Talking Back

By Janean Chun

When Barbara Grogan first read the column in question (see "Talking Back," above), she recalls being "extremely disappointed and saddened." Though Grogan has encountered gender discrimination many times since starting Denver-based Western Industrial Contractors Inc., she says, "I will never get used to it nor will I ever accept it."

She calls her decision to maintain her business sales at $10 million a "life choice." "It has [nothing] to do with maleness and femaleness," says Grogan. "To use me as a club for other women and say none of them are going to succeed in the big leagues is pretty dangerous stuff."

Yet Grogan isn't bitter. "The bottom line of this whole issue is we're blessed to live in a country where people have an opportunity to go out and start a business, to succeed and to fail," she says. "It's a very exciting and vibrant time to be a woman in business."

Grogan refuses to fall prey to anyone who condescends to her as "just" a woman entrepreneur. "I would be naive to think [sexism] is not out there. I experience it," she says. "But business success is the great equalizer."

This article was originally published in the November 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Talking Back.