Who Gets to Be Called a Builder?

Ask anyone to picture a person working in the building industry, and there is a good chance they will picture someone on a jobsite, tools in hand.

They’re not necessarily wrong, but they may not be seeing the full picture.

Buildings are shaped by the people who imagine them, frame them, finish them, and work on them. But the people shaping this industry don’t stop at the jobsite. They’re the ones keeping businesses running, studying why buildings fail, helping homes stand a better chance against wildfire, teaching others what they’ve learned, building relationships, and asking whether the way we’ve always built is really the way we should keep building.

And for a long time, we haven’t always been as good at seeing everyone who belongs in that picture. Women have been building, teaching, solving problems and shaping this entire industry the whole time.

We know because we’ve seen it firsthand.

Sometimes Building Can Also Mean Keeping Something Alive

One of those women is part of Sashco’s own history.

After Sashco’s founder, Don Burch, passed way unexpectedly in a plane crash, his wife, Alice Burch, helped carry the family business forward.

She managed the books. She maintained relationships with customers and dealers. She leaned on her community and handled the everyday work required to keep a business operating.

Most importantly, Alice kept looking forward. She explored new ideas and opportunities, including experimenting with putty pails in pink buckets (that wasn’t our biggest hit among the trades, but it was worth a try)!

Years later, her son Les joined the company as a chemical engineer and eventually became President. He inherited a business that was still there to build on thanks to her foundational efforts.

While we have a beautiful history that is an example of why recognizing women during National Construction Appreciation Week is important, you don’t have to look backward to find impactful women changing this industry.

Sometimes Building Means Opening Our Minds to New Possibilities

We have firsthand experience working with women who have left their mark and continue to trailblaze in different areas of the industry.

You’ll find them throughout the company, from manufacturing and quality control to customer service, sales, marketing, and R&D.

Lauren Forsberg is a chemist on Sashco’s R&D team. Her work includes developing new products, exploring new testing methods and materials, and asking a question that’s responsible for a lot of innovative ideas:

“What if?”

For Lauren, that’s also part of what makes the building industry so interesting. Building science reaches into chemistry, engineering, sustainability, design, human behavior, and plenty of spaces in between. There isn’t one background—or one perspective—that moves the industry forward.

“Often the people who make the biggest impact are the ones who bring a different perspective,” she says.

Lauren gets to watch those perspectives turn into something tangible: an idea starts in the lab, gets tested and challenged, and eventually becomes something homeowners, contractors, and builders can use to solve a real problem.

It’s a different kind of building than Alice was doing decades ago. Both stories remind us that the people shaping this industry aren’t always the ones we first picture.

And that doesn’t stop at Sashco.

Sometimes Building Means Helping a Home Survive

Marcela Abrach of Efficient Build LLC thinks about what gets built long after the crew leaves. Her goal is simple, and anything but small: to make sure that more families return after potential fires to find their homes still standing.

“We have a blast building something larger than our own time on this planet,” she told us. “Memories will continue to be built inside the homes we build long after we’re gone.”

When Marcela talks to women considering a career in construction, she doesn’t tell them they need to prove they belong.

She welcomes them in.

“Find your superpower, that unique skill you bring to the jobsite, and make it shine.”

Sometimes Building Means Asking Better Questions

For Emily Mottram of Mottram & Maines, one of the best parts of the industry is being around people who want to understand how buildings actually work.

People who are curious. People who care about craftsmanship. People willing to share what worked and what areas are available for improvement.

Emily is part of the Pretty Good House movement, a community of building professionals willing to ask a deceptively simple question: Why do we build the way we do?

The goal isn’t another certification or checklist. It’s making thoughtful decisions about performance, durability, cost, and design, then sharing what the industry learns along the way.

Her advice to women entering the industry follows much the same philosophy.

“Show up. Listen. Treat people with respect. Learn from people who know something you don’t. Then share what you know, too! Respect and curiosity will take you a long way.”

There’s More Than One Way to Build

Alice, Lauren, Marcela, and Emily all have vastly different stories.

But there’s a common thread that makes them worth telling together.

Each is shaping what comes next. Each woman saw something worth protecting: a future that deserved attention to detail to be brough to life and was willing to put in the work to carry it forward.

Building isn’t just about creating something physical, but it’s about leaving the business, home, practice, and industry, stronger than when you found it.

There are countless women doing just that in ways that look nothing like these examples.

That’s worth highlighting during (and outside of) Professional Women in Building Week.

Look around your company, crew, jobsite, supplier network, or community. Who is solving problems? Who is teaching others? Who is asking better questions? Who is doing the work that will matter years from now?

That’s building, too.

The industry gets better when more kinds of people can shape how we build.