BROWNWOOD – March is Women’s History Month, and Thursday, March 8, marked International Women’s Day. This month, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) celebrates women of the Department who serve the citizens of Texas and make TxDOT’s mission statement “Connecting you with Texas” a reality. These women work alongside men, often breaking stereotypes from years past.
Jessica Tiner moved to the Brownwood area about 11 years ago in search of better employment opportunities. She may be small in stature and a little quiet at times, but she works hard as a general maintenance technician in the Brownwood District’s Brown County Maintenance Office. This can be very physical work, such as lifting heavy debris off of roads, including tires and illegally dumped trash; filling potholes; driving heavy equipment; or flagging traffic through a work zone in the scorching Texas heat, just to name a few. “She is a hard worker, if I could hire ten just like her, I would,” Brown County Maintenance Supervisor Calvin Milburn said of Tiner.
Raised around boys, Tiner stated she understands men, and is not intimidated working with them. She stated, “Men are not so different from women – they like to chat and have a good time, just like us.” She works as a team with other crews without consideration of what gender is present. She enjoys her coworkers, and stated, “they are good people.” Sometimes the other crews tease her for being the “poster child” for women with the idea that “anything boys can do; girls can do better.”
