Women and Leadership Project

SOP 4745: Current Events Presentation

Tonya Hicks: Redefining Female Electricians

Summary Who is Tonya Hicks? How is she challenging stereotypes?

Course Connections How does Ms. Hicks relate back to SOP 4745?

Societal Implications How is Ms. Hicks changing workplace expectations?

Next Steps What can we take away from this article?

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Overview

Summary 01

Tonya Hicks started off as a young woman with a dream. Now she owns her own thriving business.

Early Life Ever since she was little, Tonya Hicks had a passion for working with her hands. Her uncle, an industrial mechanic, encouraged this and let her help with cars and motors.

However, this did not sit well with Ms. Hicks’s mother, who did not want to see her working on cars and instead pushed her to attend college. In college, she wanted to be a mathmetician working on coding and computer software. However, she quickly realized she wasn’t happy.

—Tonya Hicks

“One of my instructors told me that those kinds of jobs were not readily available for a black woman.

All of my dreams just came down. He said the best thing I could do is focus on becoming a teacher. I

thought, ‘That is just not me.’”

Her Career Ms. Hicks worked at a paper mill where she was exposed to new opportunities. She was particularly fascinated by how electricians used math regularly and knew that was what she wanted to do.

She dropped out of college to pursue her new passion and became the first female journeyman electrician in Local 917 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. She worked long hours, traveled long distances, and eventually decided to take control of her career by starting her own business.

Connections 02

As a black American in a male- dominated field, Ms. Hicks is challenging stereotypes everyday.

Electricians in the US

2.4%

Percentage of female electricians

in the U.S.

9.5%

Percentage of electrical

contracting businesses in the

U.S. owned by women

6.8%

Percentage of black or African-

American electricians

As a black female, Tonya Hicks faces discrimination and stereotypes from two different realms.

Our lecture acknowledges the difficulties she might face in the workplace.

According to Ibarra (1993) in Chapter 3 of our lecture, diverse leaders often: • Have a numerical minority status • Have lower perceived social status • Are subjected to negative stereotypes regarding work-related

competencies, aptitudes, and fitness for managerial responsibilities

Diverse women are typically taught self-empowerment at home, which helps them stand tall against these prejudices and gives them of self-confident, assertive leadership style.

Diverse Leaders

Gendered Racism Microagression Theory A social exchange where a

member of a majority culture speaks or takes action in a way

that belittles and alienates a member of a minority group. This is

often done accidentally and without the intention of hurting the

marginalized individual

The inability to separate the individual effects of each aspect of

their identities. In other words they’re left wondering: is prejudice

due to race? To ethnicity? To gender? Or something else?

Specific Threats

For Ms. Hicks, these terms are an every day reality. It means white men challenging her ability

to do her job not just because “she’s a woman” but because “she’s a black woman.”

People may also question her ability to run her business and compete in such a male-dominated

environment. However, Ms. Hicks has shown us that she has the ability to succeed even when the

odds are against her.

Research indicates that the self-confident leadership style black women utilize can have negative impacts on their health.

According to Beauboeuf-Lafontant (2009), black women tend to outwardly appear strong while their bodies “become repositories for the thoughts, feelings, and realities that contradict the one- dimensional view of them as unflaggingly capable and ever-resilient.” This phenomenon has been coined as the embodiment of stress.

Embodiment of Stress

Early in Tonya’s carer, she found herself working 12 hour days, 7 days per week.

It is likely she may have also inadvertantly fallen victim to the “StrongBlackWoman” Cycle.

The term “StrongBlackWoman” (SBW) is written without spaces to differentiate itself from a “strong Black woman.” The difference between these two is that a SBW embodies stress.

She is experiencing a cycle of stress in which, “after embodying stress for some time, this woman will experience an emotional or physical breakdown…instead of seeking treatment, she’ll often internalize what is occurring with her health to keep portraying strength” (Hannon, 2020).

Ms. Hicks’s decision to start her own business is not only a literal way to take her career into her own hands, but it also likely was a healthy way of coping with stress.

The schedules she was being asked to work by other employers were both physically and mentally exhausting. By starting her own business, she was able to gain control of her life and focus on her happiness. Now she has a successful business and the resources to help others.

Tonya Hicks: A “strong Black woman”

Societal Implications

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Ms. Hicks is paving the way for females in the STEM field.

Strong females build other strong females Tonya Hicks serves as a role model for many young girls struggling in STEM- related fields both directly and indirectly. Through the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, Hicks is starting a career development agency to help give women the tools they need to be successful in male-dominated industries.

—Tonya Hicks

“I am tired of being the only, the first. I’m working to try to change that. I look at construction as the last frontier for women. I don’t think it’s any better than when I started. It takes a long time to change

culture. And it’s not where it needs to be for women to feel there is a real opportunity.”

“The Institute for Women’s Policy Research was recently awarded a three-year, $750,000 grant

to improve retention and advancement for women in construction and manufacturing fields”

(Hannon, 2020).

—Tonya Hicks

“Being a boss is giving other people an opportunity to make money and to help them

grow. Not until you are building up another person are you a true leader.”

Next Steps 04

What can we learn from Tonya Hicks that can be implemented into every day life?

Empower Women If you know a female

looking to go into a male- domianted field, direct her towards resources

that can help. Encourage her to be passionate and

proud.

Use Your Voice Speak up if you see women or minorities

being mistreated in the workplace. No one should

ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable at work. You have more power than you think you do.

Support Others Offer your support to

fellow females who are struggling at work or

school. We are strongest when everyone feels they

are able to succeed

Things YOU Can Do

Of Fortune 500 companies are run by women

6%

30% Research shows that “at least 30% of a group has to consist of nonconformists before the ‘other’ label is abandoned and each member is valued for him- or herself” (Schrobsdorff, 2017).

People do not give power up easily: as a country, we are barely at 6%. Seeing female leaders is still a foreign idea for many, meaning there is a lot of work to be done.

Signs of Progress

#MeToo In a warped way, the #MeToo

movement is a sign of immense progress against sexual assault in the US. This movement not only exposed high level men

using their power over women, but also every day experiences of degrading treatment (Engler,

2017).

Women in Office Today, females are more

determined than ever to make their voices heard. Electing

females and diverse individuals into office is the only way to put

an end to injustices in the workplace. Women are

beginning to say they even feel a “responsibility” to run for

office (Alter, 2017).

Alter, C. (2017). First They Shared Their #MeToo Stories. Now They’re Running for Office. TIME Magazine, 190(20), 11.

Beauboeuf-Lafontant, T. (2009). Behind the mask of the strong Black woman: Voice and the embodiment of a costly performance. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Engler, M. (2017). Confronting a culture of sexual violence. New Internationalist, 508, 33. Hannon, K. (2020, March 5). In a field dominated by men, she’s in charge. The New York

Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/business/women-electricians.html Jones, K. H. (2020). Breaking Through the “Burden of Strength.” Educational Leadership,

78(4), 1–7. Owen, J. E., Shea, H. D., & Renn, K. A. (2020). We are the Leaders We’ve Been Waiting

For: Women and Leadership Development in College (1st ed.). Stylus Publishing. Schrobsdorff, S. (2017). The Tipping Point: When Do Female Leaders Become the Norm?

TIME Magazine, 190(16/17), 38.

References