Thriving As A Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry: Beth Duyvejonck Of Opus Design Build On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry

An Interview With Kelly Reeves

Courage. Equity work encourages allies to consider what under-represented groups need to be successful; however, women in male-dominated industries are often opposed to personal advocacy for fear that asking for or receiving advocacy will be seen as special treatment and will make them appear weak. Female employees must have the courage to be curious about the culture of the company in which they work, to identify which leaders are diversity allies and advocates and to discover how self-advocacy is perceived and pursued within the organization. Be ready to have hard conversations and to ask questions that challenge society’s shared view of the world without triggering defensiveness.

In the United States, fields such as Aircraft piloting, Agriculture, Architecture, Construction, Finance, and Information technology, are still male-dominated industries. For a woman who is working in a male-dominated environment, what exactly does it take to thrive and succeed? In this interview series, we are talking to successful women who work in a Male-Dominated Industry who can share their stories and experiences about navigating work and life as strong women in a male-dominated industry. As a part of this series, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Beth Duyvejonck, P.E., LEED AP.

Beth Duyvejonck is a construction leader passionate about equity and inclusion in STEM and the skilled trades. She is regional vice president of construction for Opus Design Build, L.L.C., one of the operating subsidiaries of The Opus Group, a family of commercial real estate development, construction and design companies headquartered in Minneapolis with offices and projects across the country. Beth has a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University and Master of Arts degree in Organizational Leadership from St. Catherine University. She completed her thesis on gender work and presents to group of allies motivated to make a difference.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

Unlike many construction professionals, I don’t have family connections in the industry. My dad was an accountant and my mom was a math major. Me going into engineering wasn’t a shock considering those math genes, but construction did throw many for a loop. I was always good with spacial relations, though, and the ability to visualize in three dimensions, as evidenced in my trunk-loading skills and Tetris expertise.

Can you tell us the story about what led you to this particular career path?

My career choice was definitely a pursuit of passion, but it was not without its challenges. I loved math and science in school, and I was also talented in art and enjoyed architecture. Unfortunately, however, I wasn’t aware of construction engineering as a major or a career path when I was in high school. This is actually a very limiting factor for both men and women — the fact that there are so many careers related to technology and skilled trades that we weren’t then and still aren’t now effectively branded to future generations.

I ended up choosing civil engineering at Iowa State University because of the strength of their engineering college and the scholarship opportunities provided to me. In my first semester, the engineering college offered a seminar during which each engineering discipline explained their program and future career opportunities. This was the first time I heard of construction engineering, and it sounded like the perfect marriage of math and architecture. I transferred during my first semester and never looked back despite many attempts by advisors and mentors to change my course simply because I’m a woman. These naysayers — who told me a female leadership style wouldn’t resonate in construction engineering, that I should instead pursue property or facility management because the construction industry is too harsh for women, and that I should be sure to take a job near my family in the Midwest because women need to live close to their mothers — further fueled my interest in construction and remain an important part of my story in this incredible field of study and work.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I’d like to share two accomplishments since I began my career that I’m very proud of. I believe they best tell the story of who I am.

First, my work has shaped the skyline of Minneapolis. I worked on four well-known and highly visible high-rise residential projects, which I have the privilege of pointing out to my two teenage daughters. They’re growing up in a world where their mom wears a hard hat and shapes communities. This is a powerful message of endurance and hope in the future.

Second, I never imagined that I would be a published author on the topics of gender, leadership and tokenism. That’s been a very interesting and windy road. In the fall of 2018, I returned to academia to gain a Master of Organizational Leadership degree (MAOL). At the time, I was a director of construction for Opus Design Build, a wife to a working husband, and a mother to two young daughters. I had no idea that my MAOL degree would take me down a path of study and self-reflection on gender roles. But as it turns out, my MAOL thesis research project explored how women leaders in male-dominated environments experience gender and corporate culture before, during and after diversity initiatives. My goal was to identify recommendations for gender inclusive, effective and sustainable organizational culture change. My qualitative study findings provided a fascinating lens to explore the experience of women leaders inside male-dominated industries. The conclusion presented both an opportunity for tension and an opportunity to explore how development by women and men could disrupt a cycle that has withstood generations of attempts towards equity.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Competence. I can say now with confidence that I’m very good at my job. Throughout my career, I’ve focused on keeping my skills and knowledge relevant and current. I’m proactive, accurate, detailed and timely with my work product. Once I established a reputation for being qualified and competent, I became a trusted leader of project teams.

