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Ailyn Agonia
Doha
Filipino women thrive in various fields. Many of them excel in academics, business, healthcare sector, hospitality industry, arts, and even politics. While in some countries women lag behind in securing leadership roles despite their educational attainments, the Philippines is blessed with many strong-willed women who thrive in male-dominated fields.
With her achievements in the field of engineering and being the first female president of the Qatar chapter of the prestigious Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE Qatar), Engr. Aileen Abejero Buenaflor takes pride in being among those fearless women who have broken through barriers.
"Among the strengths of women that make us good engineers is our patience and meticulousness. We are very patient hence we see to it that we do our job properly. Women are also meticulous, always looking at the finer details in the design which is important in a project in order that every aspect of the work can be covered. And with our willingness and eagerness to learn we find it a challenge that we are given a new assignment or job," Aileen told Qatar Tribune in an interview.
This native of Zamboanga City and a resident of Qatar for 11 years is a licensed civil engineer and registered in the ASEAN Engineering Registry. She currently works in the Doha office of the Italian industrial group Salini Impregilo as quantity surveyor at the Doha Metro Project Red Line North Underground.
Sharing her beautiful journey in a profession not so popular among women in her country, she said it was her fascination for buildings, roads and structures as well as the inspiration from her two elder brothers who are both engineers that made her decide to take up civil engineering.
After passing the board examination, Aileen landed a job in her hometown as a supervising engineer of a project which involved renovating a one-storey school building. She later took up a job in a government agency and then three years later an opportunity to practise her profession abroad landed in her lap. Her first work experience in Qatar was as an office engineer in a multinational German company. She said practising her profession in a foreign country further enhanced her skills and expertise.
As the current president of PICE Qatar, Aileen leads more than 3363 members of which only 440 are women. She said among the challenges that come with leading a top Filipino professional group is more on making sure that the focus of the group remains the welfare of the members through delivering the best-quality programmes, projects and events.
"Not only do I feel honoured and privilleged to be serving as the first female president leading the Qatar chapter of PICE but also humbled considering that we have the board of directors and past presidents who are outstanding, inspiring and tireless leaders who keep this Chapter like a well-oiled machine running day in and day out throughout the year," she said.
Under her leadership, PICE Qatar has created a very important committee, the Employment Assistant Committee (EAC), whose main function is to focus on giving assistance to active members who are currently looking for jobs. Since one of the tall orders of PICE Qatar is to extend a helping hand to members who were laid off or denied re-employment, the Committee sees to it that they pool the necessary resources to assist members in looking for new employment opportunities.
It was also under the visionary leadership of Aileen that PICE Qatar was able to conduct the organisation's first construction and project management symposium which provided additional knowledge and guidance to engineers in fully understanding the construction flow from initial stage until completion and turnover of a project.
"Unfortunately, there are only a few Filipino women who are fortunate enough to practise their engineering profession since we all know that many still consider the field to be a male bastion since the work involves working out on project sites. For those women who would like to pursue a career in engineering, my advice is to know what they really want and the rest will follow such as the love of work and job and the hunger for continuous knowledge and getting acquainted with the latest technology. Despite the efforts made towards gender equality in all professions women remain under-represented in the field of engineering. I would thus encourage women to come out and not be afraid to work shoulder-to-shoulder with men. These will be vital in making you succeed in your chosen field of work," the PICE Qatar president said as a parting shot.
