A STEM Woman in the Commercial Construction Industry
My name is Alyssa ‘Monty’ Montague, and I’m a 26-year-old SharePoint Administrator at Hutton Construction, Inc. I grew up in a town called Normal, IL, which is about half the size of Chattanooga. I wanted to get out of the small town life, so for college, I moved to Chicago to attend Columbia College. It didn’t take long, just six short years, for me to tire of big city life. My longterm boyfriend and I decided to move to Chattanooga to be closer to his family. My mom and dad still live in Illinois, but they come to visit as often as they can.
They’re both retired now, but my mom used to work for the county health department. My dad worked at the city water treatment plant, anywhere from 40 to 80 hours a week. He started there at age 21 and retired early because of that longevity. I’ve always been impressed by his work ethic, because even after a few short years in the workforce, I feel it takes a lot of dedication for my generation to stay in one place for such a long period of time. Nonetheless, I have fond memories of going to both my parent’s jobs as kid. Mom designed logos, fliers, information boards, and billboards, and at dad’s job, I got to walk the catwalks, help operate the giant switchboard, and test the water quality and add chemicals in the lab that I deemed “the potion room.” My interests growing up ranged from ballet to golf to art to construction, but one thing remained constant: a strong family support system who has always been there for me.
I know many aren’t as lucky as I am, but I worked hard to get to this point in life. Before landing my current job, I pursued retail and office positions, knowing I had a knack for organization. None of these entry level, basic positions were satisfying, but I didn’t really know where I wanted to go from there. I majored in marketing in college, but had already realized that world was not meant for me before graduating.
When I say that I work at a construction company, I’m met with the question, “as office help?” That question has always irked me, even though I did start as office help. I was promoted to manager level after a little less than a year. I was nominated by a group of coworkers to take on my current job designing and implementing a new filing system called SharePoint not long after. The new position doesn’t sound like much on the surface, but requires a ton of technical knowledge, including programming which I’d never done before. Though I got the job unexpectedly, I told my manager, the director of IT, that I think I’ve found my calling shortly after starting.
I’m the only woman in my department of five. Frankly, the entire company is dominated by men, it being a real estate, development, and construction company, but our founder and CEO is also a woman. Regardless of this fact, our workforce has remained steady at about 70% men and 30% women. It’s not something that usually weighs heavy on my mind, but do think I’ve had to fight a little more fiercely to get here. I’m a fast, hard worker, and have never missed a deadline, but that isn’t enough. I’ve asked to take on more responsibility, asked for promotions, and asked for raises, things I never could have seen myself doing a few years ago. I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone and depict myself as ‘one of the guys’ and market myself to management. Now, I’ve gotten to the point where I’m asking myself, “why do I feel like I have to change part of who I am to meet my goals?”
The answer: I shouldn’t have to, but these days, the world is a quickly changing place. New scientific studies show global warming is accelerating much quicker than anybody anticipated. War has become so constant, average citizens barely even register that it’s happening. Technological advancements have skyrocketed, but nobody seems to have the attention span to read an entire article or finish a conversation about anything important. Why is it that most in my age bracket are fine wasting an entire evening binge watching the Walking Dead or Game of Thrones, but the average reading level of a college Freshman is 7th grade, and most can’t do simple math without the aid of a calculator?
We’re falling behind as a country, and I strongly believe the only way to change that is through solid, continuing education and increased interest in STEM fields. Scientists, engineers, technology and math specialists can lay the groundwork for improving our way of life. We’re slowly killing our world, and ultimately ourselves, unless we can change for the better, but we aren’t going to get anywhere if 50% of the workforce is left out of the picture. I learned recently that the demand for STEM workers has gone up, and the percentage of women enrolling for these fields of education has gone down. I was shocked by this knowledge, especially considering the feminist social movement seems to be picking up speed lately. Why are women, who are so eager to demand equal rights, so ready to leave the high impact, high paying work to men?
I’ll admit I’m not on board with all the ideas today’s feminists hold near and dear to their hearts, but I do agree that there are some definite inequalities. However, it’s time to stop simply talking about gender inequality, and take action. Gender discrimination in the workplace is illegal in this country, but laws don’t do one lick of good if women are voluntarily removing themselves from certain fields of work and study simply because women don’t generally do those types of things. You are the only one who can change your future, so stand up for yourself, pursue your passions regardless of what anybody else thinks, and don’t limit yourself to being the ‘office help.’
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Alyssa Montague is Document Control Manager at Hutton Construction, Inc.
- The Vision of an International Woman in STEM Education – by Dr. Neslihan Alp - March 15, 2015
- At Least She Was Never Bored – by Dr. Ruth Williams - March 15, 2015
- The Power of We – by Jemila Morson - March 15, 2015