Making space for women in roofing

By Emma Peterson.

Grace Kormos shares her thoughts on roofing, education and recruitment.

The roofing industry has traditionally been dominated by men, but that’s all changing as incredible women like Grace Kormos pave the way for women entering the industry today. Grace’s roofing journey began as an intern with Tremco in 2018 while she was studying at Kent State University. In 2021, after she graduated with a degree in construction management, she was hired on full time with Tremco as a construction managers. Today, over seven years later, Grace is still with Tremco! Last year, she stopped by The Coffee Shops™ for a Roofing Road Trips® episode to talk about her journey and mission of getting more women involved in roofing.  

Grace shared that entering the field was a bit intimidating. She explained, “When I was in school, my biggest fear was that I was going to walk into a classroom and be taught by males and have two girls in the classroom and be sitting with a bunch of classmates that were males. It was one of my biggest fears.” She was pleasantly surprised when she saw the number of young women she was learning alongside and is very excited to keep watching that number grow. Grace shared, “It was great to just see it's consistently growing. I feel like there's more out there in the world and in social media that makes it normal and makes it okay for women to feel like they can pursue a career in construction, which I think is awesome.”

This shift in perception and industry demographics is in large part due to the hard work of people like Grace and companies like Tremco. A great example of this is the Tremco RISE program. Grace explained, “The program is operated right out of the University of Akron and it gives people the chance to get an education and work for Tremco at the same time. They pay for your education. It's great. It's another way to get your foot in the door while also getting your degree.” Ultimately, Grace has one message for women, or other individuals, considering the roofing industry. She shared, “My advice would be to take it on. Don't be afraid. You might get knocked down. You might feel like you don't belong, but I feel like that happens in a lot more places and industries than you could ever imagine. I think there's no reason to shy away from it.”

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode to learn more about Grace, Tremco and the efforts to get more women in roofing.