Women Contractors Reveal A Unique Perspective
As more and more women enter the electrical business, the dynamics of the industry are changing. Here are the observations of four women electrical contractors.
In this century, women have steadily entered many fields of work previously dominated by men, but electrical contracting has remained one of the last strongholds. Yet, in the last decade, slowly but steadily, women have trickled into this field, taking on roles out of the traditional realm of office support personnel. More women are becoming electricians, and several hold key management positions in electrical contracting firms. Their observations of changes in the work place and of the challenges they've faced in taking on new responsibilities can serve to benefit us all.
Electrical Contractor recently interviewed four women in the electrical contracting field, all presidents of contracting firms operating in central and southern Illinois.
Stepping Up
Shirley Witte presides over Witte Electric, Champaign, a 25-year-old electrical contracting firm with 12 employees. The company does mostly commercial work (with some residential) in the Champaign area, in the state capital, Springfield, and in various smaller towns throughout central Illinois. University of Illinois—Champaign is one of the company's largest accounts.
In 1985, Witte's husband died suddenly of lung cancer. "It became a matter of 'Did I sell the company, or did I step in and carry on?'" Witte says. "Because I'd always been involved in the company, I decided to go ahead and carry on.
"We've grown considerably since 1985," Witte says, "and we were not computerized before. So it became a challenge to me to see that we became automated. We don't do CAD, but billing, estimating, and bookkeeping are computerized."
Looking For Flexibility
Connie Laesch, president of Laesch Electric, Inc., Towanda, started her company five years ago and involves her husband in the business. "We were both looking for a change," Laesch says. "He's an electrician as well. I'd been out of the work force since our children were born. I was at the point where I was going to be back at State Farm, where I'd worked before, or I'd start my own business. I really preferred the flexibility of having my own company. That was the motivation." With 10 employees, the company's business mix includes commercial work—new and remodeled—some industrial and very little residential. "We also accept agricultural work," Laesch says, "which is a market that's not always thought of—grain elevators, motor control work or fertilizer plants that must meet the EPA modifications. Most of our work, though, is underground electrical work. We do a lot of traffic signals; a lot of our contracts come from the department of transportation." Laesch Electric recently invested in directional boring equipment that uses computer technology to transmit images of obstacles from the bore site for viewing on a screen so that appropriate changes can be made in the route of the bore.
Buying The Boss's Share
Carol B. Keeney, president, Pyramid Contractors, Inc., Fairview Heights, for 12 years worked for the company's original owner. Besides the Fairview Heights operation, which Keeney established about 10 miles east of St. Louis, the company also had an operation further north in the state, in Kankakee. The company split up, and Keeney purchased the Fairview Heights operation. Since then the operation has grown to employ 35 electricians on mostly commercial jobs, some industrial work, and occasional residential work—all in Illinois. Pyramid also does a good amount of work for the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT).
"I was a general contractor and owned a general contracting firm, which did mostly residential and small commercial, for three years before I got into the electrical end of it," Keeney says. "My husband was an electrician, and he was running work for Pyramid Electric in southern Illinois. He began to find a lot of work for the company in our area. And I got involved in setting up the office, running it, setting up computers also, just basically getting the company started in the south—in 1982."
Years Of Practice
Sandra Drda Warning, president, Drda Electric Co., Edwardsville, grew up with the company her father started back in 1956.
"When I was working summers in college, I stocked shelves," Drda Warning says. "When equipment came out of the trucks, I had to put it back on. Then when my children were little, I wasn't real involved, until after my husband had purchased it in 1983. Then I started getting involved. My husband was working in the company as an estimator, project manager." Drda Warning has managed the company since her husband's sudden death in 1991. The company's business mix includes small commercial jobs and some industrial work—very little residential—all within Illinois. With five office personnel and from 10 to as many as 18 electricians, Drda Electric has also completed projects for IDOT.
The Interview...
How do you think being a woman has made your job different?
Witte: Sometimes there's an advantage, and sometimes there's a disadvantage. I've felt personally that the contractors that we work with are very supportive. And, if that had been the case when I needed to step in and take over, that might have been a factor. I just felt that I had a lot of support from the guys.
At first I thought I would feel really strange going to a NECA meeting where I was the only female. I was a little hesitant about that. I felt that they would resent the fact that I was a woman, or maybe they wouldn't talk as freely. But then I realized the limitations I set were what I set on myself. They encouraged me to be there, and take part in the activities. In fact, they made me get involved. They made me take positions. They encouraged me to do things. I just wanted to sit back and watch all of them work, but they made me jump in, and they said, "You're going to work on this committee. You're going to do this and this." I think that helped my business—very much so.
