International Women's Day
International Women's Day has been celebrated on March 8th every year for exactly 100 years. Women's Day first took place in 1911, but has only been celebrated annually since 1921. It arose in the struggle for equality, the right to vote for women and emancipation. This year, the position of women in the corona pandemic will be given particular consideration. “In systemically important, often poorly paid professions in the hospital, in the intensive care unit, in the nursing home and at the supermarket checkout, they provided our society with basic supplies during the crisis.” (1) As every year, International Women's Day is used to discuss differences in wages between men and women. (2)
We wanted to use this day as an opportunity to introduce two women from gardening and landscaping and to ask you: How is it actually as a woman in gardening and landscaping?
In the Corona-compatible email interview, we spoke to Nadine Willms and Ilka Fedders. Mrs. Willms lives in East Friesland and is a master in gardening and landscaping (with a focus on the care of trees, bushes and perennials). She also works in an office for tree appraisals and ecological construction supervision.
Ms. Fedders lives near Lüneburg and has been self-employed since 2009. She is the CEO of her company Daisy and employs 11 people.
Is gardening and landscaping a male domain?
Nadine Willms has the feeling that the gardening and landscaping sector is divided into two areas, namely care and work with the plant and construction-related activities. Here, she has often noticed a separation of the gender: men are assigned the construction technology, women the plant area. Ms. Fedders also observes that landscaping is often a traditional male domain. Fortunately, both women are of the opinion that this is changing! There are more and more women who are doing an apprenticeship in landscaping and women are moving more and more into the light of the media.
Does it happen that women are not taken seriously in landscaping?
Nadine Willms says: “When doing green and apparently less physically strenuous work, it seldom happens that a woman is ridiculed as a woman. As soon as the activity has something to do with physical exertion or even machines, this is questioned significantly more often by customers or passers-by, or not taken seriously." However, Nadine Willms and Ilke Fedders also agree: As soon as colleagues see that women and men work equally good, initial stereotypical assumptions vanish. The two women also emphasize that it is not a question of gender, but of motivation, enthusiasm for landscaping and the skills that a person brings with them.
Is it easy for women to find a job in landscaping?
This was not a problem for Nadine Willms, Ilke Fedders reports that it wasn't that easy for her. She did her apprenticeship 25 years ago. It was difficult to find an apprenticeship and there she had to share changing rooms with the men for years. The good news is: A lot has happened and today it is the order of the day for women to do an apprenticeship in landscaping.
And the bottom line?
Both gardeners in gardening and landscaping emphasize that gender is not and should not be relevant. What is important are character, motivation, experience, ideas, skills, communication skills. So gender-independent factors. Diversity in terms of age, character and gender can only enrich companies. Different people have different ideas and talents, from which companies can only benefit. For Nadine Willms the goal is the greatest possible variety of personalities and experiences. Every single employee and colleague brings just as many different experiences and thus also solutions as a colleague. A diversified company is best able to provide the best possible service to its customers. In the case of Ms. Fedders and Ms. Willms, for example, it becomes clear how passionate they are about their job. Neither of them can imagine anything nicer than working in landscaping and nature. Passion at work is the most important thing!
It remains to be hoped that even the last glances and prejudices will disappear and that women as well as men will be taken seriously in their profession (not only in landscaping).
We wish you a happy International Women's Day!
Your smart to plan team
________
Sources:
(1) Ziller Dominik (2021). International FES Women's Day 2021. Under: https://www.fes.de/internationaler-frauentag-2021
(2) dpa (2021). Appeal for Women's Day: Better collective agreements against the wage gap: Under: https://www.zeit.de/news/2021-03/08/appell-zum-frauentag-bessere-tarifvertraegen-gegen-lohnluecke?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.de%2F
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You can download smart to plan from the App Store as well as Google Play Store
and test it free of charge for the first 14 days.
10 questions for: Sascha Bohl
10 questions for: is our new series of short conversations with the people behind the measurement app smart to plan. The questions are always the same. Today it is: 10 questions for Sascha Bohl.
Sascha has been a master in gardening and landscaping since 2011 and came up with the idea for smart to plan a good two years ago. With his team and a lot of support, it was possible to implement the idea of an app for digital measurements in the outdoor area.
In order to get to know the smart to plan team better, we want to introduce everyone in the next few weeks and months. To do this, we always ask them the same questions. Only the answers are different. Here we go!
