The City of Madison Engineering Division is highlighting the stories of five women in construction to celebrate the nationally-recognized Women in Construction Week March 3-9, according to a press release.

Construction Manager Maria Delestre is one of the women selected to be highlighted, and has been in the industry for more than seven years.

The City of Madison Engineering Division has intentionally selected women from different disciplines within the city to highlight the different breadth of work that women do, Delestre said. 

“I think it’s a great way for companies to, one, internally recognize people — since women in construction is still a very underrepresented group,” Delestre said. “Second, I think it’s a really nice way for companies to allow people to know about different construction professions”.

Each day of the week, City Engineering will post on social media, and dedicate an article and video feature about each recipient and their story. This year’s theme is “Keys to the Future”,  which refers to the vital role that women play in building the future of the construction industry, according to the press release.

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With this, agencies hope to raise awareness about the wide variety of paths and careers in the construction industry, according to the press release.

Traffic engineer for City of Madison Ali Heinritz is another recipient that will be featured.

“I think it’s a great thing that the city does and it just highlights women in the work field, especially [in] a male dominated kind of workforce… this shows other females that you can do this as well and it’s not just men that are good at science and math, women are good at it as well,” Heinritz said.

The field of engineering is very broad — expanding over civil engineering, aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering and industrial engineering. It is important to highlight different kinds of jobs that people may not realize the city holds, Heinritz said.

The gender disparity in the field is reflected similarly in the University of Wisconsin’s student body across engineering majors. According to College Factual, UW’s ratio of 2024 graduating engineering BS majors is 23% female and 77% male.

“Making sure that women feel recognized within their companies for the value they bring ensures that more women know that these professions are available to them so that more women enter the workforce,” Delestre said.