Glass Ceilings

It happens a lot in business. I'm told in order to be successful I should act less like a woman and more like a man. It's commonly said that a woman is too emotional to truly climb the corporate ladder. Too emotional and our minds and thoughts are scattered and unorganized. We are impulsive. And for those reasons we have a glass ceiling. I call BULLSHIT.

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I've never hid my femininity from the corporate types. I've been emotional when I felt it appropriate. I throw ideas out left and right when I'm feeling creative; regardless of how stream of consciousness or left field they might be. I've been myself, and to the disappointment of many of my male peers (and on occasion superiors) I've been highly successful. And I've done it in an extremely technical, heavily engineering-driven, "man's world" industry.

I thought I was a badass. And then I met Despina

Like me, she has spent most of her career in male-dominated industries. She spent many years as a Civil Engineer working in traffic engineering where she was the only female in the company. She was promoted and faced a lot of animosity from her male peers. But she didn't care. She worked hard, she deserved it, and she was chosen based on merit. Her approach was different than mine; she gave in to the BS. She stopped wearing make up to work. She never showed emotion. She lived in a man's world, and acted just like the men.

And Then Her World Changed

Her husband of 12 years decided to go back into active duty military during war time. He's a physician and wanted to help. Immediately he was deployed on a submarine. Gone under the ocean for six months. You don't get phone calls or emails from sailors on a boat. You can, in emergency situations, contact the spouse liaison who will contact the ship's captain. Who may or may not respond depending on what's going on at the time. The guys on the boat prepare, practice and drill every single day for events that may or may not happen. They are on a mission and that mission does not stop for any at-home emergency. The submarines house Seal teams and the missions are top priority.

She Worried and She Cried Every Single Day

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6 months later her husband is home safely, but not without incident. For reasons nobody can explain (or is allowed to say) they had problems on the sub. How she described it (from his words) is the wall became the floor. The submarine had rocked and literally turned on it's side. There was diesel fuel spilling everywhere, and potential fires in multiple places. Men were thrown about with several injuries. There were zero fires and zero casualties that day.

Quality Engineering Saved Lives

Later they attend a Navy gala event. Despina was fortunate to meet a Navy Admiral. Immediately she thanked him for bringing her husband home safely. He replied "I did not, but our suppliers, engineers and 'team submarine' did". Team Submarine is what they call the folks at General Dynamics-Electric Boat. If you're not familiar, they make all the military vehicles; combat tanks, submarines, aircraft and aircraft carriers. She then said, "Sir, I don't know exactly what that is, but I would like to work for you and Team Submarine". When he asked why, she said with tears in her eyes

"I Want to Give Back"

And that was all he needed to hear. She landed an amazing job because of her emotion. Fast forward a few years and she now is responsible for the primary design of the new Columbia Class submarine. This is the largest and most advanced engineered nuclear submarine in the history of the world.

So as you can imagine she is a very busy woman. Hugely crucial role in a company that builds military vehicles. There really isn't more of a male-dominated industry than military engineering. Yet she's on top. And never, not once, hid her emotion in this role.

Yesterday she was at my place of business (we make a component part for all submarine classes) and she cried in front of all 100 employees at my facility. She is a VP level, yet takes time out of her schedule to come to suppliers and be nothing more than a military wife who is grateful for quality workmanship that saves lives. She came to thank us.

She cried as she told her story. She didn't hide any of her so-called female emotions that supposedly will hold her back in her career. She was a woman, an engineer, and a wife. She was the most human of anyone in her field I've ever met.

She Succeeded in Her Career BECAUSE She's a Woman, Not Despite It

Later we are on a shop tour of our facility, and she asks me "So how it is being the only woman on the management team?" We have a nice 30 minute discussion about it. She's the first one to ever notice.

So, Despina is responsible now for a $100B (yep billion) project that will save countless lives. She got there from being emotional. From impulsively asking for something. For speaking her mind on a whim in what was actually just a random idea.

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