Women in ITE - Blog

Each month we will explore a new topic that contributes to safe, equal opportunities in the transportation profession and the communities we serve. The sidebar shows a tentative schedule for topics

Monthly Topics

I joined this committee when I realized we could make a difference – so much great work is out there. -Jen Malzer, Canadian District

I joined this committee because I remember being the only female engineer in many settings early in my career. I was fortunate enough to have great mentors surrounding and supporting me. I want to help other engineers have the same level of confidence that I was able to experiences. - Angela Garland, P.E., PTOE, RSP1

Tweet #womenofITE

How to Manage a Diverse Range of Staff

Our workforce is becoming increasingly diverse – not just by gender, ethnicity or age, but also in the way we think, how we communicate, what motivates us, etc. This creates a challenge for managers, but also an incredible opportunity.

Diversity is an Asset

Diversity in the workplace is not just a social value - it's a strategic asset that drives innovation, creativity, and better decision-making. “Minority viewpoints are important, not because they tend to prevail but because they stimulate divergent attention and thoughts,” says Berkely psychologist Charlan Nemeth. “As a result, even when they are wrong they contribute to the detection of novel solutions and decisions that, on balance, are qualitatively better.” This means that having a variety of perspectives at the table not only allows you to draw from a broader range of experience and have more insight to learn from, but it also challenges leaders to improve their judgement and seek more innovative solutions. Organizations also benefit from having access to an increased talent pool. Potential candidates from underrepresented groups may perceive a company that lacks diversity as psychologically unsafe or somewhere they will be limited in their ability to grow and develop professionally. This in turn can make them less likely to apply and essentially create a self-perpetuating cycle where a homogenous workforce leads to further uniformity in recruitment.

Everyone is Different

Examples of the benefits of having diverse makeup are mimicked in everything from the natural environment (higher biodiversity correlates to better resilience and healthier ecosystems) to stocks and asset management (diversifying portfolios typically leads to reduced financial risk). Lack of uniformity, however, can lead to its own set of challenges which require leadership to have a higher level of emotional intelligence and cultural fluency. We’re all products of our past, so our behaviors and perspectives reflect the lessons we've learned and the challenges we've faced. Leaders can’t expect to take a copy/paste approach to managing their staff and expect to build trust and morale consistently across their team. Instead, managers need to take the time and effort to understand any existing biases or limitations of their own, while also developing a customized management approach that works best for each member of their staff.

Best Practices for Leadership

Leadership practices play a pivotal role in fostering a safe and productive work environment where people of all backgrounds can thrive. The following are some best practices to consider when finetuning your own unique management approach:

Offer hybrid/remote work and part-time job opportunities. Remote work allows your employee to save time on getting ready, packing their lunch and commuting into the office and instead reallocate it towards taking care of elderly family members, raising young children or maintaining their preferred hobbies. Part-time options give people the choice of whether more money and benefits is worth consistently selling you more of their daily life. Give people as much freedom to dictate what they do with their day as you possibly can.
Offer a variety of benefits that appeal to a broader group of people. These can include fertility benefits, parental leave, floating holidays and others. A variety of atypical benefits helps accommodate a broader range of lifestyles and brings the added bonus of helping to differentiate you from other companies competing for talent.
Make good faith efforts to recruit a diverse applicant pool, particularly underutilized minorities and women. At the very least try to hire diverse staff that have varying opinions and perspectives.
Aim to have the diversity of your staff reflected in your leadership team. A large number of decisions often get made by a small number of people and it’s important for those people to be representative of the community they’re speaking for.
Be cautious about giving unsolicited advice. Your advice is likely an attempt to share what works best for you or what you’ve seen work well for others but that doesn’t mean it’s the Bingo! solution for everyone. A lot of people are incredibly similar to one another, but some are much more unique. Your job is to exploit those differences and leverage them, not attempt to turn your entire team into carbon copies of one another. If someone is catching your eye because they’re doing something you don’t understand, first give space to the thought that you might just be limited in your understanding of how to approach that given task.
Encourage your team to communicate openly and be receptive to feedback. I was asked to support a colleague in leading a project pursuit while our boss was out sick. In our first meeting, he was so excited that he spoke over everyone the entire time. Afterwards I went to his office and told him it was upsetting that I wasn’t able to get a word in and that I thought he needed to allow the rest of the team to offer their input since this was supposed to be a team effort. He looked utterly shocked, immediately apologized and explained he was so excited at the opportunity to lead the pursuit that he hadn’t even noticed he was doing it. Not only did our teamwork improve exponentially going forward, but my respect for him also grew. Showing your team that open communication and being receptive to feedback is important will allow them to grow their own ability to resolve conflicts and overcome differences in a way that’s healthy and constructive.
Host smaller group meetings and foster balanced dialogue. Most personalities will be less likely to speak up when in a larger group setting. Right-size your discussions to encourage everyone to speak up and pitch their ideas. Try to gently make sure you engage everyone in the meeting so that they know you value their thoughts just as much as others who never miss an opportunity to voice theirs.
Practice active listening. Set aside routine one-on-one time with each staff member to get to know them. Only speak to ask thoughtful questions or try and seek further understanding. This can create a safe space for employees to share their thoughts, discuss their backgrounds and explain what obstacles they’ve had to overcome in life and their careers. Sincerely listening can give you important insight into what your staff values, how they communicate, issues to be sensitive to, ways they like to be recognized, and how to deliver individual feedback.
Be transparent. Our jobs can be heavily political at times and that makes it difficult to build trust amongst peers and staff. Being completely transparent with people demonstrates that you’re doing what you can to keep everyone informed and to foster open dialogue. It also allows organizational decisions to be stress-tested across the wide range of people they impact.
Practice patience. Behavior modification typically takes about 18 months of constant reinforcement. Be patient with your staff and be patient with yourself. All people are capable of change, but it can’t be expected to happen overnight.

