PWC presents 'Women in Construction' panel.

Professional Women in Construction (PWC), a national association, presented a workshop and panel discussion moderated by PWC president Lenore Janis on "Women in Construction" at the Competitive Edge Conference in New York City.

The panelists were Lina Gottesman, president of Altus Metal & Marble Maintenance, a woman-owned business enterprise (WBE) based in Stony Brook, N.Y.; Barbara Armand, president and CEO of Armand Corporation of Cherry Hill, N.J., a woman and minority-owned company (W/MBE), Joan Chao, president of Oriental Lumberland, Inc.(W/ MBE), of Brooklyn, N.Y. and Amy Peterson, P.E., president of Nontraditional Employment for Women. The workshop was arranged by Zenaida Chape, assistant director, MTA Office of Civil Rights.

Janis told the audience that when PWC was formed in 1980 "discrimination against women was rampant. The support of an organization like PWC was essential to all of us." By 1985 PWC opened its door to the men in the industry and has been growing ever since."

Janis was appointed the first woman to head the Bureau of Building Management for the NYC Dept. of Sanitation in 1986. Since the mid 1990s, she devoted herself full-time to PWC and its expansion.

Armand described her own uphill climb to transform a small, home-based business into a successful construction management and engineering consulting company. Armed with a "non-traditional" degree--in math--and a minor in physics, she weathered several extremely difficult years until at last she was able to buy an office building to house the company and her staff of 21.

"I believe in perseverance and meeting challenges as they arise," said Armand.

Gottesman said that though her lather owned a masonry and stone business, she hailed from a time when women became "nurses, secretaries or teachers." With a degree in nursing, she advanced in her profession and enjoyed it, yet the lure of construction eventually emboldened her to launch her own company in 1989.

But Gottesman reported that she still continues to encounter skepticism and outright discrimination. "I always speak up," she said. "I won't remain silent if someone crosses the line."

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Chao, representing the retail and supply arm of the industry, began her business as a partnership in 1986, then continued on her own in 1991. She finds that "The real challenge for a woman with a successful business is to break into the major projects such as Yankee Stadium."

Chao said that she sells to several major public agencies and hopes to work with the giants of private industry in the future as her company continues to grow.

Peterson said that the pre-apprenticeship training programs lead graduates to careers that pay considerably more than jobs traditionally held by women. Although the percentage of women in the labor force remains small, "we're starting to see women laborers and tradeswomen in the field," said Peterson.

For business owners, Gottesman noted, "networking is the most effective way of gaining business. Through interaction and exchanging ideas all parties prosper."