Ellen Voie (Voy-a) is an internationally recognized speaker and authority on gender diversity and inclusion for women working in non-traditional careers in transportation. She has been invited to speak to audiences in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, France, Mexico, and Canada, in addition to being a popular speaker at conferences throughout the United States. Voie founded the Women In Trucking Association in 2007, and currently serves as the nonprofit organization’s President & CEO. The Women In Trucking Association was formed to promote the employment of women in the trucking industry, to remove obstacles that might keep them from succeeding, and to celebrate the successes of its members. Voie also currently serves on the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) to provide recommendations and advice to the FMCSA on motor carrier safety programs and motor carrier safety regulations. Voie’s background in the trucking industry began as the assistant and later Traffic Manager for a steel fabricating plant in the upper Midwest. She then worked as a dispatcher for a grain hauling carrier before becoming co-owner of a small fleet. After starting a family, she used her background to become a freelance transportation consultant to carriers in Wisconsin, licensing and permitting trucks for more than 16 years. Voie also served as the Executive Director of Trucker Buddy International, Inc., a pen pal program between professional drivers and elementary students. Voie holds a Master’s in Communication degree from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, where she completed her Thesis research on the complex identities of women married to professional drivers. She also hold a degree in Traffic and Transportation Management from LaSalle Extension University. Voie has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential from the American Society of Association Executives, the leading authority in association management.

Columnists,Ellen Voie |
August 30, 2019

Your 24 year old daughter calls you with the exciting news that she has completed her training and is ready to start her new career.   She worked hard to earn her diploma and is anticipating her first business trip.

Although she is eager to start her new job, she expresses her concern that her employer has asked her to share a room with a male co-worker.  You’re shocked that any business would expect men and women to share sleeping quarters, but she reassures you that the company has very strict policies on harassment and fraternization.

Then, she tells you that her co-worker is actually her superior and he will be evaluating her performance and reporting back to the company.

You find the entire situation discomforting and you worry about your daughter’s safety.

Describe this scenario to any parent and you’ll be greeted with disbelief, yet, in the trucking industry this conversation is “normal.”

If your daughter was a fire-fighter, a pilot or a train engineer, she would be provided with a private sleeping area. However, since she has recently completed training to become a commercial driver, this is the expectation we have for her.

As a parent, I would be wary of any industry that expects a new CDL graduate to share close quarters with someone who will control her future employment.

The Women In Trucking Association’s mission is to bring more women into transportation careers. Yet, the training situation is unacceptable and we truly can’t ignore privacy issues concerning the sharing of a sleeper berth.   We’re expected to ignore gender differences, but is this truly only solution for training?

Researchers Jennifer Hirsch, Ph.D and Claude Mellins, Ph.D looked at the proximity of the bunk in a college dorm and the spatial implications of the sleeping area as part of the area for social interaction.  They authors refer to it as a “sexually charged” area.

While this study also focuses on the incidence of alcohol involved in the college setting, the location of a bed in an area meant for conversations or other social activities appears to increase the likely hood of sexual harassment or sexual assault for college students.  We will be looking at how this might be inferred in the trucking industry.

A solution for trucking companies might be to pair female trainees with female trainers, but unless you can provide the training for women as quickly as that for men, you’ll be under scrutiny by the EEOC for “denying employment” for your female trainees.

To complicate matters, the Women In Trucking Scholarship Foundation offers funding for women looking for training in technical, safety, leadership of driving areas and we have found that many of the female driver applications are from women who are escaping negative personal situations.   These women are often trying to find a way to support their families by earning a CDL, but have experienced terrible personal tragedies, such as domestic abuse, teen pregnancies, and more.

How can we put these women into an environment which is already a male dominated one, and then expect them to be able to deal with a trainer in close proximity for weeks at a time?  A large carrier attempted to address this by adopting a same gender training policy but they were sued by the EEOC for discriminatory practices.  The attorney claimed it was “disrespectful” to men to assume they will harass women if they work in close quarters.  Really?

The Women In Trucking Association is pursuing legislation to ALLOW same gender training if a carrier chooses.  Notice, we did not say, require, but to allow.  If a carrier chooses to provide e female trainer for a female trainee, they should not suffer financial consequences for this policy.

Congressman Michael Gallagher (R-WI) is working with us to better understand these challenges and to then create a legal option to protect these women by allowing trucking companies to promise a same gender training OPTION.  We are also working with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration on a survey to determine the extent of harassment and assaults on women (and minority) drivers.  You can find out more at http://www.womenintrucking.org.

Would you feel comfortable getting a call from our daughter like the one at the beginning of this article?

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Ellen Voie (Voy-a) is an internationally recognized speaker and authority on gender diversity and inclusion for women working in non-traditional careers in transportation. She has been invited to speak to audiences in Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, France, Mexico, and Canada, in addition to being a popular speaker at conferences throughout the United States. Voie founded the Women In Trucking Association in 2007, and currently serves as the nonprofit organization’s President & CEO. The Women In Trucking Association was formed to promote the employment of women in the trucking industry, to remove obstacles that might keep them from succeeding, and to celebrate the successes of its members. Voie also currently serves on the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) to provide recommendations and advice to the FMCSA on motor carrier safety programs and motor carrier safety regulations. Voie’s background in the trucking industry began as the assistant and later Traffic Manager for a steel fabricating plant in the upper Midwest. She then worked as a dispatcher for a grain hauling carrier before becoming co-owner of a small fleet. After starting a family, she used her background to become a freelance transportation consultant to carriers in Wisconsin, licensing and permitting trucks for more than 16 years. Voie also served as the Executive Director of Trucker Buddy International, Inc., a pen pal program between professional drivers and elementary students. Voie holds a Master’s in Communication degree from the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, where she completed her Thesis research on the complex identities of women married to professional drivers. She also hold a degree in Traffic and Transportation Management from LaSalle Extension University. Voie has earned the Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential from the American Society of Association Executives, the leading authority in association management.