Breaking Through The Glass Ceiling
Although most in-plants are still run by men, these managers are helping to pave the way for women to find opportunities in printing.
By Mike Llewellyn
AT ONE time, the copy center at University of Minnesota Printing Services was underutilized, while the offset presses got all the attention.
Then along came digital technology, says Director Dianne Gregory.
As digital printing became increasingly cost-effective, it just so happened that the copy center had the required expertise to make it successful. Gregory, who oversaw the copy center at the time, was in the right place to advance along with it.
"When I first started, the [offset] printers always ruled the meetings because they were the big guys. But then copying started to grow incredibly fast," she recalls. "The industry changed, and I ended up really knowing that industry well."
Today, more women than ever are taking on leadership roles in the printing industry and in in-plants. This year's Top 50 shows that nine of the country's 50 largest in-plants are run by women. And as more women step to the helm of these shops, others are sure to follow.
But back when Gregory started in printing in 1976—beginning in the bindery before moving up to press operator, then manager of duplicating services—it wasn't an easy ride.
"When I came to the printing plant it was all men," she says. "They didn't think I knew anything about printing."
It was a challenge women throughout the printing industry were facing in the '70s. Academia was still reeling from the publication of books like "The Feminine Mystique" while women across the country were often fighting for more autonomy than what the role of post-war housewife and mother offered.
Even Reproductions Review (IPG's previous title) had run an article seven years earlier, in 1969, titled "The Boss... Is A Lady." Although it noted that women were assuming leadership roles in many in-plants, the male writer couldn't curtail his excited sputtering about their looks:
"There were so many attractive and capable lady repro managers at the IPMA International Conference in Pittsburgh," he wrote.
Slowly the tide turned for women, but the daily challenges of running an in-plant were intensified by the often implicit understanding that they were outsiders in a man's game.
Making A Good Impression
"At the time I started [in 1975] there was an initiative to diversify the work force," says Sandy Komasinski, now director of Printing Services at Purdue University. "But that meant I was always the only woman in meetings with 10 guys."
To get by, Komasinski says she had to change the way she approached management problems.
"The challenge was learning how to better understand how men thought," she says. In Komasinski's estimation, the men around her tended to solve problems using linear thinking, while she was more accustomed to relying on intuition. To fit in, she started expressing herself in linear terms.
Komasinski was not the only woman alone in the company of men. Also often flying solo at management meetings was Debbie Pavletich, now Graphic Services manager at Briggs & Stratton. Pavletich says she expected to have a particularly difficult time building her in-plant career because she worked for a manufacturing company—an industry almost completely dominated by men.
"The ratio of women to men was very low, but I was very fortunate that I had a manager and a vice president that looked only at bottom-line results when I was considered for this position," she says.
Stereotypes could not hold up against the results that Pavletich and other female in-plant managers were showing. But as women took on leadership roles in growing numbers throughout the '70s and '80s, their major concern continued to be how to gain respect equal to what male managers enjoyed.
Staying Positive
While managers like Komasinski took on this challenge with a change in thinking, others, like Pavletich, focused on keeping a positive attitude.
"I just didn't let it bother me," she says. "If I'm in a meeting and it's all men, I looked at it in a positive way and said, 'I'm thought of highly enough to be here.' "
But overall, these managers say they proved themselves by making their in-plants successful—and in some cases saving their in-plants altogether.
"By turning this in-plant around, [the men in the shop] came around," says Gregory, at the University of Minnesota. She explains that when she took the reins at the Twin Cities shop, what the facility had in technology and know-how, it lacked in customer service.
"My boss at the time was a woman, and she also saw that the focus needed to be on customer service," says Gregory. "The plant was failing because of that lack of service."
By drawing on the customer service expertise she accrued managing the copy center, Gregory managed to make the in-plant a model of customer satisfaction while consistently introducing new digital technology.
By the same token, Briggs & Stratton's Pavletich began her supervisory role managing the prepress area at her in-plant, and she says she made her mark by researching what technology would lead that area into the future. As a result, she oversaw the installation of the first networked computer system in the company.
"When I interviewed for the position [of in-plant manager], I was the youngest, and I was the only female," she says. "But they had examples of what I had done in the prepress area."
Team-building For Survival
Whatever routes they've taken to their current positions, these managers say focusing on teamwork was the key to ensuring their in-plants' success while simultaneously keeping everyone on board.
Jane Bloodworth, who now runs the in-plant at the Washington, D.C.-based World Bank, rose through the ranks in the advertising industry before taking on the management role at the printing facility.
"At the ad agency I started getting promoted based on my project management skills," she says.
Those skills, combined with her management of contracts with external printers, got her hired at the World Bank.
"I use a lot of input from people working on different teams in the in-plant," says Bloodworth. "The biggest challenge is making sure you keep moving forward." She focuses on team-building, saying it promotes better thinking.
For UM's Gregory, keeping the lines of communication open and promoting teamwork has fostered a positive relationship with management, as well as with the unions.
"My approach was always to go talk to them before an adversarial relationship could develop," she says. "That communication kept us from chewing each other up."
Moving Into The Future
"A woman in power in this industry is something of a novelty," says Kay Erickson, state publishing and distribution manager for the State of Oregon. Having been in the industry for 18 years, she says that while she has had her fair share of opportunities for advancement, there have been a number of additional challenges she has had to face as a result of her gender.
"Printing has been a predominantly male industry," she says. "But I've been fortunate for the most part to have worked for progressive employers."
Although obstacles remain, it seems as though many doors have opened over the past few years.
"In a university environment in general, rising up as a woman is a challenge. Although, it's gotten a lot better over the past three or four years," says Purdue's Komasinski. "There are a lot of women employed by the university, though they're mostly in the lower two-thirds [of the organization chart]."
Likewise, Bloodworth acknowledges that it has become a little easier for women to ply their trade—but progress remains to be made.
"I think it's better than it used to be," she says. "But there still aren't many women in the printing industry."