Dola Roychowdhury - Founding Director, G-Cube Consulting Engineers

When women engineers ask for equity, they are not asking for privileges or a special status; they are only asking for awareness about the inequities faced by them, challenging the existing bias, and celebrating their fellow women’s achievements.
Dola Roychowdhury, Founding Director, G-Cube Consulting Engineers

I got the opportunity to explore multiple on-site applications across the country at a time when the Geosynthetic Industry was just opening up.

The Construction Industry is one of the most male-dominated amongst all the STEM fields, though women have contributed significantly to it by continuing to crash barriers, break ceilings, and sometimes shifting their goal posts. Their professional journey has never been easy, with often biased treatment, loaded with societal expectations, and having to deal with a continuous sense of guilt.

My first job after graduation in 1992 was with a Transmission Tower Company – Utkasha Group - in my home town Nagpur (there was some parental pressure to get back home!), followed by a stint at marketing the just launched Indalco Roofing Sheets. This gave me my first taste of thinking beyond conventional construction fields of roads and buildings, and inspired me to opt for my Master’s in Business in 1994.

Paradoxically, this was also the start of my journey in Geosynthetics and Geotechnical Engineering when I joined Netlon India in Baroda following my MBA. Here, I got the opportunity to explore multiple on-site applications across the country at a time when the Geosynthetic Industry was just opening up and the learning opportunities from the international community were immense. Later, I moved to Z-Tech (India) of the Z-Tech Group, Canada, in 1996 and got the opportunity to explore the vast array of geo-materials with a pan-India exposure.

Needless to add, at each of these places I was the only female engineer. However, I also had great mentors who helped me navigate every (potential) pitfall. There were inequities and bias, but like my other counterparts, I too learnt to let go of the stereotypes and the double standards and focus on my goal. These goals were not constant and often the goal posts needed to be shifted to suit my surroundings, one baby step at a time, until I stopped second guessing my choice of a career in construction or worry about how I will be treated if I don’t have a “thick-skin” or am not “one of the guys” to be able to be accepted.

The highlight of my career graph is my Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of ‘Contribution for the development and promotion of Geosynthetics in Infrastructure Projects’.

I was presented this award by the International Geosynthetic Society (India Chapter) and CBIP in 2016. This was followed by a series of other Appreciation Awards over the next few years which seemed like a validation of my professional journey and a source of encouragement to continue to innovate in this domain. To be featured in the IGS publication ‘Daughters of Indian Soil’ last year as one of the 75 Influential Women of Indian Origin in Geotechnical Engineering was both exhilarating and humbling.

While treading this path, it helped obviously to have a life partner from the same field, who continued to provide the much-needed support inspite of his own very demanding career with the Government of India. Our boys grew up on a steady diet of Soil and Rock conversations at the dinner table, which in hindsight could have been instrumental in both of them choosing not to be Civil Engineers! But they have grown up as responsible and independent young adults who have an ingrained respect for all their female colleagues and are not shy about chipping in at housework. I sincerely feel this support from home is as important as the support from good mentors at the workplace in reaching your career goals.

Biases are here to stay, so women need to show the system that we can do it, we can be successful, and we can be accepted just as much as our male counterparts.

‘Mother’s guilt’ is not a myth for working women; organisations can play a huge role in helping recognize the barriers faced by women, and provide an environment that is supportive of their female employees, and which fosters a diverse, equitable, and inclusive atmosphere.

There will be occasional long hours, travels to remote sites, boys’ clubs, etc, like any other industry. What we need to understand is to focus on possibilities and not the problems and issues. The industry probably still needs to accept that just because “this is how we’ve always done things” doesn’t mean this is how we should always do things. And bringing this alternate perspective is the forte of women civil engineers in each construction team.

Women in construction are today standing tall, providing support to their fraternity, and not shying away from celebrating their success.

Reflecting on my professional journey from a graduate trainee to becoming a bootstrapped serial entrepreneur with G-Cube since 2019, I can conclude that excellence has no gender. Whether based in the field or in the office, women are making invaluable contributions and will continue to play a critical role in helping drive the much-needed change in perspective.

Young women engineers should not shy away from asking questions or in voicing their perspectives based on their observations, learnings, and life experiences. They must experiment and review their goals continually. This is a male-dominated field, and the journey is not easy or without obstacles, but the success that comes with dedication and hard work makes it totally worth the efforts!