Momentum is on the Side of Women

Happy Women’s History Month! In this issue, our cover story explores the ways in which momentum is on the side of women in pest management, as well as women in leadership roles in all walks of life. I experienced the power of this momentum firsthand when I attended the inaugural in-person National Pest Management Association Women’s Forum in San Diego last November.

As a woman still fairly new to the industry (I recently celebrated my one-year anniversary with PCT), I found it exhilarating to meet so many ambitious women in pest control and feel the energy permeate the room as women in all stages of their careers cheered each other on (especially each time Arrow Exterminators CEO Emily Thomas Kendrick called somebody a “rock star,” which was often) and shared the wisdom they’ve garnered along the way.

One panel offered an honest look at both the trials and triumphs of being a female leader in business, featuring Kendrick, Stacey O’Reilly of Plunkett’s Pest Control and Marillian Missiti of Buono Pest Control. The conversation around advancing women in the workplace often includes the phrase “shattering the glass ceiling” — the act of breaking down corporate and societal barriers that prevent women from rising to the top and achieving peak success. In Kendrick’s case, shattering the glass ceiling meant confronting an internal barrier. She spoke vulnerably about dealing with imposter syndrome when she stepped up as Arrow CEO, continuing the leadership legacy built by her father and grandfather.

“My glass ceiling was very much an internal thing,” she said. “It was something I imposed on myself. I struggled mightily with self-doubt, self-confidence, imposter syndrome and this little voice in the back of my head saying, ‘You’re not experienced enough; you’re too young; you’re not smart enough to be in this role.’ I was constantly trying to reconcile that. I was a woman, and I was usually one of the only women in the room.”

I’m no stranger to that pesky inner critic, and I think we’re all susceptible to this self-doubt from time to time. To overcome this, Kendrick said she had to learn how to win people over, she said, especially team members who had been at the company for years before she arrived and were skeptical of her abilities or criticized her for not being “likeable” enough as a leader. “It took me a long time [to win people over],” she said, and added that that skepticism is something she still encounters to this day.

Missiti shared a similar story of joining her father’s company at age 21 and not fitting others’ expectations of a stereotypical pest control technician. She said the male mentors at her company encouraged her success and reminded her that hard work takes time. “There were only a couple women [leaders in the industry] at the time, and I said, ‘You know, if I’m going to stay in this industry, I’m going to have to move full-throttle and just work as hard as I can,’” she said. “I remember my father saying to me, ‘Just be patient. Stay in your lane, work hard, focus and whatever you want to happen, it will happen.’ And that’s really what I did.”

Kendrick, Missiti and O’Reilly all agreed that despite the continued hurdles women face, strides have been made that make it easier being a female leader today than it was before. “I have seen what the women before me went through. … I think the thing that’s easier about it [now] is awareness from both sides,” said O’Reilly. “I think there is an ever-improving awareness that diversity of all sorts — nationality, religion, idea, thought, left brain, right brain — all builds a better answer, and people are more open to that better answer nowadays, which I think is nice. And I am forever grateful to those that came before us and paved trails for us.”

It’s important to remember that the conversation about women in the workplace doesn’t stop at the end of this month; it must be an ongoing discussion if we want the momentum to continue. As Lisa Weidmaier, division human resource director, Western Pest Services, said during a Women’s Forum discussion on establishing diversity in the workplace, “You have to keep talking about it. It has to live at all levels. You have to continue to have that conversation, even when you don’t want to have a conversation. You have to call things out if you have to call them out. It can’t just be a poster on a wall. … You have to live it. And that’s hard.”

The author is senior editor of PCT.