The first Women in Business Summit in Pennsylvania reached out to women and minority-owned construction, engineering and landscaping firms in the state.
WHYY Radio says the summit, a shared initiative of Cheyney and PennDOT, focused on these types of firms to secure contracts with PennDot, state airports, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, transit authorities and other companies that received highway funds from the federal government.
The inaugural summit offered workshops on leadership development and how to scale up a business. The summit came at an opportune time since a recent Bureau of Labor Statistic’s survey showed that women make up more than 9 percent of the workforce in construction. Almost 30 percent of those women are Latinos and Hispanics, while African-Americans and blacks account for more than 6 percent and Asians, for almost 2 percent.
