The Connecticut Landscape Architect

Women in Landscape Architecture

Abigail Adams: Embracing the Genuine Me

Making the decision and taking the final steps to create and build my own company in late 2014 was one of the best decisions I ever made. You may ask “why?” Entrepreneurship and managing your own firm comes with a plethora of “stresses”: where will my next big job come from, where do I spend my minuscule marketing budget, can I actually spend the extra money to hire a professional photographer (can I afford not to!?), did I reconcile my QuickBooks properly this month, and will I remember to invoice Mr. Jones’ account for that postage and handling at the end of the month? These may seem silly for the larger, more established firms out there, so bear with me for a moment, but as we all know, the struggle is real. However, these little stresses are all minutia in the day-to-day operations. The all-important and driving factor, one which I was able to discover when I was finally on my own, was that running my own company allows me to embrace the genuine me, an independent, female, professional, landscape architect.

All of the qualities that may be considered as “feminine” are some of the qualities that I attribute to my success. Being gracious, sensitive, adaptable, and kind are traits that should not be considered negative in a male-dominated field. In fact, they are some of the words that I use to describe myself, and while there are some who would consider these to be qualities that should be avoided in the conference room, on job sites, or in negotiations, I feel the opposite. They should not be thought of as negatives. In my opinion they are assets and have served me well not only in my personal life, but in my professional one.