Raking Down Barriers

Female landscape contractors are making inroads into what was once a male-dominated industry.

When Mary Woodruff took her first landscaping job on Nantucket, Mass. 17 years ago, she was the only woman on an all-male crew.

These days, Woodruff is the manager of ’Sconset Gardener and is in charge of several all-female landscaping crews from her company, which is owned by her brother, Marty McGowan.

And those women are not alone.

While it may be a strange thing to see elsewhere, female landscapers on Nantucket are becoming the rule, rather than the exception. These days, it’s not uncommon to see three women riding around in a truck full of shovels, rakes and other lawn-maintenance equipment on their way out to a job site for a long day of work.

And while they have not taken over the landscaping industry entirely, what used to be a male-dominated business 20 years ago is now a calling for women who love to work hard and work outside.

“I’ve seen huge growth in the number of women in landscaping,” Woodruff said. “Nantucket’s just different. You see women driving in trucks and they’re involved in all aspects of physical labor. It’s become a trend out here and it’s a really good place for women to work because you’re accepted.”

Both Woodruff and Carol Rosen, the head gardener at ’Sconset Gardener, have been in the business for years now and say that they enjoy working with the all-female crews and other changes to the industry since they started.

They added that while women generally tend to cover the gardening, leaving the men to operate the heavier equipment and lawnmowers, they’re still involved in some of the most physical aspects of the business.

“The people who are surprised are the tourists because in other places, they’re used to seeing men because it’s a male-dominated business,” said Rosen, adding that she believes women were better suited to gardening than men. “The men are sort of like bulls in a china shop. (Gardening) is not moving fast enough for them. We tend to be a little more nit-picky and more patient.”

Woodruff believes that the trend of women entering the landscaping business was something that started more than a decade ago and has flourished on Nantucket because of the high demand for beautiful gardens on the island. And the idea that women landscapers tend to be better at the gardening aspects of landscaping seems to be a popular notion among the female crews.

“It started toward the late 1980s when college kids started to apply and it gravitated toward women in gardening because the guys are in a rush, but you have to be careful in the gardens,” Woodruff said. “When I started and I was the only girl, I did digging and shoveling, and at that point, I think people were surprised, but not anymore.”

Though Woodruff and Rosen may have been among the first female landscapers on the island, the example they set has brought a whole new generation of women to the business. And today there are people like Deana and Heather Leisher Coffin, sisters who started their own landscaping company, Fairview Gardening, three years ago. And both of them credit the women who came before them for setting the example they followed.

“About 10 years ago, a handful of women who loved gardening took charge and started doing it,” Deana Leisher said. “They were women that were out of the box and inspired a lot of people. They took it to the next level.”

Today, Deana Leisher and Heather Leisher Coffin employ one other woman, as well as their younger brother to form a four-person crew that takes on any number of jobs, both large and small.

“Some people see us and say ‘how can they do it? They should be waitressing, not caked in dirt on the hottest day of the summer’,” Deana Leisher said. “But there’s a great community of women landscapers and we can do anything. We’re not afraid of putting in trees and hedges, or dealing with bees, ticks, whatever. Bring it on.”

Both Leisher sisters said that while some women have questioned their career choice, they both love to work outside and that there is a camaraderie among the female landscapers, even between crews from different companies.

“Some women said, ‘you couldn’t pay me to do that,’ but I love it,” Heather Leisher Coffin said. “People on Nantucket want beautiful gardens and whoever can provide it, it doesn’t matter if they’re male or female.”
 
Mike Misurelli, the president of the Nantucket Landscape Association and co-owner of G&M Landscape Services, said that while he was in college, landscaping crews were predominantly male, but that has changed since he arrived on Nantucket.

“We seem to always include some ladies on our crews and I know a lot of other companies have women,” Misurelli said. “Nantucket has some very talented women in the business. They enjoy working outdoors and working with gardens, but I’ve see women that were stonemasons as well. They’re all over the place. Our girls cut grass behind the mowers and do a lot of other things. They’re not just picking posies.”

And it appears that the owners of landscaping companies are also taking note of the rise in all-female crews and some have even gone as far as to advertise specifically for women to work in that setting.

“When I went online to look for jobs, there were ads to join all-female gardening crews and I thought that was strange, but I considered it a bonus,” said Julie Aitcheson, who is working in landscaping for the first time this summer for WingWorks Landscape, Inc. “I was excited about the idea of working with all women.”

Aitcheson said she enjoys working with all women because it eliminates some of the assumptions that come into play when the sexes are mixed.

“I’ve worked outside with men before and there’s always the danger of women getting relegated to tasks that may not seem as important,” Aitcheson said. “Working with women presents a whole set of other challenges, but it’s nice not to deal with assumptions about what I can’t do.”

While the female landscapers of Nantucket chose to enter the business for a variety of reasons, one thing they said they all have in common is a love of the outdoors. Several said they could not picture themselves behind a desk, while others just liked the idea of getting out in the sun during the day. Either way, a female landscaper doesn’t surprise anyone anymore – at least not on this island.

“I think for most people on Nantucket, they expect to see women working in their gardens now,” Aitcheson said.