In charge of a major Boston bridge in 1989, Mary Jane O’Meara was excited as she prepared to meet transportation and infrastructure colleagues from around the world in her first time attending a convention of the International Bridge, Tunnel & Turnpike Association. O’Meara said she was looking forward to swapping stories and jobsite experiences. On the elevator ride down to the event, however, she got a hint of things to come when a male attendee saw O’Meara headed the same way and asked a colleague if “the wives’ tour was over yet?”

Entering the conference ballroom, O’Meara saw 200 men, with the only two other women there both conference staffers. But quickly recovering from her initial surprise, O’Meara plunged in to meet her colleagues. The two men from the elevator later sought her out and apologized. Growing up in Stoneham, Mass., with four brothers and one sister, O’Meara says she learned to cope as one of the only females. But she never forgot those and other early career experiences and became a mentor to a new generation of women leaders in transportation.