Leadership And Agency By Women Engineers Case Study

Leadership and Agency by Women Engineers in South Africa

by
Professor Hannelie Nel

Acknowledgements

I sincerely acknowledge the courageous and insightful contributions provided by the participating women engineers and technologists in this book. Without them, this work would have remained a dream.

Riekie Swanepoel, Chief Engineering Technologist at Eskom
Danai Magugumela, Managing Director of Bosch Stemele
Wiebke Toussaint, Business Analyst at Spree
Phiwe Khatshing, Core Shop Engineer at Atlantis Foundries
Zukiswa Mvoko, Business Development Manager at MBA North
Dr Megan Vannucci, Biomedical Engineer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Johannesburg (UJ)
Dr Meera Joseph, Computer Engineer and Senior Lecturer
In 2012 Riekie won the UJ-Group Five Excellence in Engineering and Technology Award at sector level for contribution to the industry as a whole and was recognized for the wide-reaching and meaningful impact she has had in her career. Riekie is a warm, compassionate woman who raised her 18-year old son as a single mother and still has time to enjoy hobbies such as quilting, photography and camping whilst pushing a high-profile career. She loves animals and plays the piano and during her work day she still manages to keep the lights
The right to be angry and firm without being judged, the right to be able not to over-work because I have to prove myself, the right not to be told jokingly that it’s a man’s world. This means to have a voice at government level, politically and globally. The voice that I am an African woman engineer who can make a difference.

The difference between feminism and femininity is vast but often misunderstood. I cannot imagine that anyone in South Africa would consider the two characteristics prevalent in one woman, but rather that they represent detached and opposed personality characteristics. My experience shows that this is not true. I have worked with many women that demonstrate both qualities in equal measure and are proud to be labelled both feminist and feminine. The general perception of women engineers is that they are masculine and try to emulate male behaviour and personality to enable their work environment. Again, this perception is incorrect to a large extent. Women engineers are, first and foremost, women - and they cannot, and are unwilling, to escape the female characteristics of their human and essential nature. In other words, women engineers enjoy being a woman and acting and behaving as one. To Danai Magugumela,