Some of the networking that you do helps tremendously in bringing you a customer base. Any organization that you belong to, where you are meeting people, chamber of commerce, anything you can do to make new acquaintances is what it's all about.
I think I look on this as a real challenge. It's never a boring job. I find that I love doing this, I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to retire. I think, what will I do?
Keeney: It certainly helps to have a good staff, not only the electricians, but the office, too.
How do your employees seem to regard you, being a woman president? Do you see any difference as far as you are treated?
Witte, Kenney, Laesch, Warning in unison: Not at all. (The women respond in kind; they know they are given the same amount of respect as male presidents.)
Laesch: I can dispatch electricians on the radio, and they never question where I am sending them or why. They listen, and do the job just the same as if my voice...were a little deeper. Warning: There's not so much difference within your own force as maybe people outside—the public itself saying, "What does she know?" As president, I would experience for the first couple of years people calling for my husband. They'd ask for the owner, and the secretary would say, "Just a minute, she'll be right with you." And by the time I got to the phone they would hang up. I don't really get that anymore. People are more aware of what's happening in the industry.
Have you ever experienced chauvinism from a contractor?
Keeney: I have run into that with some contractors—older contractors who might even have had a hard time in a conversation with me without saying "honey," and I don't appreciate that, but I don't normally say anything. For the most part, I find that men have accepted women. And, of course, anyone who's new to the business has to prove himself or herself. And they're going to be challenged. And once you prove yourself, your sex is not an issue anymore.
Laesch: I agree with that. It has a lot to do with consistency. Time and time again, if I'm at the bid openings or pre-construction meetings, I know that eventually it's going to get through to other members of the industry and my customers that this is it. I'm here to do business like anyone else.
Warning: You hate to say that you just want to be like one of the guys, but since they're in the majority now, that's how you tend to lean. Incidents of chauvinism have happened on occasion, but don't happen a lot. I find it's obvious that the male contractors are trying harder. You can even see at times they catch themselves, and have to rephrase. They don't want to sound sexist.
Laesch: I have found the opposite end of that. I've watched how other women handle these situations. I've heard other female electrical contractors who use repeated conversational profanity, especially when they're talking to male associates. I don't know if that is because they're insecure in their positions. But I feel that if you're comfortable and confident in what you're doing, you don't have to use that language. It continues to amaze me, but it's almost like they're trying to act like men, or how they expect men to think or converse.
Keeney: I've heard that among female electricians who act that way, and I don't know how much of it is that they're thrown in with all the men, and it's like going down South. You start to pick up the same accent, and you don't even know you're doing it.
Laesch: I give men a lot more credit. They don't have to be spoken to that way in order to get their attention.
Keeney: I don't know if it's me, or if it's just females in general, but I perceive we're good readers of character. We can tell when someone's blowing smoke. We look to the future, and see an overall scope of things. I don't know that men always do. Sometimes they may focus more on what's in front of them without realizing the repercussions.
Warning: I've had to learn to be more aggressive and outspoken, because it has not been in my nature. In general, women do have a more caring nature than men.
Laesch: Women deal well with customers. If we're getting overloaded and overscheduled, and there's a customer who's been promised something, I would do everything I could to be there, or have someone there. And if I couldn't get there, I would call. And the reception from the customer usually is, "I'm so glad you called," that we're not just setting it back another two weeks. Whereas sometimes a man might say, "Well, we'll wait 'til they call." I remember starting out, knocking on those doors, and I appreciate all the customers I have.
Witte: In some instances, men in the field may think because this is a women-owned business enterprise, that I have all kinds of advantages and more chances of getting work, but I still have to meet all the requirements. You still have to maintain your same ratio of men in the field and maintain all the same standards they do.
Have you ever witnessed sexism from other women?
Laesch: We had a job in a mall one time, and I went to lunch with one of our female electricians. And it was an outside job. She was dressed in her Cartharts. And other women that came in for lunch just looked at her differently—like she was lower, and she was probably making more money than they were. She noticed it, and she even commented that she didn't like to go in places where other women were dressed up.
What are some of the challenges you have had to face that perhaps men have not?
Keeney: As I said before, everyone new to the industry and in the industry has to prove himself or herself. Once you've been able to do that it's pretty much behind you. Warning: One of the things that helped me the most in becoming more involved in their field was friends, friends who were in a position to help and who were willing to help. What helped me after my husband died was how many people who were willing to help me—employees, my banker, credit manager, people from NECA.
Witte: It's at a very traumatic time in your life when your spouse dies, having to deal with a business and keeping it, holding it together.
Is there anything that you have done that has actually caused you to see more into the lives of men; for instance, those of you taking over for your spouses?
