The Women In Trucking Association represents all women employed in the trucking industry. We represent the women who design the trucks, build the trucks, buy the trucks, fix the trucks, and drive the trucks. If you are one of the five percent of female drivers or one of the fourteen percent of female managers in the trucking industry, we are here for you.
The overall purpose of the organization is to increase the percentage of women working in the trucking industry to utilize unrealized potential. As former U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood said “After all – regardless of gender – everyone uses our transportation systems, and those systems will serve us more effectively when they are planned, designed, engineered, and built by the professionals who represent all of us.”
So, why are women under-represented within the management group of a typical trucking company? Remember the days of Smith (or Jones or Miller) and Sons Trucking? Many fathers brought their sons into the family business to carry on the tradition. Today, you can find many daughters who have taken over their parents’ companies, but there are still not enough women in the executive suite.
Although women comprise nearly half of the labor force and earn more degrees than their male peers, women in the top ranks in transportation careers are in the minority. Why should YOU want this to change?
Pepperdine University found a correlation between high-level female executives and business success. Harvard Business Review reported that firms with the best records for promoting women outperform industry medians with overall profits 34 percent higher. Catalyst Research found that companies with the highest representation of women leaders financially outperform, on average, companies with the lowest.
It makes good, financial sense to have more women in leadership roles within your organization. What are some of the reasons this hasn’t been accomplished so far? There are many things we can point to in order to understand why women aren’t more visible in top-level roles.
Most of all, in order to secure a place for women in leadership roles within the trucking industry, we need to better understand the values women bring to the boardroom. More importantly, we need to view those values as being important for company growth and stability.
After all, shouldn’t we follow former DOT Secretary LaHood’s advice and make sure the trucking industry management team represents those who rely on this industry to ensure their consumer needs are met?
Authored by Ellen Voie, Founder of Women in Trucking
Ellen Voie is founder of the Women In Trucking Association, womenintrucking.org. Ellen’s background in the trucking industry began in 1980, when she earned a diploma in Traffic and Transportation Management while employed as Traffic Manager for a steel fabricating plant in central Wisconsin.
