Meet the badass ladies who are turning the tables on the historically male-dominated construction industry. Fair warning - the dynamic design duo behind Building Badasses, the social club and networking group that’s been taking South Carolina by storm, are likely to become your new dream BFFs.
The O.G duo of female badassery are Michelle Suddeth and Emily Cox. Michelle is a true creative, with several high-powered roles under her belt within the fields of architecture, design and interiors. With a background in architecture and a focus on designing beautiful, functional spaces, Emily is an entrepreneurial powerhouse. Both are award-winning designers at the top of their game, and together these female entrepreneurs extraordinaire are lobbying for women to claim their space in the building industry. In short, these are truly badass women, and they’re on a mission to create safe, empowering, mansplain-free spaces for women both in person and online.
Feeling frustrated with the lack of female presence in the construction industry, these boss babes created Building Badasses back in 2018 and has since put on dozens of exciting events aimed at women in the male-dominated field of building. Building Badasses is a social club and community group hosting fun networking events and educational initiatives for women involved in any area of building arts – from architecture, interior design, historic preservation, construction and more - across the Lowcountry region in South Carolina. Michelle and Emily were keen to give fellow women in construction a sense of community, a chance to network, and have a glass of wine with a fun group of talented, capable ladies on a weekday.
Building Badasses takes a fearless deep-dive into the reality of navigating traditionally male-dominated fields as a woman, while unpacking and celebrating their members’ own personal and professional realities and career journeys. Think of it as the grown-up, business version of college girls holding each other’s hair back after one too many margaritas in Cancun on spring break. This is about supporting each other, building up other women, and making sure their mascara doesn’t run.
With a true passion for helping other women connect, grow and achieve, Michelle and Emily have created a much-needed space for connection, inspiration, support, and engagement for women in the building arts, and they’ve done it all with a fierce cat eye and a cocktail well within reach.
This is the new generation of women in construction – equally comfortable wearing hard-toed boots as Louboutin heels and just as skilled at mastering the classic red lip as surveying the jobsite in a hardhat.
Behold the future of construction: it’s fun, it’s bold, it’s female. It’s Building Badasses.
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