It’s Women in Construction Week! I Build America – Kentucky is taking the opportunity to share the stories of the women across the state who make up our great industry. The stories of these women show the diverse backgrounds, interests, skills, and talents that are part of the work we do–and we encourage more women of all ages and interests to consider careers in construction.
You can follow along as the nation celebrates its female construction workforce. Check out the hashtag #WICWeek2022 and #IBuildAmericaKY!
The Women of Kentucky’s Workforce: Meet Jennifer
Name: Jennifer Van Vactor
Position: Director of Business Development and Marketing
Company: Louisville Paving and Construction
Years Working In Construction: 3
In your experience, what do women bring to the construction industry?
Women are often creative problem solvers and can empathize and connect with employees at multiple levels of an organization. Women also demand a certain work life balance that benefits employee morale.
In what ways does your company support more women joining the industry?
In recent years our company has rewritten or in some cases written formal policies on maternity and paternity leave, to include allowing for nontraditional work schedules to accommodate childcare hours.
What do you like most about working in construction?
I enjoy the people and the pace of the work at our office. The core values our owners created while putting our employees first makes my work feel valued and important.
If you were to give young women (high schoolers) advice about beginning a career in construction, what would you say?
A career in construction can take shape in many different forms not just one with a hard hat and hi-vis vest, for example: construction or safety manager, estimator, tech, business development, finance, or marketing.
