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.

But I didn't want to be repulsed. So I thought, "All right, how should I think about him instead?" Then I remembered the answer to the question "What is man?" in Science and Health. It begins: "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform usthat man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique" (p. 475).

As this man was berating me and threatening to pull all the other trade unions and their workers off the site and to close the project down, this description of God's man was going through my head. While all of this was happening, I had a moment of crystal-clear, pure thought about who he was as a man of God.

Then, all of a sudden I found myself talking about what a neat job he had as the labor foreman because he got to be the "enforcer" of harmony on the job. As I said this, he just lighted up. I could see his sense of dignity, self-worth, and integrity just take off with this thought of enforcing harmony.

Soon the union problems were resolved. We did not get struck down, the job finished on time, and for the remaining eight or nine months that we worked together, there was actually affection between this particular individual and me. The handshakes were respectful; the pats on the back, full of affection. I won't ever forget that fellow.

Andrea Palmer-Lawrenz
Elsah, Illinois

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