So she wants to be an Engineer; what it really takes.

During the time I spent working as the only female in a construction site, it got to me how much I had to adjust to fit in. It did not happen automatically for me as seemed the case with my male counterparts.  I believed that although the changes I underwent seemed trivial, they contributed greatly in making me feel at home in the electrical engineering world. I took note of every hurdle, for your reading pleasure. I hope you find this helpful if you are a little girl trying to fit into an engineering suit.

1.       You cannot be picky. I had been picky since birth. I was very selective about what I ate, what I wore and wouldn’t wear,  and I especially did not like to have dirt on my hands. This all changed on the first day I stepped into the construction site(or 'chantier' as it is referred to in my locality). The electrical connections were being done simultaneously with the bricklaying so I was almost always around dust or dusty equipment. In order not to be a nuisance to my coworkers, I had to swiftly get used to this.

2.       Face your fears. Do learn how to climb a ladder without passing out. It will be a life saver if you are scared of heights as much as I was. In a good number of houses, the fault-finding process will require that you climb into the roof. Fault-finding and debugging is the fun part when you are an apprentice in engineering.  Do not let your fear (of heights or whatever) stand between you and the fun.

3.       Pick up the speed. Once upon a time, my secondary school teacher told me that the standards would not come down to meet us, we will always have to go up to meet the standards. It is understandable, and sometimes expected that you’ll be a little slower than your counterparts when you start learning (or if you are a girl). However, make it a habit to always give a little more than is expected of you. If a project generally takes two days to be completed, then in the name of all that is good; please finish in two days. Don’t take slack even if it is cut just for you. Your colleagues will consider you an equal if and only if you can be upheld to the same standards as them.

4.       Feel free to make mistakes. For the first year of my engineering degree, my desire to explore and look into the circuit board of every single electronic device around me was always impeded by the thought that I might make a mistake, break the device or destroy the system forever. I have grown to notice this pattern in a number of girls around me. Thankfully, this hesitation was not tolerated during my internship at the construction site. Every day, I was pushed further out of my comfort zone until one day I was finally free. We learn a lot when we try, so try. Try to fix the bulbs that won’t light at home, try to replace the fuse, try to find out why the wall socket isn’t working properly, try try try. Whether you fail or succeed, you become a better engineer whenever you try to fix something. (Hint: Google, YouTube, Stack exchange and Stack Overflow come in handy!)

5.       Choose the high road. There’s an easy way out, don’t take it. Don’t cut corners. Don’t cheat during your exams. Always do the right thing. Engineering is not hard; if you love it, do it. Sometimes, the lecture hours and the assignments are so many that you feel totally drained and maybe there’s a circuit diagram that everyone but you, understands. One day at a time. Don’t settle for less. You can become an engineer. If you love it, do it.

6.       If you want equality, accept the scale. There’s a theory, I do not know how true it is, that we’ll have to be twice as good to go half as far. It’s a two-sided bias, or so I’ve heard. Sometimes, a girl earns a reward; a high score or a promotion, yet it is perceived that the reward was granted unto her, just because she is a girl. Try your best to be excellent in all you do, not just a little better than the rest. Set the bars high such that there is clarity in your achievements and so that you can, with a free conscience, disregard remarks such as these.

7.       Dress appropriately. This is a touchy topic and I really wish I did not have to talk about it, but then I must. I noticed that the less sexual attention you bring to yourself, the more people can ‘see’ your brain. It tends to be extremely distracting if you dress with a lot of cleavage, especially in a male-dominated environment. Also, members of the hierarchy (professors at school or managers at work) may not like the idea of being alone with you for fear of rumors; the engineering hierarchy is mostly male. Hence, you’ll never actually get to stand out from the crowd (this would’ve happened if the hierarchy could see you work independently, alone that is). Is a ‘suggestive’ dress really worth that much?

8.       On a lighter note, have fun. An engineering major can tend to be really stressful on some days. I have found that it is far easier to do stuff if you consider it fun. Guess what; fun is what you want fun to be! So next time you make a list your fun activities, include engineering. Tell yourself out loud that you enjoy it, tell you friends and family of how much you engineering means to you. If the love is not there now, act like it is until your brain is convinced and believes you. The effects of the stress and the pressure that may come will be less felt if you classify the activity as fun and not work.

This is what I have learnt so far. I hope you become a good engineer someday. I hope we get to work together on something fun sometime. Until then, as Mohammad Ali said, float like a butterfly sting like a bee.