While interviewing our Contractor of the Year, our building’s fire alarm went off. Right in the middle of the question, “So, Susan, tell me what you do to unwind when you’re not being Superwoman?” 

When you’re in grade school, they teach you: if you hear an alarm, move it. But I was admittedly more interested in hearing Susan’s answer.

Susan asks me, “Is that a fire alarm? You should probably go.”

Women do a lot these days. Now, they’re even being urged to fill in the trades’ shortage. This was something that Susan touched on in her recent TEDxCrestmoorParkWomen talk, “The Runaway Train of the Skilled Trades Crisis.”

“What if we could fill some of these million jobs with a woman? What if she is out there?” she asks.

So, what if she is?

I just got out of a meeting today with a plumbing manufacturer that realized something a lot of companies have: we have, like, one woman working in our entire factory. A lot of it is stigma, which we all know exists, but then there are the physical limitations. This company found a way to reduce the physical limitations, and now there are 30 women working in the factory. Not a huge increase, but it’s a start.

So, let’s keep starting.

But it shouldn’t be about finding women just to fill spots. Susan isn’t just a check off the diversity checklist. She’s a woman who truly knows her stuff and bleeds blue. How many untapped talents like her are out there?