How one girl broke through the gender-based barriers and became an engineer

Rabia Nusrat has many firsts. Living in Pakistan, she is the first girl in her family to attend university and the first woman engineer in her company. She is also a teacher, mentoring other girls in her country in science. Below, she tells us about her journey in education and why it was important for her to persist in her quest to study engineering despite the challenges.

I grew up in southern Punjab. Ever since I was a child, I had the intrinsic urge to improve the lives of my family and community around me. I always wanted to work in labs and imagined myself wearing goggles and a lab coat. My brother was the first one in the family to study engineering, and that is how I found out at the age of 4 about UET Lahore – one of the most prestigious engineering institutions in Pakistan. I heard someone say that engineers are creative people and can do anything! My brother had a prospectus of the university and I would keep it in my bag when I was in primary school. Ever since I remember, I wanted to be an engineer. I was prepared to face never ending challenges in my professional and personal life, so as to make this dream come true.

The environment of my school was not very positive and highly politicized. But I was lucky. I came across a very good teacher during grade 9 who taught us chemistry. I never knew if I was good enough, but this teacher made me realize that I could be very good in science. The encouragement and support made me forget all the challenges. It did not matter if I had enough money or a space to study. I would remind myself that I have something in me, and all I had to do was study hard. Because of that teacher I scored almost perfect marks in my matriculation and secured 100% scholarship to pursue pre-engineering education in a very good college.

The biggest challenge during my schooling was the lack of exposure and resources. I would ride my bicycle in grade 4 and roam around the city to find teachers who were willing to help me study. Luckily, I identified good teachers at different academies and managed to finish my courses ahead of time. But it wasn’t easy. I remember the time when I was at the doctor and told him I wanted to study engineering, I was surprised when he suggested to me to join medicine instead. He said that men become engineers and it will be too hard for me. This was the message I was getting all the time. I was told that it is better to study medicine, but I resisted, struggled and managed to hold on to my dreams.

After graduating from university, I was hired at EveryWater Technology as their first female engineer. My team is quite supportive – they do not discriminate against me for being a girl and give me equal opportunity to participate in many projects. I have a very good mentor in my team and I really feel like they all want me to reach my full potential. I am working as a lead applied research engineer where I get to do performance benchmarking of hollow fiber membrane technology. I am working as an environmental engineering consultant with the same company and I am participating in different business development projects that will help the company expand globally.

I also volunteer as a teaching assistant. What I try to do is to talk about the importance of engineering in class so that girls are encouraged to pursue it further. There are only four girls in my class and I try to support them as much as I can and encourage them to do well in their assignments.

Fortunately, mindsets are starting to change. What I have been hearing when a female student is performing well academically is: “hmari beti bare hoker doctor bane gi” which means ‘our daughter will become a doctor one day’. This is progress. But it is not enough. Why can’t our girls become successful engineers, or technology experts or, entrepreneurs? I think exposure is important. Once girls have exposure of every field in science, technology, engineering and mathematics from the very beginning, they will have the opportunity to choose what they really want. Girls can pursue anything with passion. There are some good signs. I was so happy when my niece, Esha, attended a session at Science Fair and she became fascinated by electronics. I was so excited to see that and would like to encourage and support more girls in gaining an interest in these fields.

 

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