I took this image at artist Grace Weston's studio. We were chatting over tea about all things art, leadership and women's empowerment. She was considering bringing back to life an artist group she successfully founded and operated. This group was a think tank whose objective was to guide ideas for projects and endeavors from the lighted drawing board into realization. Like everyone, we had no idea that a few months later, a despot who seized control of the White House would become so much worse and we would be grappling with a worldwide pandemic. But here we are.
On a table of Grace's art pieces, I positioned two of them together and took an image. At the time, I'd had no idea why I chose those two symbols, at the time I didn't understand it's significance as clearly as I do now. Fast forward a few months and I am here, suddenly back at my lighted drawing board, starting from square one. Millions of Americans with their lives upended, unemployed, furloughed, stymied. A curious mega force called COVID-19 is now the author of my surreal story.
Furlough jobs could be anything, a bakery, an assisted living facility, a landscaping crew, an office temp worker. It's the attempt to position myself back in my career that I find eye-opening. Public Works, building, engineering, architecture, and municipal bureaus, like water and utility management are still considered a man's world. There are more occasions where a man is chosen over a woman.
Recently the political landscape has further complicated our plight as women in these roles. There is a subtlety in unequal treatment. Say you are a woman who answers an employment call for a construction project manager. construction project managers serve in very straight forward roles. Yes, extremely critical and require a high degree of credentials and experience, but when interviewing time rolls around, I can tell you the number of times increasing that I've had to sit through an interview taking on a decided 'differing' trajectory from the straight forward job description. Suddenly, the questioning and job description leads into 'babysitting' territory. The pay offered always lower. I'll NEVER forget the time while standing on a job site as a public works inspector that one of the older generation silver-haired crewmen, asked me how I got to where I was. “This world of inspectors don't like women much” he says shaking his head. That isn't necessarily all true, but I was stunned nonetheless. That unfortunate bias still exists.
Bottom line is, it blows to have to grapple with a global pandemic, financial crisis, and the added strain of needing to prove on so much more of an extravagant level that women can not only meet, but exceed expectations. I have seen extraordinary leadership this past two years, more than in all of my years past. An engineering company owned by a woman. A public works inspection civil municipal department headed by a woman. A woman architect leading an architecture department at a university. A water scientist, yep a woman. So, we know that it works. I just wonder when we will happen upon a day when that inalienable truth is not so vastly affected all over again, by political influence. We are facing a global pandemic. We need the strength, excellence, and fortitude of women more than ever.