A decade of growth for women in roofing

By Emma Peterson. 

A candid conversation with two founders of NWIR about how ten years has changed the perception of female professionals. 

With the amount of stressful news constantly around us, it can be hard to remember to celebrate the good news and progress being made. To put the good in the spotlight, Heidi J. Ellsworth, CEO of The Coffee Shops™ and Jennifer Stone, the director of national accounts, Tremco, sat down for a Roofing Road Trips® episode all about the growth of the roofing industry since they helped launch National Women in Roofing (NWIR) a decade ago.  

Heidi opened the conversation by talking about how NWIR first came to be, sharing, “It started at the Midwest meetings. It was me, Jennifer, Jenny Ford Smith and Sherry Carlazzi. And we had this idea, called Trent Cotney and asked, “how do we make this happen?’” 

And now, ten years later, NWIR is stronger than ever, and today there has been a noticeable change in the perception of women in the roofing industry since the organization’s founding. Jennifer shared:  

When we were getting together 10 years ago, I remember Jenny saying, ‘I can't wait till the day people stop introducing me as the first female leader of sales and you as the first this and the first that.’ And it really feels like we’re getting there... You see so many women that are in the C-suite executive positions, and it isn't a first anymore. 

This growth not only helps women in the industry, but it helps the industry as a whole. Jennifer explained, “We’ve seen a huge growth of diversity in the roofing industry in the last decade, and it makes the industry better because you get diversity of thought, which is where retention, innovation and growth come from.”  

A great example of this was Tremco’s hiring of Mandy McIntyre in a specialized position all about culture and process development. Jennifer spoke a bit about this:  

Mandy's role as a strong woman who's passionate about culture and mental health and people, her focus positively impacts Tremco's culture in numerous, numerous ways, including process development, and performance management...And would she have been hired in this role a decade ago? I don’t know, but what we do know is that because she’s in this leadership role, Tremco’s culture and business are both stronger. 

Heidi added some of her thoughts, “It’s amazing to see this kind of thing. It really shows how the perceptions of women and the perceptions of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable have changed in the last 10 years.”  

Listen to the rest of Heidi and Jennifer’s conversation to hear more about how the perception of women has changed in the roofing industry.