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From Barriers to Breakthroughs: Women in the Elevator Workforce · The Elevator Careers Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: So, Shannon, do you ever get strange looks when people ask you what you do and you say, I'm an elevator constructor?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: It just blows their mind.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: They they they're they're confused.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: They're elevator constructor or like you're you're not selling elevators.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, I'm installing elevators.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: And especially with women, they're just drawn to it.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, like a celebrity, can I take a picture with you?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you're so rare.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, holy cow, you're working on elevators.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: You're a woman, you're doing this.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, I'm a woman.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: I do lots of different things.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for recognizing that.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I'm just doing my job.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, guess what?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: This could be you or your daughter, your niece, or your nephew, whoever you want it to be.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's just so, so rarefied and almost celebrity status.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I I love it, but it gets them talking about it and talking about the trades and and giving them the opportunity that, yeah, you could do this yourself too.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: That's amazing.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_03: Hello, and welcome to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: I am your host, Matt Allred.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_03: Today's episode brings together the experiences of three women as they reflect on what it means to build a career in a male-dominated trade.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_03: Featuring Aaron Scott with Avis, Emerald Cool with Nakes International, and Shannon Dreddick with the IUBC.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_03: They share the challenges they face, the programs and support systems that made a difference, and the courage it takes to speak up in spaces where women are still underrepresented.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: They also discuss the progress happening across the industry, from growing female participation to shifting workplace culture, and a barrier that still need to be addressed for the next generation.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: When talent is mission critical, call the All-Red Group.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: With industry expertise, top talent, and exceptional customer service, you need the All-Red Group on your side.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Your priority is our priority.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: Call now.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: What is it like, you know, being a woman in a male-dominated industry, especially like you say, to be less than 1% and to um you know what was, I guess, the most difficult thing about that?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for me, um how I've always known it.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So for me it you know, I thought it was normal.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it started, you know, in the military, you know, so but I also have been fortunate that I have just had a very strong support network.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But there are days that you definitely f feel like alone and isolated.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think the key is finding the people who you know value you um and are there to help m build you up versus break you down.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the key that has made me who I am is also knowing that sometimes you have to look work a little bit harder to be able to make sure that your voice is heard and not being afraid to speak up and call people out when they don't value what you're saying to the same degree as your male counterparts at the table.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, no, you gotta you gotta be even stronger to just stand up and say, No, I will be heard.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I saw it a lot um both back and flying, you know, but also a lot with even our customer base here, like in the Boston area, like my sales um counterparts for the most part were males, and we would walk into a business meeting and you know, they would turn to the male, you know, and be like, So can you tell me what's wrong with my elevator?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember one guy's like, No, dude, I'm just the money guy.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't even know how an elevator works.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you have to talk to her.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the facilities manager was like, Wait, what?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know he couldn't even fathom like what was being said, you know.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's funny, even at this day and age, with all the things that we've talked about that like the whole concept of like unconscious bias still exists, that when you walk into a room, people just automatically assume that one way or another, you know, um the woman's gonna be at the sales side, you know, and the male's gonna be on the operations side.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it just always we would always get, you know, a good laugh.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I was pregnant twice, like while at Otis, and you know, you you'd waddle in, you know, you know, with your big old belly and stuff like that, and people just be like, Seriously, like this is a lady like that you were talking about that's coming to fix the elevator, and you're like, Yeah, that's me, you know.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, you know, even pregnant, you know, you can still do your job around here these days, you know.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, um but like I said, I've also been in situations where I've just been very blessed with the teams that have been around me, you know, and and the people, but um and it probably just helps that I do have a stronger personality that does speak up, but not everybody in the industry's been that lucky and I've known really smart women that haven't felt that supported, that have left and that you know, and I hate to see that, but you know all the more reason then to have have that that mentorship and that networking group to say, hey, it's it's okay to raise your voice.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's okay to stand up and and be heard because your opinion does matter and what you're seeing, you know, maybe no one else is seeing it.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, it's important to to let people know.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: In a lot of those groups it's important, like people think, oh, like it's a girls' club, but and it's really not.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like most of our membership in those clubs, you know, was typically fifty percent male because it's about having allyship and it's about having men in the group too that you know are willing to say what you're doing's not right.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like you know, stop and listen.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: What she is saying has value at the table just as much as what I say as well.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so that allyship sometimes is as as a as important, if not more, as just being a member, you know.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: Just curious, what are some of the challenges of being a female in a male-dominated industry?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've been asked that a lot.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: When I first came in, it was very intimidating, scary.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I think it it's getting better over time where you're seeing more and more women in this industry.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we have our own um group.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's women in the motion, um, where I attend those meetings.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it was hard.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard, and it still is.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's it's it's getting easier and easier as there's more and more of us coming in, and that's great.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_03: I I talked to a lady recently who joined, you know, 15, 20 years ago, and and she said that there was one particular woman who was kind of like at executive level or you know, had been there a while and was able to just reach out and and just kind of build that that network.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: And and I'm sure that you you see that you participate in that, and I'm sure that helps.