Reply To: Women working in a male-dominated industry

[Jay Smith]

Case in point- after one meeting, i told my boss about the comments and suggestions i’d made, and how the client (architect) and other team members totally dismissed them. I asked him to send a memo to the team reaffirming the suggestions i’d made. All of a sudden, the client was like ‘yeah, ok, that might be a good idea.’ My coworker Beth said she has encountered the same situations, and taken the same course of action. We’ve both learned that certain clients just won’t listen to us, no matter what we say; it has to come from the bossman.

 

You just described a scenario that I have experienced as a male Landscape Architect hundreds of times in my first several years in the profession.  And I certainly don’t mean to make light of gender discrimation, as I’m sure it exists, but when this happens to me, I cannot blame it on gender or race.  I stopped counting the amount of times myself or my fellow lower level associates would have a fustrated client/architect on the phone, only to have my boss or other higher management person step in and appease them by offerering the exact same information.  It takes time to develop respect and trust.  I would bet that youth and your L.A. title are working against you more so than your gender.  By the way, I’ve been hired by and worked for three female L.A.’s so far, and they were very respected, effective leaders.