In Philadelphia, women are making their mark in the male-dominated construction industry, report Heather Grubola and Nydia Han for 6abc.

One of them is Emily Bittenbender.

Bittenbender completed $454 million in capital projects in three-and-a-half years while working for the Rendell Administration. She moved on to lead the design and construction of the National Constitution Center before starting and operating her own construction company, Bittenbender Construction.

“Our tagline is: ‘Changing the way you think about construction,’” she said.

Two decades ago, Bittenbender was the first female founded and owned union commercial general contractor. Today, her company has six executives, five of whom are women.

In addition, almost half of the company’s employees are women.

“Our culture is very different,” said Bittenbender. “We understand that the first priority really is the family and the children and we provide flexible hours.”

Bittenbender also broke another barrier in 2015 when she was named the chair of the General Building Contractors Association.

She made history in becoming the first female chairman of the board in 300 years.

Some of the projects Bittenbender’s company has worked on include Sister Cities Park, Comcast, PECO, Exelon, Verizon, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The company strives to do projects that have a positive impact on the community.

Read more about Emily Bittenbender and other notable women in construction on 6abc.

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