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: We still we stick together.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: We all stick together and bounce our ideas off each other, and um, yeah.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: So in our estimation, in the US and Canada, there's about 33,000 elevator constructors.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: And from our best guesstimate, uh only approximately 300 um of those people are females.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we are less than one percent, but I can definitely say it has taken the upward swing uh in the recruitment efforts that are put on um by the National Elevator Industry Education Program, NEEP, uh, and the union itself to get the word out.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So uh to up those numbers.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I I I've seen we've probably grown about 40 women in the last three years across the US, and and that's huge.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: What would you say keeps women from from being in the trade?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, is it seeing the the people, it doesn't apply to me necessarily in my situation, but it is actually surprisingly enough child care.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, of course, women are having the children, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Unless you can go through surrogacy or IVF, but in, you know, predominantly women are carrying, you know, these babies and and early childhood development until they're able to go to school.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, even in situations of single fathers or, you know, divorce or things like that, but it is the child care who the parent, it they'll they'll take the sacrifice of their job and their careers.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so ironic because they could be making top-tier benefits, top-tier money to take care of these families and provide for them and and give them whichever direction they want to raise them, but it's also keeping them from getting those jobs, going through the apprenticeship, the long hours of of working construction, because that's what you're gonna start off in.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's finding, you know, the child early child care to take care of them when they're not in school.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then of course, you know, navigating 10 or 12 hour workdays, how do we get them early?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: How do you get to the job and work six to four or six to five and and out of town and things like that?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: So um, it is a big thing that's come up with our other sisters and just our members that, you know, if they go through the life changes of, you know, planning marriages or divorces, or they're like, I'm having kids, is this gonna mess up my career, my future, you know, becoming a mechanic or however they find it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: And many of them, they're successful families of dual partners, of where, you know, the the wife and the husband are both elevator constructors.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I know we know women that have already retired out, and that's how they met, and now their sons are in it, and they're all just trying to to make it work and balance for each other.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: But if we we can open the eyes in the construction industry, union or not, that that's keeping us away from a talented pool of of people, men or women, to to come to the trades in general.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_03: Interesting.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: So so on one hand, I hear that that childcare is the issue.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: On the other hand, I hear that that if you, you know, as a as a family or you work together, you know, there there are ways to to work around that to make it successful.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: And and and for those who have, it's it's it's good for the family.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh I'm just saying that that to your point, often that the childcare, you know, has traditionally landed in the you know in the women's corner.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so there there has to be ways to to work through that.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I and so maybe what I'm hearing you say is yes, this can be an issue, yes, it can be worked through, and maybe it's perception as much as anything, but but just I guess expanding people's awareness that no, this this can be done.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_03: And and here are some examples of of people doing it.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um that's kind of what I'm gathering from what you're saying.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, many people have said, oh, is it you know the physicality of the work or the education or knowledge, right?
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I I'll say to that, I mean, you you can learn anything with the right teacher.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: People learn different ways.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: You you never really necessarily know if you are mechanically minded or electrically minded unless you try it.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's no litmus test really to do that otherwise in our testing procedures.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: So people had said, you know, is that what's keeping women out or people disinterested in the trade and not doing it?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: And no, it's not.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: I would definitely say it's it's other priorities that are taking them away from choosing these careers.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: I guess it takes some understanding of the other partner.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was able to with my significant other that understood from a construction background that, hey, if I have to go and I have to be out of town, this is what's gonna have to happen.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have to pick up the bit, take care of the things at home.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: But um, I I think that's, you know, with anybody, whether you're working with a doctor that's on call, you know, um a first responder that's gonna have to leave in the middle of the night and things like that when we're taking elevator calls.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that's that's just gonna be in any relationship is to find the other person that's going to understand your work and um, you know, again, weigh out the balances of that if your absence for that paycheck is going to be worth what your goals are as a family or as a couple.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, thank you.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, what what comes to mind is I think there's a lot of you know, tradition, there's history, there's there's stereotypes around who does what jobs.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I know a lot of families where one of the spouses is a nurse and and they have interesting shifts and they have, you know, maybe it's a 12-hour, maybe they're traveling, maybe they're, you know, there's all kinds of challenges to to taking care of a family, and yet they can all get worked through.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: So um yeah, I think it it might just be people's awareness that, oh, hey, this is an option.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: And certainly if if someone has those skills, I know that you know, technical and electrical competence does not run on gender lines, right?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's just, you know, some guys don't do it, some do, some women, you know, it just depends.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: Just getting in, learning your part really opens up doors to to other things that that I haven't seen in in other career areas as much, right?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: To see somebody move from maybe they're an ops and then now they're in sales, now they're inspecting, and now they're leading, now they're owning, and now they're you know, there's just all kinds of opportunities that that will present themselves as you get in, do a great job, learn your your stuff, and then you know, write your own ticket.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: That is, that is that just like you said, bet on yourself and you get you can carry away.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: You make your name.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: You make your name, and that's everything in the trades.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: They'll hire you, they'll seek you out.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, absolutely.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for listening to the Elevator Careers Podcast, sponsored by the Allred Group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Please visit our YouTube channel at Elevator Careers or check us out online at elevatorcareers.net.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: Please like and subscribe.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: And until next time, stay safe.