Tenn.-based Covenant when her father,
David, eventually retires. She jokes, however, that David Parker, only 52, “will
work until the very end.”
Old habits die hard
For an industry facing a “brain drain” as
the largely male old guard begins retiring,
removing barriers to women’s advancement could be considered more than a
moral imperative. Fortunately for women
seeking a foothold, there’s been a proliferation of educational programs enabling
professionals of both genders to obtain
the specialized skills increasingly required
in today’s marketplace.
“Women have made tremendous
strides, but those who have [done so] pos-
sess specific credentials, whether it be in
engineering, health care, or other fields,”
says Lasater of Red Arrow. Lasater says that
as she was coming up through the indus-
try, “you didn’t have advanced courses in
supply chain management. Today, women
have the ability to get the credentials need-
ed to advance and succeed.”
But women’s advocates say that change
also needs to happen on a less-tangible
front, namely in an awareness that women
can be effective transportation or logistics
leaders even though their leadership style
may have been perceived as too “soft” for
the often rough-and-tumble world they
work in.
“Many women in leadership roles are
consensus-builders, and they encourage
open, collegial relationships. That management style has traditionally not been
viewed as representing ‘leadership’ in our
business,” says Ellen Voie, a former executive at Schneider National Inc. and founder
of the Women In Trucking Association, a
three-year old non-profit group that advocates for greater representation of women
across all segments of trucking.
Voie admits that women “struggle with
an image problem” stemming from the
faulty perception that the industry feels
they should be seen and not heard. “I
don’t think people realize that the trucking industry actually welcomes women,”
she says.
Voie chalks up the current resistance to
women’s advancement as less a form of
deliberate discrimination than a reflection
of the industry’s historic unwillingness to change. “Old habits die hard,
so we need to call attention to things
that companies are doing” to promote
opportunities for women, she says.
Of course, there are some female
logistics executives who believe that
the old and entrenched ways are not
necessarily a hindrance. Gibson of
Craters & Freighters, for one, makes
no apologies for using certain
unique characteristics to her com-
petitive advantage.
