Katie Burlew is a rarity at her workplace. In fact, she’s one of just two women in the company that hold her title in a male-dominated field.
Burlew is Operations Management at Lafarge Owensboro Cement Terminal, a branch of LafargeHolcim – a building materials manufacturer and the world’s leading supplier of cement.
“Lafarge is the biggest cement-making company in the world,” Burlew said. “Most people have no idea one of the biggest companies in the world has a toe hold here. Usually, if people know about it, I want to know why they know about it.”
So how did this Omaha, Nebraska native get started in a French company that was originally founded in the 1840s to supply cement to the British Empire?
It started with a phone call in college.
“Sophomore year of college I worked at a floral shop,” Burlew said. “I had my life planned out.”
She said she was studying economics and Japanese with plans to go to law school when her father’s friend called her about a summer job at a cement plant, mowing the lawn. Her first reaction was no.
“I thought, ‘There’s people for that,'” Burlew said. “But it was $13 an hour, 40 hours a week and no weekends, so I was like, ‘Oh, I am a professional lawn mower – sign me up!'”
That’s when something clicked.
“I loved it,” she said. “I loved the noise, the hard hats, the adventure.”
Burlew stuck with her plans for a while, taking the LSAT, but ultimately deciding not to go to law school. Instead, she went to the company in Omaha and said, “give me a job.”
In 2008, she was transferred to Owensboro. The plan was to stay for two years and get some frontline experience. After that, she was headed to a corporate office with the company in Kansas City.
But plans change. As the recession hit in 2008, Lafarge had a close brush with bankruptcy and the office she was supposed to go to closed. She also met the man she’d end up marrying, which gave her a tie to Owensboro and no plans to leave.
Her current role has her overseeing the daily operations of an all-male staff. Not only is everyone under her management male, but everyone else in her position is, too. There’s just one other woman with the title in Canada.
“I’m somewhat of an exotic creature here,” she said. “There is a female CEO in the U.S. now, but it’s still a very male-dominated industry.”
Burlew said being young has been an even bigger challenge than being the lone woman.
“Every now and then I’ll get someone who is like ‘oh, young, blonde, must not know what she’s talking about,'” she said. “You have to be patient and just have fun.”
As for being a woman amongst men, Burlew said, “You don’t have to pound your chest. Just do your job and do it well. People will respect you.”
“Don’t be afraid to go down the unexpected path,” she added. “You never know what life is going to give you.”
