Working in a male-dominated industry, Yvonne Hoover — the owner of Suburban Septic & Excavating Services in Kirkwood, New York — has the strength of character to stand up to the occasional chauvinistic customer. But developing it didn’t happen overnight.Sometimes the bias is subtle, like people insisting to talk to her father, Rod Hoover, implying that as a woman she can’t possibly know much about the septic or portable restroom industries. “They just will not talk to me,” she says. “They assume I’m here just to do the behind-the-scenes work.” Or they try to “pull on my heartstrings,” as she puts it,