Witte: I served on a labor management negotiating committee, and that was an eye-opening experience for me. You'd be there for five minutes, and somebody would stomp out because that is the game that you play. There are certain items laid out on the table, what the contractors want, what the electricians want, we'll give you this, you give us that. They work down what one side is willing to give up and what the other side is willing to give up. Tempers flare. They may want $2, and management will say, "We'll give you 10 cents." To see somebody get angry and stomp out, made me think, "Wait a minute, we're all adults, Why are we doing this?" But it's part of the game that you just play.
Do you think you approach your job any differently than a man would?
Keeney: I think my answer goes back to what I said before, viewing situations from a broader scope, and making the decision to perform surgery when it is needed, rather than just applying band-aid solutions. Laesch: The biggest factor I have found is perhaps the way I deal with my customers, and how I approach them.
Keeney: People in this industry come to expect delays. Whereas a woman will recognize the delay and do something about it, men's approach is, "Don't worry about it. We'll get to it. We'll take care of it. Sooner or later it's gonna happen. It'll get done, trust me."
Witte: We're sympathetic to people. If I get a call in the middle of the night from someone who has no power, I'm right there. I'm not saying a man wouldn't be, but I know I'm willing to do something about it.
Keeney: I have observed that men will think very little of pulling someone off a job to put them on another project with no explanation to the customer—whereas I think a woman will try to explain, and the customers appreciate that.
Laesch: I think so, too. I always get a good response. I've never had anybody yell at me or say, "What do you mean you're not going to be there?" They may not like it, but usually they'll at least go along with it.
Witte: Women seem to be the peacemakers and the healers, the comforters. That seems to be more in our nature.
Do you all employ women electricians?
Witte: There are not a lot of them working out of our local. We do not employ any, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't, if one was sent out to us.
Laesch: Right now I have one, in her last year in apprenticeship. We've had one other. Each year, we see more women interested. Witte: This year we have 125 applicants for the apprenticeship program, and out of those, only about 10 are female. That's a kind of ratio.
What is your greatest strength in this work?
Witte: Perseverance, determination. I was so intent on making this grow. I just wanted to do better, better, better.
Laesch: The one strength that comes to mind is my ability to work with a variety of people. Maybe it was something I didn't know I had. Having a good working relationship with your banker, and your bonding agent, and your insurance agent. You make all kinds of friends in this business. You have to be able to communicate with them. They're not all familiar with the electrical business; they may not understand all aspects of your business.
Keeney: Determination and perseverance would be it for me, too. In that way I'm not unique. I'm very conscious of my company's reputation, striving to maintain a good reputation. In that aspect, you've got to deal with many people. I know that a general contractor may go with a higher bid, if they know they can work with you, if they're not going to be held up by your work, and that your bid is thorough. So, it's not going to cost a lot more than what you've estimated.
Witte: Certain contractors get a reputation for that, for needing extras.
Do relations between men and women working in the field need to be improved at all? Laesch: On the individual jobs. For the electricians, there may be some improvement. One thing I know, when anything is directed at "her," "she" can dish it right back.
Keeney: In some cases, women need to not take things to heart. Men tend to deal with things and they're over with.Women hang on to things.
As women, you are at a point in evolution. This country is perhaps more unusual than a lot of other countries. There are women in management positions in other countries, but America still seems to hold somewhat of a lead over many other countries. How do you feel about your opportunity to compete in the workplace vs. past generations of women?
Witte: It's an exciting time. And what I get excited about, I can't believe some of the computers and how much smaller they're making them—the technology that's coming out all the time. When I think about what is going to be 10 years from now...
Warning: There's much more opportunity for women to advance. We should take the opportunities. If women don't take them, they're the ones who've lost out. As a society of a whole, we are expecting women in their 20s and 30s to be in the work force. Women in their 40s are coming into more management positions.
Keeney: I appreciate the challenges. They have made me a more interesting person. There's the challenge to be successful and to be more assertive. The jobs many of our mothers had may have been to go to an office and work at a desk, but not the decision-making kind of jobs.
Warning: My mother did not get as involved in the decision-making. She had decision-making powers, but she was not involved in the business full-time.
Witte: She wouldn't have walked out into the field and fired somebody like the kind of thing we might do today. That happened with me one time, and so ever since then the story sort of got around, like, "Oh, if she comes on the job, you're in trouble!" I did do that. This person just had to go.
Laesch: If it has to be done [hitting the desk], then do it. It just has to be done.
Was there any point where you felt you learned something important about how people relate in this field and what makes them relate better in order to achieve more success in business?
Keeney: The more experienced you become, and the more you're exposed to different facets of your job, the more influence you have in making decisions. It's not any different for a female than for a male.
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