Article August 3, 1998 Issue

A CONSTRUCTION MANAGER, A PIONEER, A WOMAN

Andrea Palmer-Lawrenz

I have a very fun job managing construction projects. I've built lots of big buildings and worked with lots of construction personnel, who are usually men and not often used to working closely with a woman out in the field. Sometimes they challenge my expertise and authority, but usually that stops after a while.

On one project recently, though, the foreman for the laborers' union was very aggressive. He was like a cartoon of the big, tough guy who was going to cause trouble and would in no way put up with "a woman" managing the project. I represented the owner at that time, so both the architect and the contractor were under my direction. I would walk out on the site to make sure things were going well, and you could tell that this individual and his union members resented my presence.

At one point there was a confrontation between a couple of the trade unions. They were threatening to pull a strike, which would have hurt the project because we had a deadline for completion. In an effort to resolve these problems, the laborers' foreman and I met on the site one day to talk. He was very abusive both with his language and mannerism—swearing at me and saying things about my not knowing what I was doing because I'm a woman. At first, I was repulsed by him—by his appearance, by the way he was treating me, and by his lack of respect for the project.

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