POLOKWANE – Several women have proven that the male-dominated construction industry is not for men only, and that women can also work in this industry.
Maria Galane, the owner of Kemo Enterprise and Trading, is a mother of three and a former teacher who now runs a civil construction company.
She obtained a teacher’s diploma in 1997 and worked for three months. Due to a lack of employment she then moved on to be a laboratory assistant at a company where her husband used to work.
“My love for civil engineering developed there; I was promoted to administration clerk, where I came into contact with other women in the industry. They served as a motivation and inspiration to start my own company,” she explains.
In 2004 she registered her company and her first project was in Mpumalanga where she was awarded a tender involving roads and stormwater drainage. People still have the perspective that women can’t do everything they can or they don’t know what they are doing if they are in a male-dominated industry, she says.
“I never walk into work thinking ‘I’m a woman’. I walk in with the same stress as everyone else, male or female. I have deadlines to make, goals to achieve, strategies to execute and talent to retain and find,” she explains.
She says in some instances people have formed judgments about her leadership capabilities based on her gender, though they’ve never said it to her face. “We’re not here to stack the deck one way or another; we’re a team. At least, those who I choose to surround myself with believe that.
“Attention results in power. Power is not something I will ever give those who believe being a woman is somehow less than being a man in any situation,” she says in no uncertain terms.
“I am a human being, first and foremost. I am a person on this earth who has the ability to do incredible things. We all do, whether we’re male, female, transgender, black, white or any colour.”
She says one of the most important issues to her, is that of equal work and equal pay. “Again, I see being a woman the same as being a man. Why should I get paid any less than a man to do the same amount of work, produce the same results and grow the company at the same rate?”
This is a question Galane always asks herself, yet she never finds an answer, she says. “While we have a lot of powerful and incredible women using their voices to talk about it, we also have a lot of women who are still quiet. Speak up. It’s time to be heard,” she adds.
She says being a woman doesn’t lessen the capacity to work any more or less, both at home and in the office. It’s just a part of who she is. She describes herself as a hard worker who doesn’t stop until she reaches her goals. “I am a friend, a sister and a daughter,” she says.
“I celebrate being a woman, not because it’s different or perceived as less or because it makes me stand out. I celebrate not because we were, at one time, or still are in some instances, suppressed. I celebrate being a woman because it’s part of who I am. I celebrate and look at it at the same way as being a South African citizen,” she adds. She advises other woman not to be limited by gender but individual talent and passion does.”You as a woman need to be patient because things don’t always run smoothly,” she concludes.
