“Don’t be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.”

–Belva Davis

The transition of women into business owners, partners and leaders has been the slowest – not politics, not education administration – according to some women in business in the Coles County community.

These women who own businesses in Coles County said having to balance or combat still traditional female roles is just the same-old territory for them.

Jan Eads, owner and broker of Real Estate Unlimited on Lincoln Avenue, Lorelei Sims, owner of Five Points Blacksmith Shop on State Street, Jeanie Davis, owner of Sweet Tooth Specialties on the square, and Joyce Madigan, partner in the accounting firm Gilbert, Metzger and Madigan on Park Drive, all have faced their own issues that cross gender lines in becoming the business women they are today.

A “male-dominated” world

“I think being a woman who works in a field that is seen as traditionally as a man’s work is one of my biggest accomplishments,” Sims said. “In politics, I have never really seen myself as a role model to women in particular. But, in my business, being a female blacksmith, I see new college students and little kids come by the shop and I just hope that they see a woman and are different because of it.”

In her shop, candleholders and wall ornaments look delicate and detailed, but the work, Sims said, is not.

“Everything I do in here is something I am extremely proud of, and the amount of work I put into these pieces is a quality that I carry with me into everything I do,” she said.

Eads said when she entered the field of real estate it was overwhelmingly male. However, the recession of 1977 changed the dynamic.

“Men needed to go out and get a full-time job to support their families, so the profession turned to women to fill its positions,” she said. “Now, women own this business.”

Failure is a word Davis deals with daily. She constantly runs her head through the statistics and tells herself “90 percent of businesses fail within five years.” Her field, though still male dominated when looking at the comparison of male to female owners of food service industries, does not discriminate.

“It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman, if there isn’t a need for your food service business, you are out of here,” she said.

Davis said a woman could use the qualities of creativity and the ability to read emotions of the guests to make the business flourish.

“Not that men don’t have these qualities, but I know women who could just really focus on these things. And in the food industry, they are very important qualities.”

Madigan climbed the ladder to partner from the year 1980, when she was hired at her firm. Fresh out of college, the Eastern graduate looked for jobs to remain close to her husband, who was still finishing his schooling. She said that was the only time she felt any gender bias in the community.

“There might have been some apprehension here and there, and I could sort of sense it,” she said. “But today, I do not believe that those apprehensions are the norm.”

Madigan told a story about one of the women she met at a professional conference, an accountant and partner that started in the 1960s. She said that the woman explained the whole field was men and she was forced to call wives and ask permission to attend business trips and was not allowed to share the same hotel building.

“Things like that don’t happen today, but they did once,” Madigan said. “But I will tell you that over the last five years all of our interns have been female.”

A juggling act

As these women take part in non-traditional roles, working with blow-torches, crunching numbers and talking to contractors about their buildings, they have said personal lives often linger unattended. Families, community activities, hobbies, and the rest all provide an extra grain to an already tipping scale.

“I do not have children,” Madigan said. “And if I did, I know this job would have been difficult.”

She explained that she knows women who raise small children while being accountants in her firm and she has seen them both succeed and fail. The job, she said, demands “more than anyone can anticipate.”

“We are a family oriented business, so we make concessions for women and men with families to attend to,” she said. “But those that take concessions also tend to climb the ladder much slower. To make partner would be an extremely long and difficult journey.”

Eads said that she had waited until her children were grown to start her business, though she had worked when they were young as well. Davis was also a housewife for over 20 years before her entrepreneurship began.

“This is something that demands 18 hours a day, six and seven days a week,” Davis said. “Women. wait until they are grown.”

Davis said she knows that women can work with children but owning and starting a business demands “almost all your time.” It is something she could not see a woman with small children having the ability to do if they assumed their “motherly role.”

Yet as these women have either postponed business goals or forgone children, they continue to involve themselves in the community. Sims and Eads have been active politically as a city council member and county board member. Madigan is on the Sarah Bush Lincoln Hospital Board, Coles Together Board, Eastern’s School of Business Advisory Board and a trustee at the St. Charles Church.

“It is extremely important as a business leader to involve yourself in the community,” Madigan said. “You just make the time.”

“A time of crisis”

Women in business now face a “time of crisis,” Madigan said. As the economy falters and job opportunities shrink away, women must compete for positions harder than ever.

“Women must be ambitious and know what they want,” Davis said. “They have to have the gall to go after their dreams and not give up.”

A women, just like a man, must give 110 percent to a job and actively search the field for a fit that sequesters her achievements, she continued.

“Gender is no longer a pole women can lean on,” Eads said. “Women must get past the glass ceiling on their own.”

Sims said the opportunity lies ahead for women to achieve anything they want. The opportunities are there, she said.

Madigan agreed and said women should take their education seriously and realize the potential that lies within them.

“Keep going,” Davis said. “Your dreams may just be trampled, but if you have enough faith – enough ability to keep dreaming – you can make it.”

Krystal Moya can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].