References
Grant, A. (2016). Originals: How non-conformists move the world.
https://hbr.org/2021/12/are-you-prepared-to-lead-a-diverse-team

“Best of” Women in ITE

For the past six years, the Women in ITE committee have written a blog post every single month... which has created quite the repository of over 70 articles! The topics covered throughout the time of the WITE blog cover a wide range of material and subjects, including personal or professional development, technical focused, global conversations, women-related, interviews with transportation professionals, and festive posts celebrating holidays throughout the year.

As we begin 2025, we wanted to look back at the blogs that have been written and highlight some of the “Best of” WITE posts over the years. Below you will find a short synopsis of the topic discussed and a link to the full blog post if you would like to read further into the topic.

Topic	General Synopsis
Spotlight on Women in ITE (February 2019)	This blog highlighted several women who are actively involved in ITE but that are at different points in their career and asked them for insight on: mentors/role models, their best advice, and around coaching girls on Engineering and ITE. Readers with varying levels of experience can feel inspired and reaffirmed by learning from the timeless words of wisdom these women have to offer.
Taking Public Transit as a Woman (July 2019)	A brief overview is provided in this blog focused on the difference in travel experience between men and women in transit environments. References are provided for studies that analyzed varying travel behaviors, trip purposes, and safety concerns and the blog concludes by providing useful resources and strategies to design safer transit environments for women.
Young Women in the Workforce (December 2019)	Regardless of education or experience, being a young woman in the workforce presents its own special challenges. This blog discusses strategies, tips, things to watch out for, and offers words of encouragement to comfort and assist young women in the earlier stages of their career.
Imposter Syndrome (February 2020)	Research suggests that women may be more likely to be held back by feelings of “impostorism”. This blog explains what the imposter syndrome phenomenon is and provides a list of useful strategies to help combat it.
Mental Load (June 2020)	Mental load is referred to as the phenomenon that primary caregivers experience when they take care of the household/family management in addition to their daily jobs. This blog discusses the weight of this mental load, how it is often overlooked by those not carrying it, and effective ways that employers and other caregivers can help those who are struggling with it.
Stop the Leaky Pipe (October 2020)	This blog summarizes a LeadershipITE project centered around the trend of people leaving the transportation industry. Takeaways from the survey efforts are incredibly insightful and shed light on what obstacles our profession must learn to overcome in order to improve our ability to retain talent. The project also identified one key solution that was found to effectively "Stop the Leaky Pipe".
Using Social Media to Grow Your Profile (January 2021)	This blog interviews four social media influencers and discusses tips and tricks for online success. Readers will gain insight to varying opinions on what social media platforms are most effective, how often they should try to post, how much time they should budget to account for generating content, how to deal with negative feedback, lessons learned and more!
Gender Inclusive Language in the Workplace (June 2021)	In honor of Pride, this blog discusses how to use gender-inclusive language to foster an environment where everybody can thrive. It is especially helpful for people who do not personally identify as LGBTQ+ and helps give tips on how they can learn to be more respectful and inclusive of others who are trans or gender non-conforming.
Promotion (October 2021)	In recognition of gender disparity in the workplace and the issues it causes for women, the focus of this blog is to highlight “Self-promotion” as an effective strategy for women to get recognized and advance in their career. The post explains reasons why you should be pro-active in making your achievements and progress visible to supervisors and offers effective mantras and resources to help you do it effectively.
Evidence-Based Design: Streets and Spaces for Women and Girls (April 2022)	This blog touches on a few indicators that are being used, as well as guidance documents, to build infrastructure that will lead to safer and more inclusive communities in relation to the understanding and designing for the needs of women and girls.
Effective Communication to Build a Strong Reputation (September 2022)	Ever wonder what it means to communicate? And what makes communication effective or ineffective? This blog post highlights tips, tricks, and suggestions to help fellow professionals build a strong reputation and be a valued member of your team.
Gender Equity in Transportation (November 2022)	Did you know only 15% of the 14.8 million people in the transportation workforce are women? There is a lot of talk in our industry on the issues of safety and diversity but there has not been enough action to match those words and intent. Read through this blog post to learn more about MobilityXX -a program developed by ITS America, The Ray, and WTS International to make major strides within the industry to increase that frustratingly low 15% of women in the industry by 10% over the next 10 years.
Women in Transportation Making History (March 2023)	This blog post highlights women within ITE who are writing their own history as female entrepreneurs. Check out this blog post to read more from six influential women in the industry on their favorite (and least favorite!) parts of owning a business, exciting project wins, and advice to share for those interested in becoming a transportation entrepreneur.
Tools to Create Work-Life Balance (May 2023)	Conscious or not, we all make decisions related to work-life balance on a regular basis. This blog post captures various responses to several survey questions related to the topic of balancing work and life responsibilities and provides a list of tools and strategies that may be helpful to you.
Age Is Just A Number, Until That Number Becomes Ageism (February 2024)	"Aging is not an option, not for anyone. It is how gracefully we handle the process and how lucky we are, as the process handles us". Check out this blog post for information and research related to the topic of ageism, both in the workplace and in society, along with suggestions on how to prevent ageism in the professional workplace.