1. What was your dream job as a child?
As a child, I wanted to be a dentist. So something completely different to being a gardener, although you need a precise feeling for both (laughs).
2. smart to plan - from the idea to the result. What will you always remember?
Joy, tears, the first tests in the Steinriede in Garbsen near Hanover, problems with lighting conditions, further tests with Marie in the parks of Hanover and the constant exchange of new ideas and developments with the team from This is DMG! .
3. What is your plant tip for this time of year?
Helleborus niger (Christmas rose), because it is blooming despite the snow cover.
4. What do you like most about smart to plan?
For me there is clearly only one answer: my team!
5. What are the plans for the future?
The plans now are first of all the marketing of smart to plan, cooperations, further development and relaxed growth for our company.
6. Why would you recommend smart to plan to gardeners in horticulture and landscaping?
With smart to plan, you can really save a lot of time, which is the biggest advantage of our app. In addition, with smart to plan you simply work in a contemporary way, because with digital solutions you always remain competitive.
7. What do you love most about your job?
The many different people, working together in a team and developing new things.
8. Which plant best describes you and why?
The German oak, Quercus robur, because it is strong and robust. It protects everyone within its eaves. Whether the hardest frost or the hottest temperatures - nothing can really harm it. I myself work in shorts down to minus 12 degrees in winter (laughs).
9. What shouldn't be missing in any garden?
The rose scissors - what the surgeon's scalpel is to him, the rose scissors are to us.
10. What was the biggest challenge in the "smart to plan" project?
That was and is certainly to make the app available for every smartphone.
If you want to find out more about how the measurement app smart to plan can make your gardening and landscaping work easier, have a look at the Features. If you have any questions, please write to us at info@smarttoplan.com.
Test now 14 days for free
You can download smart to plan from the App Store as well as Google Play Store
and test it free of charge for the first 14 days.
The app for digital measurements goes live!
Soon the time has finally come: The measurement app for gardening and landscaping goes live! Months of work, discussions, joy, tears, laughter, despair, sleepless nights, stressful days and a good dose of optimism are behind us. We are incredibly pleased that our dream of a measurement app has come true with smart to plan and that we can now share it with you. Who is actually behind it? What was the path from the idea to the app for landscaping? What can you expect with smart to plan? We want to reveal all of this to you below!
From the challenge to the solution
Sascha Bohl is a self-trained master in gardening and landscaping and initially had the idea for smart to plan. Like many other gardeners and landscapers, he was faced with the challenge of measuring the outside area - absolutely necessary for projects, but always an endeavor that costs nerves. Taking measurements takes time, errors occur, the weather can make everything even more laborious and somehow manual measurements are no longer entirely up-to-date in our digitalized world.
The idea was born: an app that makes measurements easy, quick and cost-saving. Intended primarily for gardeners in gardening and landscaping, but also for hobby gardeners and for everyone who simply likes to measure. But of course an idea alone is not enough, it has to be implemented technically. So Sascha got support on board: Marie-Sophie Schoppe, who, after completing her apprenticeship in gardening and landscaping, completed a degree in landscape architecture and environmental planning and now works for us as a project manager. Manfred Hörnschemeyer, who eventually became the company co-founder because he was convinced by the idea of smart to plan. And THIS IS ! DMG, who are responsible for the technical implementation of the digital measurement app, consulting and marketing.
From the solution to the result
With this great team from different disciplines, a good basis for the development of the measurement app was created, but the way was still long and rocky. It took almost a year before we were able to achieve results with the measurement app that were comparable to those of manual measurement with a wheel, pen and paper. Now we can proudly say that smart to plan is exactly what we were looking for ourselves. The measurement app for gardeners goes live!
With smart to plan you need around 75% less time for exact measurements outdoors, for example to measure a garden. With the horticulture app you can create customer folders, add measurements, photos, (voice) notes and thus have a good overview of your projects. You can also easily download measurements as PDF or DXF, forward them and process them further. With smart to plan you are up-to-date and can use the time you have gained for further projects. Check out all features in more detail! Laborious measurements? That's history!
Any questions?
So far, our measurement app is available as an iOS version, although we are already working intensively on the Android version. We are initially starting with a beta version in order to further optimize the app. Always keep up to date by subscribing to our newsletter, or follow us on Facebook and Instagram. If you have any questions, you can always contact us! We look forward to the future!
Your smart to plan team
Test now 14 days for free
You can download smart to plan from the App Store as well as Google Play Store
and test it free of charge for the first 14 days.