Posted on March 18, 2022
Post categories: Construction Management Equity, Diversity & Inclusion News
In honor of Women’s History Month, we asked Teaching Assistant Professor, Darlene Septelka, to share her experience as a woman with 50 years of experience in the construction field.
Growing up, Darlene didn’t experience the gendering of toys. Her parents made no distinction between playing with trucks, blocks or Barbies. “I never felt like ‘girls don’t do that,’ or that I should be playing with dolls, or that there was a role I needed to portray.” One day her dad dumped a pile of sand in the backyard, and she spent hours building cities in it.
When Darlene was in junior high, a vocational school opened up in her district. Her parents felt that graduating with a practical skill was important, so she was one of the few women who enrolled. Darlene majored in electronics as one of just five girls in her graduating class. She then went on to technical college where she switched from electronics to civil engineering, and earned her associate’s degree.
“I always liked seeing how things were built.”
Being in the minority as a woman at her vocational school prepared her for a career in a male-dominated field.