Women in Construction: Emily Murphy

Summit Homes is grateful to have several incredibly strong female leaders on our team. In honor of Women's History Month, we wanted to pause and feature a few team members.

Meet Emily Murphy, one of our Personal Builders.

We sat down to ask Emily a few questions about her career, role models and why she chose the new construction industry.

Tell us about a female role model or leader that helped you become the leader you are today?

I have been surrounded by strong women my entire life, but my mom was the most influential. When I was a child, my mom and my dad were a framing crew together. After having 3 kids, she transitioned into selling real estate and running the books for my dad’s framing company, but I still saw her be a strong role model figure for me who didn’t take any crap from the men in her world. She is the most jack-of-all-trades people I’ve ever met – at my age, she was running a video store in Florida with a cockatiel named Fuzzle as her sidekick, and now she is an insurance broker in Washington, D.C., but she somehow fit a lifetime of real estate, framing, business management, and other careers in the middle. She also always told me stories about being in high school taking woodshop and carpentry at the vo-tech but leaving early to make it home in time to change for her live mannequin job at the mall (is this what the 80s were like?) or dance team. She taught me that you can do absolutely anything you want to, regardless of your age or gender.

 How did you make your way to the construction industry? 

I studied Architectural Engineering in college, hoping to make my way into residential design. Upon graduation, I instead took a role as a bridge construction structural engineering. I absolutely loved the work but lost my passion during the COVID pandemic and left the company for a career change, as many others did. I took a fascinating side-step into an Estate Manager role with a wealthy family in Kansas. Among other things for their personal life, I managed all the projects happening at their house including pool repairs, painting, maintenance, and refinishing the hardwood floors. This was my first taste of construction management in the residential world and I wanted more, which is how I ended up at Summit as a personal builder.

What is a piece of advice you would share with women wanting to work in the construction industry?

Find a female mentor who is already doing what you want to do and talk to them about their job. Women want other women in the industry and are happy to share our stories and advice on how we got here. I landed multiple internships by finding a woman at the company, telling her I wanted to work there and asking for a phone call for advice. I think having companies be more female-positive too. Summit does a great job at this, but in general, a lot of construction and engineering firms don’t have the same schedule flexibility and paid parental leave needed to support and encourage women. We need to have a bigger hand in supporting women’s construction organizations like NAWIC, involve more women in the interview and hiring process, and get young girls involved to show them that this is an industry they could pursue. Had my parents not been in construction, I’m not sure that I would’ve ended up here! Also, visibility matters. When I was in high school, I had no idea that women could join the powerlifting team until I saw a single flyer for it that had a photo of a girl bench pressing. I joined the team the same week. The more that we show young women that this industry makes room for us and we want them here, the more interest we will have.

What are the advantages of being a woman in construction? 

 In my role, there are tons of advantages. I think women tend to be better organized and able to multi-task which is a large part of my day-to-day tasks. The best advantage comes with homeowners. I believe homeowners tend to view me as more caring and as a better listener. I am not as intimidating as the men, which helps a lot for the female buyers. I think a lot of the time, they can be overlooked during conversations between male builders and male buyers about “industry talk” so I like having my perspective as a woman to know to include the women in those talks too! 

My personal favorite part of being a woman in construction is breaking the barriers and expectations. I love the challenge of being the only woman in a space but being confident in my knowledge and experience and proving myself to the group. I have always loved defying gender biases, starting with attending Boy Scout summer camps in high school, to competitive powerlifting, studying engineering, rock climbing, and now being a builder. 

What makes you proud to work in the construction industry?

I am proud to carry on my family tradition. I come from a long line of carpenters on my dad’s side and of course my mom was a framer too. This was my goal ever since high school and I’m glad to carry on that knowledge. It’s hard to beat the feeling I had when my dad visited me over the summer and I got to show him the houses I had built. 

What are you currently reading or listening to? 

Anything I can get my hands and ears on. Some favorite reads from this year: Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron and Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. I love the 99% Invisible and Pod Save America podcasts.

What’s the one piece of advice you’ve been giving that made a big impact? 

My answer would be courtesy of Bill Quick – “We are building relationships, not houses.” It annoyed me so much when he first started telling me that during my training because I just wanted to vent about angry people, but it continues to be true. I have gotten a lot further with trades and homeowners when I remember that the relationship should come first and the house second. One missed deadline because of a late trade isn’t the end of the world, but when you have a whole company that refuses to work on your houses because you’re rude to their team, then you’ll be missing a lot more deadlines in the future. 

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