Communication. Construction project management is a team sport. An effectively led project means everyone is informed of status in an efficient manner. This requires succinct communication — written and verbal, and I developed these skills quickly.

Patience. This was the slowest trait for me to build as a strength. As a construction project manager, pace is critical, so you try to get things done as efficiently as possible. Initially, I interpreted that to mean doing everything myself. I didn’t begin to appreciate the importance of patience until I became a people manager and was responsible for building talent in others. My team is familiar with my trick of placing a finger on my cheek. This evolved from literally holding my own mouth shut during meetings with my reports to allow them to speak first. Eventually, I could touch my cheek instead of holding my lips closed! It might be easier and quicker as a manager to tell your reports what to do next in order to solve a problem, but that doesn’t build their skills or talent. A good manager gives their report space to problem solve and process situations. That requires patience and active listening, and I had to learn to slow myself down to give my team the space needed to process, learn, problem solve and make mistakes so they could build their strengths. The fun part is now observing the ways that my team is better than I am at so many things.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Can you help articulate a few of the biggest obstacles or challenges you’ve had to overcome while working in a male-dominated industry?

The biggest challenge I’ve had to overcome is the expectation of other people; they are often unaware of their blinders and the hurdles this puts in the path to success for the team. I’ve learned to have clear and direct conversations about the impact of unrealized expectations. Once we learn to see the world through other lenses, we can elevate how we work together. And having this type of direct conversation, avoiding defensive reactions, goes way beyond gender dynamics. It’s about how we can best show up and support one another and elevate any team dynamic.

Can you share a few of the things you have done to gain acceptance among your male peers and the general work community? What did your female co-workers do? Can you share some stories or examples?

For me, these are the same as the three character traits I developed that were instrumental to my success. We often try to silo diversity topics, but true effectiveness happens when we integrate acceptance and opportunities for success into everyone’s work experience. I’ve had very few female peers as co-workers over my nearly 30 years in the construction industry. Unfortunately, the retention rate for women in the industry is very low, and, over those 30 years, women have made up just 10% of the industry — this, regardless of the increases and improvements in recruiting efforts. Most of my mentors, as I advanced, were men. In my early days, I had to go outside my company and, oftentimes, outside the industry to find a female mentor or a female peer. This was very isolating and lonely. Now that I’m in a position with some influence and power, I’m very intentional about making myself available as a mentor to women at Opus and women throughout the construction industry.

What do you think male-oriented organizations can do to enhance their recruiting efforts to attract more women?

In industries like construction that have such low female representation, women remain at risk of experiencing implicit gender bias and tokenism — both of which are barriers to leadership for women working in traditionally male-dominated environments. This creates challenges to recruiting but perhaps more importantly to retention. My advice to male-oriented organizations is to focus on the retention of women as I believe recruiting improvements will naturally follow once we create work environments where women have the opportunity to be engaged and successful. The first step in improving retention is to build trust with women. Organizations need to actively listen to the feedback of women and take action on what they hear. Leaders must create organizations that are responsive to the development needs of the team.

Based on your opinion and experience, what are the “Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed as a Woman In a Male-Dominated Industry?”

I think of this as “how to maintain a diverse ecosystem at work.” And, by the way, diverse ecosystems are always more resilient! A 2023 article in World Economic Forum does a great job of explaining this. To achieve and maintain a diverse ecosystem requires that company leadership — men and women — embrace a culture of diversity and that its female employees embrace the diversity they provide.

