(Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) – For many women, the past year has brought new challenges, with more women than men exiting the workforce and mothers reporting taking on additional responsibilities at home.
Northeast Florida’s transportation industry is not immune to that reality.
“I think that many women have experienced more challenges during this past year than pre-pandemic years,” said April Bacchus, a senior transportation planner with the engineering firm England-Thims & Miller. “For example, many women found themselves working from home while simultaneously tending to their children’s needs, or other household needs. So, I think the pandemic has created additional work-life-balance challenges for women more so than men.”
Bacchus is the president of the Northeast Florida chapter of WTS, an organization that champions, inspires and educates women in the transportation industry and has more than 4,100 members and scores of chapters across the world.
Last month, the WTS Northeast Florida chapter recognized a half dozen women in the transportation field and awarded $3,000 in scholarships to women, and young women to encourage their educational pursuits.
Angie Williams, a design & construction project manager with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority who is pursuing her master’s degree, was one of the scholarship recipients. The Jacksonville native has worked in the industry for six years.
“It’s the best-known secret. There are a lot of people who know about transportation,” Williams said. “What it looks like, what it feels like, that’s not known to many people. Transportation is more than a bus, a cab or a car. More women would be open to a career in transportation if they knew it was more than a vehicle.”
Debra Johnson implored local transportation employees that women too frequently second-guess themselves. The CEO of Denver’s Regional Transportation District reminded a group of nearly 50 people in Northeast Florida’s transportation community — a vast majority of whom were women — that if “we don’t believe in ourselves, who else will?”
Johnson, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit CEO Adelee Le Grand and JTA board chair Ari Jolly recently participated in a seminar “Shattering the Glass Ceiling.” Sponsored by the Council of Minority Transportation Officials’ Jacksonville chapter, the discussion aimed to drop knowledge and affirmation on local women in transportation from leaders in the sector near and far.
Le Grand, a mother of four who has worked in transportation for nearly three decades, said a number of careers within the transportation industry that have wraparound benefits that could help women advance.
“Being in a space where you know you are respected and you know there are other people who have gone through a similar journey, it’s worthwhile,” Le Grand said. “…Women should know transit is a space where you are part of a good team, you will be respected, and you will grow and flourish here.”
The post-pandemic marketplace has emphasized the need for networking, in part because there are available jobs — and they are being filled.
According to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the 50,000 people in Northeast Florida who work in the transportation, warehousing and utilities sector in February is 200 more people than were employed in the industry in February 2020. That is the antithesis of statewide figures where there were 10,300 fewer jobs in the transportation, warehousing and utilities field in February — a 2.1 % decrease.
As the economy continues to emerge from the depths of the pandemic, this may be as good a time as any for the transportation industry to welcome more women into the fold. Bacchus has found there are a plethora of phenomenal women in the region’s transportation sector. The challenge is fostering a climate where more women can serve on boards, in executive suites and in positions that can elevate the community.
“The transportation industry here is very multimodal,” Bacchus said. “We have a (growing) and flourishing industry. There are many women behind the scenes and in front of the scenes who have contributed to that wonderful legacy.”