Twa Fanm Sifi pou fe yon Marche

Three women are enough to make a market.

Today is International Women’s Day, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some of my thoughts on not only being a woman in Haiti, but also a female in engineering.

Everyone knows that engineering is typically a male-dominated field and in my time as an engineering student and through the various internships I’ve completed, I have found this to be very true. It wasn’t unusual to be one of two or three girls in a classroom or the only girl in the office. I’ve heard all the comments about “I’m sure you’ll have an easy time getting hired after graduation because companies know hiring a girl looks good for diversity” or “I know they usually try to give at least one girl an award, so I’m not surprised you got it.” While comments like this aren’t meant to hurt or tear any one down, they quietly remind me that the stereotypes and preconceived notions that women in engineering don’t have as much to offer as their male colleagues still exist. While the number of female engineering students is ever increasing, still only 20 percent of engineering graduates are women. On top of that, it’s estimated that 40 percent of woman who do graduate with engineering degrees either quit or never even enter the profession. It’s not that the work is too hard for females, in fact, many studies have shown that females do just as well, if not better, than their male classmates in school. Research, however, has shown that what keeps most woman from pursuing careers in engineering is the work place environments and “boys club” attitudes that still exist in the field. Clearly, we still have a ways to go when it comes to knocking down the barriers that have keep girls from wanting to pursue careers in the STEM fields.

Now, I don’t bring all of this up to be negative or to cast a bad light on my male engineering friends. Not at all! I simply want to bring to light an issue that many may not even know is there on this International Women’s Day. I think that this is important to talk about, because I truly believe that women deserve an equal place in the engineering conversation. All of us, male and female, are gifted differently and are skilled at different things. It’s what makes our world interesting and it’s what makes teamwork so important. We live in a world of diverse problems, and so we need diverse teams of people solving them – including women.

While pursuing an education and career in engineering has been tough in some aspects, living in Haiti has put into perspective just how lucky I am to have had the opportunities I have been given. Many people here would do anything to have the education that I do. People dream of being able to go to a university in America as they know that education leads to prosperity and the ability to provide a better life for their families. Unfortunately, most people do not have the opportunity to pursue higher education, especially in rural settings like Cange, and must find other ways to make a living. This is what makes them some of the strongest people I have ever met – especially the women.

We’ve met women from all walks of life while we’ve been here. There are some woman who stay at home and take care of their children. It is not uncommon for us to see them walking to collect water. In fact, women and children around the world walk an average of 3.5 miles to collect water sometimes from sources that aren’t even clean. The trek is difficult, the water is heavy, but it is a necessity for their families, so they do whatever it takes to provide. We often see them spending hours on the weekends washing their children’s clothes and they cook for their families as well. They do what they can to help provide financially, many selling food, crops, or clothes in the local marketplace. We’ve also met women who hold more consistent jobs, cooking or cleaning in the compound we live at, or working as an artist at the local artisan center. Some women work in the hospital as a nurse or pharmacy technician, and we have met several female medical residents working in Cange in hopes of earning their medical degrees. One thing we’ve noticed from women of all situations is how much they all care about their appearance. They wear nice clothes, style their hair, and paint their nails. Most of the time, I feel completely underdressed in my typical attire of athletic shorts and t-shirts. Haitian women make the best of everything that have and everything they do. They are strong, resilient, beautiful, passionate, imaginative, persistent, and powerful.

Since arriving in Haiti, Mary Evelyn and I have had the opportunities to meet several woman in leadership positions as well. We’ve met woman high up in international NGOs, national programs, and local governments, all of which are leaders in their respective fields of work. One of the most touching experiences for both of us was when we met with the leaders of Boucan-Carre, which is the equivalent of the county seat for Cange. In their offices, we met the mayor, his second in command, a leader in the community of Cange, and the deputy mayor who just so happened to be a woman. When the meeting began, everyone had the opportunity to say a few words. Most just gave warm welcomes and thanked us for coming, but addressed everything they were saying to our advisor who was present at the meeting with us. When the deputy mayor had a chance to speak, she instantly changed the dynamic of the room and instead spoke directly to Mary Evelyn and me even though we were the youngest people present. She expressed how grateful she was to see other women in leadership and told us how excited she was to meet us. It was awesome for us to see a woman in such a high role as well.

For the most part, everyone in Haiti seems to be really accepting of woman in leadership positions. I’ve never felt criticized or looked over for being a female working on engineering projects here. I think there is definitely something to say about the strength of women in all cultures and when we work together, it makes powerful things happen. They say in Haiti it can make a market, but I think it can change the world.