Is it still a man’s world, and can female leaders and innovators change that?
Four outstanding female alums shared their thoughts at the CDE Women Symposium 2024, an annual event celebrating women in design and engineering.
The four were
- Ms Anthea Foong, Business Development Manager, PALO IT Singapore,
- Ar Goy Zhenru, Principal Architect, Goy Architects,
- Er Jee Yi Yng, Managing Director, AECOM Singapore Pte Ltd, and
- Ms Michelle Tee, Senior Vice President, Head of FX Risk Technology, Singapore, Citi.
Engineering change
Er Jee Yi Yng (MSc (Civil Engineering), 2008) has worked in a male-dominated environment for over two decades, overseeing many large-scale infrastructure projects in the geotechnical field. “I don’t think in terms of gender, but in terms of responsibility,” she said.
She helped build over 50% of the country’s MRT network, including the latest Thomson-East Coast Line. She shared, “I had five female engineers and one male engineer working with me. Although the project entailed deep tunnelling and excavation work, there was no lack of female engineers in my team.” She has as many female engineers as male counterparts in her team of close to 700 professionals.
To a query concerning getting young engineers to adopt the right work practices, posed by Mr Yien Yew Sin (Civil Engineering, 1972) an alum who attended the symposium, Er Jee replied that she believed in continuing to upkeep and improve the standards of the engineering community.
“We need to engage more with the new generation of engineers as Singapore needs them to build the country. I find professionals in the built environment are not celebrated for the good work they do, and we need to do more of this. It’s fulfilling work that we do to build better homes for Singaporeans and the country,” said Er Jee.
Pursuing a purpose
Keen to share tips with the audience on how she started her architecture business, speaker Ar Goy Zhenru (Master of Architecture, 2012) revealed that she had to make do with what she had when she first started. “My company, Goy Architecture, had a humble beginning. The desk of the National Library was my office for quite a while.”
Ar Goy now has offices in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, reflecting her love of travelling within Southeast Asia. “It’s an all-female team that runs the offices, and we try to find meaning in the projects we work on or finding meaningful projects,” she said.
Of meaningful pursuits, Ms Michelle Tee (Computer Engineering, 2016) shared the story of Hedy Lamarr, a Hollywood actress who, for most of her life, was identified as just a pretty face. She had co-invented a system called "frequency hopping" during World War II, which allowed for switching between radio frequencies to avoid jamming signals. Nobody knew that this technology would ultimately contribute significantly to the development of wireless communication technologies. Her inventive genius was not recognised then.
“We are extremely privileged to have better gender equity at this time,” said Ms Tee, although she added that systemic challenges still exist. She cautioned that women would still have to guard against gender bias and imposter syndrome.
Leading change
Ms Anthea Foong (Biomedical Engineering, 2021) shared that when she launched her start-up, she was the only female among the co-founders, comprising peers from CDE’s Innovation and Design Programme (iDP). She was proud to acknowledge that they were the first to introduce AI to medical training in Singapore. A national fencer, she drew parallels between fencing and her life journey, stating that in the sport, at times, one would take two steps back to make a strategic step forward.
All four alums’ frank sharing of experiences resonated with many in the audience. Ms Zannat Jui, an alum of CDE’s MSc (Integrated Sustainable Design) programme, who had flown in from Bangladesh just for the symposium, noted that women have come a long way. Still, there is inherent discrimination.
“We need to work together as a collective force to make change happen,” she said.
