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Women in engineering have always faced numerous hurdles their male counterparts do not.

Growing up in India, I was never allowed by my parents or family to have any doubts about pursuing the career that I wanted. When I opted to pursue civil engineering, a predominantly male-dominated field around the world, there was no hesitation in their support for me. It was great; and this acceptance was something I took for granted when I was a student. I never questioned what I wanted to do. But my experience is far from the norm.

Today, I am the deputy design manager for the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) program, a $6 billion bistate project that will see the replacement of one of the most important interstate bridges on the West Coast. Getting to this point, however, took a lot of perseverance and determination.

As we celebrate Women’s History Month in March, it’s the perfect time to reflect upon the challenges facing women and women of color in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries, and how we might transform them into careers where women feel just as welcomed as their male counterparts.

The numbers don’t lie. The Society of Women Engineers estimates that as of 2016, just 13 percent of professional engineers in the U.S. were women and just 19 percent of undergraduate engineering students were women. Of the women who become engineers, 1 in 4 ultimately leave the field for other careers. My home country of India is doing a little better 鈥� 29.7 percent of engineering undergraduate students were women in 2018 鈥� but there remains a long way to go to achieve equality in representation, regardless of the country.

After graduating from the University of Delaware with a master’s degree in civil engineering, I entered the professional world and experienced firsthand the perceptions about women that persist in this field. I faced doubts about my abilities and was told certain jobs 鈥� including leadership roles 鈥� were not meant for women. Unfortunately, these kinds of attitudes are not unique to engineering.

Fortunately, my first job at RK&K Engineering in Delaware blessed me with an opportunity to work with two outstanding managers and mentors who gave me the confidence to excel in designing transportation projects that really make a positive difference in peoples’ lives. They were very humble and valued doing the right thing 鈥� for employees, clients, and most importantly, the people and communities that our work impacts daily. They always emphasized that working with the public was an important responsibility. And there was never a situation where I couldn’t walk into their offices and ask questions.

It’s a good thing, too, because I was thrown into community engagement from the very beginning. Within a month of joining the firm, I was engaged in working group meetings in communities, where I quickly realized that transportation engineering was about much more than just geometry or design; it’s about how to best transform what the public wants into a concept that can be realized in the real world. I found that I loved that aspect of the work, something that continues to this day.

I joined the Oregon Department of Transportation in 2021 and took on a leadership role in the IBR program. In my role as deputy design manager, I find myself using all of those early lessons and experience to help guide this project into the National Environmental Policy Act phase.

Too often people say they feel their input into transportation projects is not important and that decisions have already been made for them. With the IBR program, we are working diligently to avoid that perception. Our program-wide commitment to equity means we absolutely want a project that reflects the desires and needs of all communities on both sides of the Columbia River. It’s not optional.

Centering equity also means we have women in a host of leadership roles throughout the program. The design, environmental, communications, permitting, and public affairs teams, among others, all have women in leadership roles.

But equity is not a one-and-done process. It’s a continual effort that requires being intentional about being inclusive of diverse voices, thoughts, and ideas. This is why both inside and outside of the IBR program I’m also busy working to ensure that the ranks of female engineers continue to grow with a support system in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

For instance, I’m involved with professional organizations such as Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) and the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). I’ve taken on mentorship roles with these organizations, serving as a board member and co-chair of the mentoring program for WTS’ Portland chapter, and serving as chair of the diversity and inclusion committee for ITE International in 2021 and 2022. In this way I’m trying to do my small part to change how the civil engineering industry sees women and women of color.

Ultimately, if I had one piece of advice for women entering transportation engineering, I would say, 鈥淒o not let anyone convince you of what you can or cannot do.鈥� Question your doubters and challenge their thinking. You’ll be standing up for yourself and proving them wrong, which is essential to growth and change.

Editor’s note:

The IBR program will host its fourth equity roundtable, 鈥淲omen Paving the Way,鈥� from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 23. Panelists, including Shilpa Mallem and other women leaders in transportation and infrastructure, will discuss how they navigate challenges and contribute to what has traditionally been a male-dominated field. This event will take place virtually via Zoom, with a live stream available on the IBR program’s YouTube channel (). The discussion will be followed by a Q and A session. Learn more at .

Shilpa Mallem is the deputy design manager for the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program. Contact her at [email protected].

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither the author nor the 91视频 guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.