve much more. Through outreach, such as the EGT initiative, we can continue our work to positively influence young women to join our industry, and at the same time, advance more women into senior roles within our company.

As mentors, we hope to help bridge the gender gap in our industry. Our focus is on being a great place to work where merit is the only thing that counts. We offer some of the most compelling opportunities for all talented individuals and commit to fair selection. We advocate for and champion women’s achievements, as well as encourage young women to enter the professions that inspire them and where they can make a difference in the world.

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If any one of these pieces was not in play, I would not be where I am today.

As a transportation engineer, the idea of going to work every day excites me. There are real world challenges to be solved that impact people’s lives. The projects I work on are monumental, and the physical evidence of my decisions will be visible in our infrastructure for decades.

Finding my ideal career, one where I can make a difference, has been incredibly empowering. But I’m also deeply disheartened when I hear about the lack of women in our industry. It’s not because I expect every person to be excited by physics or want to pursue a career in engineering, it’s because I know many women and girls are simply not exposed to the possibility of a STEM career.

For the past two years, I’ve been an ambassador for Futureintech, an organisation that promotes careers in technology, engineering and science by bringing people working in STEM-based industries (such as myself) into schools to share career stories and run workshops. Futureintech helps raise the visibility of STEM in an effort to address the skills shortage, with a particular focus on increasing the number of women entering these fields. Run by Engineering New Zealand, Futureintech will be implementing exciting changes to the programme, with one of its priorities to look at how to target Maori and Pasifika students who tend to be under-represented in STEM education.

One of my favourite experiences of being a Futureintech volunteer was holding a Disaster Proof Roads workshop for female high-school students identified as high achievers in science. As part of the workshop, students were given cardboard cut-outs of bridges, roads, bus lanes and other infrastructure elements with a cost associated with each element. The task was to build a resilient network within a certain budget. It was incredible watching the girls’ faces light up as they solved problems and realized what they could be capable of doing.

Futureintech allows me and my ArchTam colleagues who also volunteer to share our experiences at a critical time in the lives of young people. I hope to return the favour one day and be that passionate and enthusiastic person who serves as a role model, sparking interest and uncovering new worlds.

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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My path to engineering was not a traditional one. Leaving secondary school at age 17, I was unsure of the career I wanted. With little knowledge of engineering, I began working for ArchTam as a receptionist, and this is where I was exposed to engineering and the incredible impact of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). A few years later, I was offered the opportunity to join ArchTam’s apprenticeship programme. I began a BTEC Level 3 in civil engineering at college, going to classes one day a week and working the remaining four days. I furthered my education in subjects such as surveying, science, and materials and health safety.

Since then, I’ve attended seminars, workshops and forums to discuss, present and showcase apprenticeships and how they can enhance a young person’s skillset and offer a well-defined career path. From this experience, I’ve taken a keen interest in sharing my own story as a way to encourage others to join the profession — or at the least, to understand that it’s a great possibility.

Although STEM subjects were taught in school, I never considered pursuing them as part of my career and day-to-day work. Stereotypes and preconceptions can be an impediment to believing you’re capable of anything, and your options can seem very narrow. This is why I began STEM outreach work, to change young people’s minds and show them different options that they may have thought beyond their reach.

Since becoming a STEM ambassador in January 2017, I work closely with SETPOINT Hertfordshire, and have visited more than ten schools and colleges to promote STEM, participating in career talks, practical activities to engage students, question and answer sessions, and speed events involving a brief five-minute synopsis of my role and career path. Connecting with young people directly gives them the opportunity to ask questions and listen to real-life experiences. The practical activities offer students insight into the day-to-day role of an engineer, and they’re able to apply principles and design ideas to create proposals suitable for scenarios in the real world.

Alongside external STEM activities, I lead in-house structured work experience for students from local schools. It’s extremely rewarding to see some of these students return for summer placements following their time at ArchTam, showing how one introduction can influence a person’s course in life.

The term engineer is extremely broad and covers a number of roles and areas of work for an enthusiastic and driven individual, therefore reaching out to as many students as possible is critical to helping them discover this diverse and dynamic world. It’s something I’m passionate about championing for future generations and, most importantly, the future engineers among us. Believe me, anything is possible!

This blog post is part of a series celebrating International Women’s Day 2018 and this year’s theme, #PressForProgress.

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