My message to the women working in the Reed Family Companies is that you are valued and respected as equal members of the team. Our leadership team is committed to creating a supportive workplace environment that allows everyone to succeed and thrive.
I would like to share a story from when I started my career in a male-dominated industry to illustrate that while women may face unique challenges at work, treating others with respect by listening to each other with empathy leads to success for all. Working in an oil refinery, I was often the only woman on the job site or in the meeting room. I felt that I had to work twice as hard to prove myself, but over time my contributions were recognized and I was promoted to a more senior role that provided engineering support to one of the most important units in the refinery. The manager that I supported had worked his way up the ranks from operator, to foreman, to the Operations Manager. He was also “different” like me, not because of gender, but because he was the only one of his peers without a college degree. He had worked hard to prove himself. I thought we had a good working relationship so I was very surprised when he said to me one day, “You are one of the best process engineers I have worked with - too bad that you are a woman and all the effort I have put into teaching you will be wasted when you go home to raise children.” I felt so hurt and offended by that statement! I knew that some of the operators thought I didn’t belong in the refinery because I was “taking up a good paying job that a man needed” to support their family, but I thought this manager really valued me. Instead of lashing out with words to defend myself, I took a deep breath and listened again to what he said with empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand a little of another person’s experience despite the fact that you can never really get “inside the skin” of another human. By listening compassionately, I realized that he was not calling me a “Waste of Time”. He was saying that I was “One of the Best” and that he would miss me when I was gone. I was able to jokingly thank him for the “compliment” and then he was able to acknowledge that most of the men who had been in that position before me had moved on for various reasons anyway. We were able to talk about how what he taught me would always be valuable to the company and to me personally. Being respectful and practicing empathy is not showing weakness. It takes strength to set aside one’s own self-centeredness to really listen to another compassionately.
Women are underrepresented in our industry, and I am committed to changing that. I believe that diversity makes us stronger, and that women have a valuable perspective to offer in the construction industry. Like many of the women in our companies that I have talked to, I also was attracted to a male-dominated industry for the good pay, the freedom to fully use my skills, the opportunities for advancement, and the ability to see tangible results of my hard work, but what really makes me enjoy coming to work everyday is the true work-family support that I feel from my co-workers. I am proud to be part of a Leadership Team that practices our core values of treating each other with integrity and respect every day!
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