![\"Panel](\"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/23-0836-TNBA-March-E-newsletter-5.jpg\")
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The construction industry has never been as popular a career path for women as it is for men, but that hasn\u2019t stopped two employees of the Mears Group. Heather Gold and Sada McGee have helped break down barriers in their field.<\/p>\n
A TNBA Platinum Member organization, Mears Group offers engineering, construction and maintenance services in the oil, natural gas, electric and telecommunications industries.<\/p>\n
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up nearly 11% of the construction workforce, and McGee and Gold are both ready to celebrate Women in Construction Week, March 5 through 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the first female to work in the water distribution department in the city of Bloomington, Illinois,\u201d McGee says, referring to her position before she joined Mears. \u201cI drove a dump truck to fix water main breaks and replace fire hydrants. I got a lot of strange looks, so I always felt an extra drive to try harder to get people to take me seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the current subsurface and damage prevention safety manager at Mears Group, McGee tries to overturn preconceived notions some may have about women in the construction industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce people took me seriously I didn’t feel different anymore,\u201d says McGee. \u201cIt makes me feel proud that I was able to win people over, but it didn\u2019t come easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like McGee, Gold is one of several women in key roles at Mears Group. She spends her time working to advance the image and visibility of Mears Group as the vice president of external affairs for the company\u2019s broadband division.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of my work is speaking engagements at meetings and conferences, and making sure our other executives have exposure to discuss broadband development,\u201d Gold says. \u201cThere\u2019s also a lot of time spent to identify opportunities from regulatory change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whether they\u2019re out in the field or in the office, women play vital roles in the construction industry \u2014 opportunities which Gold and McGee hope to help expand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not like as a young girl I was dreaming of fixing water main breaks, but I actually really enjoyed it,\u201d McGee says. \u201cNow, as I help with directional drilling in the field as part of the broadband safety team, it\u2019s been fantastic. I always encourage people to never set any limitations on yourself. Anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The construction industry has never been as popular a career path for women as it is for men, but that hasn\u2019t stopped two employees of the Mears Group. Heather Gold and Sada McGee have helped break down barriers in their field. A TNBA Platinum Member organization, Mears Group offers engineering, construction and maintenance services in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":41447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,306],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41446"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41452,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41446\/revisions\/41452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennesseebroadband.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}