Establishing independence in the workplace, and at a young age, too!

By: Kirstin Kennedy

According to Slate Magazine, last year females made up the majority of the workforce for the first time in our nation’s history.  Currently, the breakdown of college enrollment falls with 43% male and 57% female.  These rates are only projected to go up, benefiting women.  At BizChicks we have found that young women are taking advantage of the opportunity at independence.  Recent female college graduates are finally sitting in the driver’s seat and creating careers that revolve around their own strength and intelligence.  I spoke with two under-25 gals who are entering a world soon to be dominated by women.

“I basically work in a woman’s world,” Kennan Anne Killeen, the graduate assistant women’s basketball coach at John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH, said.  “But that doesn’t mean I am automatically independent or that my players will trust me just because I am a woman like they are.  In fact, I have found that often, it is quite the opposite.  Being in the work force is a lot like being in a relationship.  Not only do you have to give respect to get it, you have to respect yourself and hold tight to your beliefs before you find any independence in your job.”

Killeen graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, PA with a stellar athletic career, excellent academic scores and a great future a head of her.  “It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be though,” she told BizChicks.  “I was used to being the player, having friends on the team and being close with the members of the staff.  When the roles changed and I became an assistant coach, I found that it’s a lot more difficult to be in the position of management.  It’s even harder to have a boss, a head coach, who doesn’t always share the same ideas or politics as you do.”

Now 23 and getting ready for her second season at John Carroll, Killeen says she has learned to establish her position and make it work for both her and her team.  “In my first year of coaching I learned how to vocalize.” Killeen said. “When I played in college I didn’t have to talk; my time on the court spoke for itself.  By listening to the people above me, respecting their advice and presenting a strong stance for what I believe, I have become a successful person.”  She has also learned a lot through her work.  “Along with coaching, I’m working on a Masters of Education.  Someday I will have my own classroom and, hopefully, my own team to coach. I am going to take what I learned from coaching at JCU and carry this strength to whereever my career takes me.”

Similarly, Susan Westerlund, a 24 year-old graduate from Clarion University in Clarion, PA, is starting off a teaching career with complete control.  “I’m substitute teaching right now,” Westerlund said.  “Teaching jobs aren’t easy to find right now in Pennsylvania.”  But that isn’t stopping her from achieving a solid reputation for herself.  “It’s basic pleasantries for me.  I travel back and forth to schools but I stay in contact with the full time teachers.  I send thank-you notes, follow up on e-mails or just ask how the kids are doing.  This makes both male and female teachers and administrators remember me.”

Westerlund graduated in 2010 with an impressive resume of academic success and experience in teaching.  “College taught me how to deal with the kids and that’s obviously the most important part of being a teacher,” Westerlund said.  But like all careers, the obvious is only half of the work.  “Now, I’m learning how to stay strong in the face of parents, co-workers and administration.  It can become frustrating to push for one of my students when everyone else seems to have a different opinion than I do, but I have learned to convey that I am the teacher and I know that student in the academic setting best.”

As young women begin to enter the workplace with a strong and independent outlook, women are finally seeing the results.  We are just as intelligent and, more importantly, just as tenacious as our male counterparts.  Independence in the workplace is coming around!

Kirstin Kennedy, an undergraduate English major at the University of Pittsburgh, is an A&E staff writer for the Pitt News and the business coordinator for the Pitt Writers Club.