It's a tale as old as time, from an age when women didn’t have a voice, were devalued, held back, and viewed as nothing more than wives or mothers and nothing less than fine ladies.

• Back when women were considered rebels for their passion for learning or writing. There was a time when self-expression was too much for women, but look at how far we’ve come! Although there is huge progress, all the resistance exerted by women can’t go unnoticed.

There have always been some territories that were viewed as male-dominated or marked as men’s fields, like engineering, for instance. Layla wondered one day: How many girls wanted to study engineering or wanted to pursue a career in it but were held back by social norms and assumptions? How much potential did we leave unfulfilled? How many talents have gone to waste because of gender inequality, sexism, and misogyny? Is it really a man’s world in engineering?

But there’s always a silver lining that should be focused on and appreciated enough to encourage girls to unapologetically pursue their academic and professional dreams. So, Layla sat down with an excellent female engineer who’s been crushing it for years now.

Ola Esam Aldin -USA-born and USA and Bahrain-bred- is an Egyptian 42-year-old civil engineer, wife, and mother whose dream has been to be a civil engineer ever since she was 5 years old. Her love for mathematics was and is still immense. While it was almost everyone’s least favourite subject, it was her point of strength where she didn’t face any difficulties solving its endless problems and finding all its Xs.

Her engineering dream is one that she grew up with, and she worked many years for its achievement. But Ola was only one year away from reaching her goal when her dad started telling her that Engineering is not for girls. The saying that we all know and that some of you might’ve heard themselves, as well, kept on being told to Ola for a whole month after her high school graduation, when her dreams started to get more real than ever.

Good thing she focused on her goal and easily reached it. Ola got into the faculty of Engineering, embracing her true self and desired field of study. Luckily, she never faced any difficulties in her college years, in fact, she liked it. Ola enjoyed the whole process, except the part where she had to accept the confusion that came with going to college in a different country.

Layla was surprised to find out that Ola -fortunately- didn’t recall any sexist comments she received at college or any sexist situations that she went through, even if that’s what should be the norm. Years passed by and Ola graduated from college. Then she decided to pursue a career in engineering. Her choice was supported by everyone around her, except her father, who was still holding on tight to his opinion from after Ola’s high school graduation.

It has been 20 years since Ola started working as an engineer, 2o years…Ola’s 5-year-old self must be so proud! Throughout her entire journey, all Ola could hear almost every day, no matter where she is or who she meets was one thing, “Women proved that they can do everything even better than men.”

Layla sees at least a dozen of memes about how engineering is the hardest field of study or work. It is all over social media that engineers can do anything and can understand things in an utterly different way than other ‘normal’ people. Though Ola’s experience in engineering sounds very bright, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies.

As aforementioned, Ola is a working mother. She recounted to Layla how they -at work- had a bid in Alexandria, and that they finalised their files at 5:00 A.M. So, her husband, who is also a civil engineer, had to bring their children to the office, and the kids tried to sleep over there. She also admitted to Layla that the nature of her work obliges her to go on several travels alone, and she could still vividly remember the most strange one when she went to India.

If you’re wondering about how it is working with a lot of men, Layla did too. When asked, Ola stated that, in fact, men show respect most of the time. She clarified how dealing with men at work is actually an easy task for her. 20 years in the field, so, her experience must be speaking for her.

And at the end of the story, Ola confessed her exceptional happiness for reaching her dreams and most importantly, for proving everyone wrong and making them witness that girls can be whatever they want just like men. She tells all the young female engineers-to-be that great achievements come with strong faith, hard work, and sacrifices.

As the ink runs out, Layla’s last words of Ola’s story are for girls to remember that they work wonders. So, keep pushing and only move forward, it didn’t turn out to be a man’s world only after all.