But over the past ten years, the journeyman plumber and authorized fuel more healthy has gotten used to the abnormal raised eyebrow and in no way allows it get in the manner of setting up her small employer as a pressure to be reckoned with on the Island. Bowcott’s willpower to succeed — her overachieving tendency because she became a child — has driven her small organization’s increase and lifted her into the spotlight.
Bowcott became named the Canadian Construction Association person of the year, tough on the heels of receiving again-to-lower-back excellence awards from the Sooke Region Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the 2018 B.C. Construction Industry Leader Award. Bowcott admits she’s still “blown away” by way of the success of the company and the awards. However, she also understands that humans are stunned, so she shows as much as she paints. “I get it,” she said, noting a few counts on the individual walking the organization and “on the equipment” as a young, petite girl with apparently boundless energy.
It’s the same response she was given while, as an 18-yr-antique, she tried to get hired in construction. Looking again, she understands why she didn’t get a lot as a 2D look while she sent out more than a hundred resumés. I had 0 creation enjoy, I am no longer even a hundred pounds, and I’m an 18-year-old lady. I can see why human beings didn’t call me,” she laughed. Her power and experience of humor are two gear she’s needed over the last 15 years inside the trades, the primary five workings as a roofer.
She commenced there, she stated because it became the handiest task she should get in creation. After five years, she wanted to transition, again defying the percentages by getting a plumbing apprenticeship amid a recession. Over the following six years, Bowcott labored with companies earlier than starting her outfit in 2015.
During that point, she honed her abilities and evolved a thick skin.
She prefers to study her career as one of many thrilling avenues instead of one hard road. However, she admits she has needed to address the whole lot, from being not noted for jobs to sexual harassment through bullying and “beside the point touching to an almost disgusting diploma. And while she commenced to improve in her profession, those promotions came with male co-employees who refused to listen or take route.
Bowcott said all of that had her thinking how she might build her business in the early years
— she wondered if people might even call an enterprise led using a lady. She held off placing her name on her commercial enterprise card for two years because she became involved in being singled out.
The commercial enterprise presently capabilities three girls “at the equipment” and some others within the workplace, but Bowcott said that’s now not by using design. It simply occurs that we’re all female,” she said, noting she continually wishes plumbers and the maximum resumés she gets are from women. She believes some men won’t remember operating for her organization because they have issues with having an M.D. who’s young and a girl.
That sort of wondering might be why Bowcott has been a passionate champion of attracting and maintaining girls in the trades by supplying apprenticeships at her company and using speakme to younger women on every occasion she gets the chance. Lisa Stevens, leader operating officer on the B.C. Construction Association stated Bowcott is on the governance committee for the association’s new builder’s code project, designed to hold girls within the trades. She’s splendid. She’s no longer a hit business female.
She’s additionally a journeyperson,” Stevens said. “She runs her very own enterprise, is on the tools, she mentors others, and they are dedicated to assisting other tradeswomen and supports apprenticeships. Stevens stated Bowcott’s high-quality attitude allows. She doesn’t have an oz of negativity,” she stated. That’s crucial when the development enterprise inside the province has fewer than 1,000 lady employees in a one hundred eighty 000 field.
Women aren’t very well represented,” said Stevens. Bowcott is a highly essential asset. Increasingly, we apprehend you want to be able to see it to be it. [Bowcott] is a compelling tale for others. It’s a story that has all started, as Bowcott sees plenty of increase beforehand for Westcom. Even when you consider that I changed into young, I can usually do better. For some reason, I like being up here — the average was never top-sufficient.
