TIPS TO EMPOWER WOMEN 6 Tips to Empower Women in Pupil Transportation: Leaders Share Advice Mentors, industry involvement, opportunities for growth, and creating an encouraging environment that helps cultivate confidence are key to female employees’ advancement, experts say. By Nicole Schlosser S tudent transportation offers many opportunities for growth in a rewarding career, but, as with many industries, there can be hurdles for women looking to move up. To address issues of empowerment and confronting sexism, two women who work in pupil transportation in Iowa re-cently started VOCE, a group for women and allies in the industry. To get more insight on effective ways to empower female employees and deal with sexist incidents, School Bus Fleet reached out to a handful of women transportation leaders for their perspective. They shared six key pieces of advice. 1 | MENTORS MATTER. It is important to connect employees, par-30 SCHOOL BUS FLEET ticularly female employees, with mentors for growth and advancement opportunities. A trustworthy mentor who serves as a confidant is also critical when dealing with sexism at work, says Ronna Weber, executive director of the National Asso-ciation of State Directors of Pupil Trans-portation Services. “Talking about your experience with those you trust and knowing the process within your organization to report such behavior are both critical tools to ensur-ing that you are taken seriously,” she adds. “Knowing you have support won’t necessarily make the situation easier, but it will give you the confidence to report the behavior.” Being subjected to sexist behavior, We-ber notes, is “not only demeaning, but it’s also incredibly personal and difficult.” “Remember, you have done nothing wrong,” she adds. “You didn’t invite this behavior, and you have options.” More generally, Kim Frye, director of transportation services at Orange County (Fla.) Public Schools, adds that the one thing that has helped her in her career is a support team that believes in her, in-cluding two mentors — her mother, who also worked in transportation, and a for-mer boss — as well as a family that under-stands how important her job is to her. 2 | ENCOURAGE INVOLVEMENT, PERSISTENCE. Pam McDonald, former director of trans-portation for Orange (Calif.) Unified School District, now retired, says that WWW.SCHOOLBUSFLEET.COM AUGUST 2021 Photo courtesy Leon via Unsplash