Updated:
1/12/2010 4:30:00 PM
Opinion: Women in the Trucking Industry
By Ellen Voie
Founder and CEO
Women in Trucking Association Inc.
This Opinion piece appears in the Jan. 11 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
A friend once told me to “lead from a position of strength.” This helpful piece of advice is a reminder that people don’t want to follow negativity — especially in these turbulent times. They want leaders who can offer them something positive.
The late Edwin Friedman, who was both a rabbi and a leadership consultant, once defined leadership as “a capacity to define oneself to others in a way that clarifies and expands a vision of the future.”
At Women in Trucking, we are focusing our efforts on making the trucking industry a better environment both for women and for men. We know that even in 2010, there are lingering remnants of a historically male-dominated profession — including some “old- timers” who still resist change. Our goal is to help them envision a future that includes more women behind the wheel, under the hood and in the executive office. To do that, we must clarify that ideal and present a positive reason for change.
Although change will come slowly, and some will balk at it, as Friedman noted, “Resistance is part of the process of leadership and often elicits negative reactions at first.”
We realize that an entire industry the size of trucking cannot adapt to change as easily as one company or one vocation. As Friedman taught, “Tremendous energy is needed to tip a system out of equilibrium,” and change cannot occur without “disturbing the homeostasis.”
However, once people start sharing a vision, the momentum is advanced and a tipping point is reached. That’s when real change can occur.
Our vision includes a more driver-friendly environment with equal representation from both sexes. Respect for one another as professionals will be the basis for this new attitude. Our members have earned their place as trucking professionals but often are viewed as less competent than their male peers.
Even as we move further into the 21st century, we are still surprised when the person in coveralls who slides out from under the vehicle is a woman. Nor do we automatically assume that the woman greeting us at the dealership is qualified to sell a Class 8 tractor. When a woman is named CEO of a major fleet, it’s still newsworthy simply because she’s a woman.
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