When Sarah Shuster-Tucker started working at RGI nine years ago, she was the only full-time female employee. “To be perfectly honest, it’s hard to be the token woman. It’s draining in a lot of ways,” she says. Thinking about women in the workforce, especially during Women’s History Month, there are still many gender disparities that exist.
RGI is a multi-disciplinary company, and while we’re making great strides in increasing gender diversity, it’s still difficult to find tradeswomen. Julie Sikon was another early hire at RGI. And while she has never felt out of place as the sole accountant, she can definitely see the differences between the office setting and the shop when it comes to gender diversity: “When you have a set number of employees in an average shop, and the average shop doesn’t have many women, what are the odds we would end up with a woman, statistically speaking?” And she’s right. There is a dearth of women in the trades. Women make up just 3% of tradespeople in the U.S.
So how do we start to fix that at a fundamental level? Marnie Louis, Studio Director at St. Joseph Parish School and Concept Developer at RGI, knows firsthand programs like Saint Joseph Design-Build Studio are aiding in that effort. This Studio is fully-funded by RGI in order to encourage learning through a design thinking approach. “Historically, it wasn’t that long ago boys were taking shop class and girls were taking home economics,” she says. “It’s exciting to see that’s changing; girls are feeling more comfortable getting those experiences and skills that could lead to the trades or something else where they can use their creativity.”
It’s not a perfect system, but showing children they can design and create items on their own (or with a little help from Marnie and their teachers) is a solid jump-off point. “I think because our projects are based in creativity and it’s not just about coming in and making a shelf, we draw students equally. That’s one of our biggest missions: to help them to see this is a skill that can be applied in so many different ways in their life. Creativity is the foundation,” she adds.
Marnie Louis works at RGI’s Saint Joseph Design-Build Studio encouraging creativity within the students. She also helps us come up with museum exhibit concepts in her spare time.
This project-based learning style isn’t something all teachers take advantage of, but Marnie believes it's a crucial component to holistic learning. Teachers who use the Saint Joseph Design-Build Studio see changes in the students too, “not just academically but socially and emotionally as well,” Marnie says. It can be hard to fit creative time in between preparing for state tests, but projects can be confined to one class period or can even be a voluntary project during recess. Not all schools have a Studio to use, but the concept of project-based learning, especially for kinetic learners, can be a viable option for teachers, even if it’s in smaller capacities, using local libraries as resources or even nature as inspiration for hands-on class periods.
At home as well, parents have a responsibility to educate their children about gender disparities in the workplace. Tiffany Pfremmer, who worked with one of RGI’s clients, has a 4 ½ year-old she’s trying to educate on equity. “It’s definitely a challenge. I want my child to grow up to be kind to all individuals and accepting of everyone no matter what background,” she says. But in addition to being accepting of others, Tiffany wants her son to feel accepted as well: “If he’s interested in something, we want him to explore that. We want him to pursue his passions.”
Parents and teachers might encourage children to pursue their passions, but once they get into the workforce, all bets are off—especially for women. “I worked in a global company. You have people coming from different cultures where it’s not seen as acceptable or appropriate for women to voice their opinions as much. I think women have this internal power struggle of speaking up or not,” Tiffany says. “So many things are changing in our culture, and we need to make sure we impact children as they’re growing up so young women know they have just as much of a voice in decision making and brainstorming as everyone else.” She recommends that companies:
Encourage women to speak up about their passions. If companies can address those needs, they might be able to keep more women on staff—and also increase gender diversity within new hires.
Offer time for mentorship and coaching. Aside from mentors being sounding boards, those who go through mentorship programs are more likely to increase their salaries than those who don’t. This could help lessen the gender pay gap in some situations.
Give adequate time for training and learning. Team members are already busy doing their daily tasks. Making sure employees have designated time for professional development only increases their abilities, resulting in a positive impact on the company.
Be a place that lives and breathes advocacy. It’s not enough to have DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and access) training. Create programs, coach managers on how to make sure everyone feels included, and ensure people’s voices are actually being heard.
Opportunities pop up every day to check our language and turn slip-ups into teachable moments. Tiffany says:
“Just the other day, my son and I were walking to school. There was a police car parked, making sure all the children were safe. And I said something like, ‘Oh there’s a policeman. We should wave.’ And then I corrected myself and said, ‘It’s a policewoman.’ My son said, ‘It’s a lady?’ So I told him women can be police officers as well; it doesn’t matter what gender anyone is. He just said ‘Okay!’ and kept going.”
This example perfectly demonstrates that these biases are often taught behaviors, and if we can correct them early, everyone involved wins.
It’s good that people are starting to have these conversations, but we haven’t reached the peak of equity. “The women’s equality journey has been going on for quite some time, and we’re still a ways away,” Tiffany says. For trans, non-binary, and other gender equity, “we’re just at the infancy of that,” she adds, “Unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot of time for some of these disciplines to change and for people to be more open-minded. Some of the DEIA activities that many companies are taking part in are just the first steps in a long journey.” It makes a marked difference when team members put their all into these activities, and they should, because diversity adds so much to a team.
Becoming a more diverse company isn’t about performative allyship. It’s a deeply-involved process that takes a great deal of learning—and unlearning. With RGI being at about 50% female-identifying people now, “it represents an opening for even greater diversity,” Sarah says. “The more diversity we can bring to our endeavors, collaborations, and work sessions, the more creative we will be as a company.”
Having a mix of people is crucial, because everyone comes to the table with a variety of worldviews. “If I’m 50, my thought process might be different from someone who’s 25. People with different backgrounds and experiences have different ideas for their work,” Julie says.
Julie Sikon, RGI’s accountant, started with us nine years ago on a part-time basis and has since become a full-time team member.
This creativity produced from diversity is important at the school level too. Marnie adds, “Our hope is that our students will make that [creativity] connection. Careers in the trades, architecture, engineering—those are creative fields; they just don’t get coined that way.” And while it can be slow progress, we do see more women entering STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) careers, up to 27% in 2019.
There are these bright spots along the way as the equity fight continues. Julie says that throughout her career, she rarely was questioned about her rates or skills because she was a woman. “Maybe I’m just lucky,” she says. “I’ve had very friendly, appreciative clients who were happy I was helping them. I have a fair or comparable rate to any man in my position. I probably get paid better than most men,” she laughs. “That’s just my experience.”
For RGI, we still have a long way to go. As Sarah says, “The reality is that there is a piece of the pie for everybody. It’s only an illusion that if you have to give more of the pie to someone else, there’s going to be less for you. I really hope that as we learn more and become more diverse, that we truly embrace it. Because I firmly believe it’s necessary for us to grow. I hope that’s the outcome.”