For company leaders, I strongly encourage use of a tool I call Bias-Informed Advocacy, through which they recognize and challenge unwritten and harmful habits and patterns common in the workplace — such as not giving women full credit for their ideas, expecting any/all women to take notes during meetings, basing female employees’ promotions and raises on personality traits and behaviors. Unlike traditional change management, Bias-Informed Advocacy requires leaders to examine their own biases and beliefs, to become self and situationally aware and to ultimately become advocates and inclusive leaders working to recruit, retain and promote women in the workplace. I can’t overstate the importance of leaders modeling the behaviors that they want to see in their teams. If the following “five things” are important for women to thrive and succeed, these same five things need to be modeled by leaders of both genders as being the expected way for the organization to interact with one another.

1. Courage. Equity work encourages allies to consider what under-represented groups need to be successful; however, women in male-dominated industries are often opposed to personal advocacy for fear that asking for or receiving advocacy will be seen as special treatment and will make them appear weak. Female employees must have the courage to be curious about the culture of the company in which they work, to identify which leaders are diversity allies and advocates and to discover how self-advocacy is perceived and pursued within the organization. Be ready to have hard conversations and to ask questions that challenge society’s shared view of the world without triggering defensiveness.
2. Competence. An adept ability and my willingness to showcase that ability left no doubt that I deserve to be successful in the construction industry, male-dominated or not. Whether man or woman, every employee should develop their competence, demonstrate their competence, and be confident in their competence; but, due to societal norms and the need to sometimes defy expectations, this is more important if you’re a woman.
3. Candor. Not to be confused with being ruthless, candor is being direct and honest even when discussing challenging topics or issues. Ambiguity leaves too much room for misinterpretation, and tip-toing around a subject can be perceived as a sign of weakness and is often ineffective. Candor, however, is a highly valuable communication skill that delivers clarity and conveys confidence. To be taken seriously, women must be willing to speak their truth.
4. Commitment. I have a quote on my office whiteboard by political activist Angela Davis that says, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” Sometimes, often times, commitment requires tenacity, persistence and a willingness to accept even the smallest of victories as the greatest of triumphs — and the greatest of defeats as the smallest of obstacles.
5. Curating a network. Women leaders in all industries experience decreased opportunities for mentoring, sponsorship and professional support. This is sometimes as apparent as not being invited to company golf or hunting trips, but it’s also more complex. Women’s natural networks, both professional and personal, include fewer corporate peers. I see this more so as I advance in leadership, and it requires me to be more intentional about building and maintaining relationships that can support my career. When I’m asked how advocates can support their female associates, I encourage them to offer to do a network audit together and bridge some of these gaps.

If you had a close woman friend who came to you with a choice of entering a field that is male-dominated or female-dominated, what would you advise her? Would you advise a woman friend to start a career in a field or industry that’s traditionally been mostly men? Can you explain what you mean?

I would absolutely advise a woman friend to enter a male-dominated field or a male friend to enter a female-dominated field, for that matter, if that is where their passion is leading them. Truly, avoidance is a disservice to the DEI movement and to the work that both men and women have done over the years to drive change. But my advice would be to interview their future employer the same way they would interview an employee. Ask questions about culture, training opportunities, mentoring, pay equity, and anything else that is important to them. At the end of the day, the people at an organization make the difference between an environment where you might feel tolerated and an environment where you feel supported to thrive.

Have you seen things change for women working in male-dominated industries, over the past ten years? How do you anticipate that it might improve in the future? Can you please explain what you mean?

Absolutely, yes! And while this change may not be happening as quickly as it could or should, I get to witness these changes every day as organizations take steps to move past creating environments that tolerate women to creating environments that allow diversity to thrive.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Let’s shoot for the moon with Kamala Harris. She so clearly exemplifies an individual who has been judged, derided and dismissed because of her gender and who has broken through the glass ceiling with courage, confidence and compassion.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.