Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/715752
by Ellen Voie, WIT President/CEO Women In Trucking www.jobsfor teams.com JOBS for TEAMS | 34 A female driver's experience T he mission of Women In Trucking Association is to increase the percentage of women employed in the trucking industry. While we represent all careers in transportation, much of our work focuses on the professional driver's challenges. Specifically, we look at obstacles that might keep women from considering a career in trans- portation. Many carrier's representatives have bluntly stated that they don't "care about the gender of their drivers." They remark that they hire men and women and treat them equally. If that is true, then why are there twenty men to every woman behind the wheel? Instead if ignoring the fact that men and women are physically and emotion- ally different, let's embrace the differ- ences and work on making the environ- ment better for all drivers. This means we need to look at our hiring and train- ing practices more closely. One carrier felt that a same-gender training policy would address harass- ment issues by allowing women to be trained by a female trainer. Unfortunate- ly, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) determined that the longer waiting period for women to be assigned to a female trainer consti- tuted discrimination. Now, women are assigned to the next available trainer regardless of gender.