Underpinnings Blog

Category: Confidence

  • I Can Do That

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    My Favorite Things Early summer brings many of my favorite things.  I get to visit the local nursery and spend way too much money on every annual flower that catches my eye.  Lunches, dinners, cocktails, brunches, and even afternoon coffee take place outside on patios, piazzas, decks, and sidewalks. And sundresses and espadrilles are parts…

  • What Price Ambition?

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Hey – Your Ambition is Showing By Ann Schmelzer, Guest Contributor (Editor’s Note: Ann is a top-level manager for a major international manufacturer.  Someday we will all be working for her, and that’s not a bad thing.  Although she is not in the deep foundations industry, she spends all day every day with men, most…

  • What Time Are You Leaving?

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    How to Avoid Killing Your Colleagues It’s Thursday afternoon at 3:50 PM.  You’ve managed to end a phone call with a very talkative client who just happens to spend $3 trillion dollars with your firm every year.  If you can make it out the door in the next 15 minutes, you’ll blow through the parkway…

  • I Am Not One of the Boys

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Sometimes Being Tough Means Being Stupid There are a number of milestones most women will experience if they undertake a career in a field populated mainly by men. At some point, you will get singled out in a very conspicuous situation (important meeting, large construction site) for being the only female within miles and will…

  • Patterns for Success

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    Helen Robinson
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    Respond, don’t React by Mia Painter, Guest Contributor I was raised in a small family of women – mom, gram, two aunts, and a few cousins.  My family had started out with some men, but the year I was two my grandfather and uncle died and my mom left my abusive father.  I remember the…

  • Finding Your Voice

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    Helen Robinson
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    Speaking Up and Speaking Out Recently I have had conversations with some of my friends and colleagues in the industry to try to explain a phenomenon I can’t quite wrap my head around. In a situation where there are a large group of professionals, are women are more inhibited to voice their opinion? Here’s an…

  • Our Sacrifices, Their Future

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Driving Toward the Future by Ann Schmelzer, Guest Contributor Did you see the Super Bowl Audi commercial with the young girl driving the boxcar?  Here is the link in case you missed it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6u10YPk_34 The commercial drew some criticism in its pre-Super Bowl preview; Audi North America only has two women in senior leadership positions…

  • Bought and Paid For

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    How Do We Ignore the Voices That Say We’re Not Enough? A couple of weeks before Christmas, I was watching TV and a trailer for the movie “Hidden Figures” came on.  A man in the movie asked Janelle Monae if she would want to try to become an engineer if she were a man, and…