Mohaira Ahmad
When we invest in women and girls, we are investing in the people who invest in everyone else.
—Melinda Gates
After graduating from high school in 2006, I dreamed of joining the number one university in Pakistan, the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST). The merit was very high, and gaining admission was not a joke. Achieving this goal was the first step in boosting my confidence to do something that no girl in my family had done: obtain an engineering degree. I was the first female engineer in a family full of male doctors and engineers, and no other woman had pursued her studies in technical fields. The credit for me selecting a technical degree goes to my mother—the woman who has always encouraged my sisters and me to excel in our studies.
I wanted to start a job I was offered just after graduating, but my father wanted me to continue pursuing my studies. Therefore, I worked in the daytime and studied in the evenings. Life wasn’t easy anymore! I married while working on my M.S. degree in RF and microwave engineering and defended my thesis while raising a baby (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The author’s six-month-old son attends her M.S. thesis defense. (Photo by the author’s sister).
Only about 15% of my graduate class was female, as the field of RF and microwaves is a field for men, and, as commonly said, boys will be boys. Girls hesitate to join this field and play with circuits; for me, pursuing a Ph.D. degree was another level of struggle. Focusing on a Ph.D. along with raising two children was quite a challenge. Family support, especially from Mr. Husband, acted like a pillar in constructing this building. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a one-man show, or, may I say, one-woman show!
The women in Pakistan must face many hurdles in their daily lives, which come from many fronts, but they are strong enough to cross these hurdles with or without any support. We need to start giving importance to our girls’ education and support them emotionally and morally as well as physically. These women are around 50% of our future, and we cannot neglect them anymore.
Women are nevertheless playing a vital role in the RF and microwave community; their essential part must be maintained by allowing them to grow. The “brain drain” must be stopped for the betterment of society. One barrier to the growth of women in professional careers is their lack of networking. Meeting people with diverse ideas and backgrounds and having conversations can bring outstanding outcomes. Women support women, and when this phenomenon happens, great things happen.
Figure 2 displays my participation in a panel discussion, “Women in Higher Education, Research, and Entrepreneurship,” during the webinar “Women in Circuits and Systems,” on 23 December 2020. The participants included Dr. Seemab Latif [associate professor, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS), NUST], Dr. Sana Qadir (assistant professor, SEECS, NUST), Aqeela Saghir (researcher, Links Foundation), and me. The session was hosted by Maira Islam (Ph.D. student, University of Technology Sydney).
Figure 2. The author participates in the panel discussion “Women in Higher Education, Research, and Entrepreneurship.” (Source: RIMMS-NUST YouTube channel; used with permission.)
Figures 3 and 4 are from the 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas, Propagation, and EM Theory, held in Guilin, China. I had the honor to meet Ahmed A. Kishk and W. Ross Stone.
Figure 3. The author (center) meets Ahjmed A. Kishk (right) at the 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas, Propagation, and EM Theory (ISAPE).
Figure 4. The author poses with W. Ross Stone at ISAPE 2016.
Women in any area of the field should start shouting for other women; this will create a wave of good words, and women will get necessary visibility. Women should learn the art of surrounding themselves with positive and supportive people and saying no to negative vibes. This type of mindset will help us to create a work–life balance, and we will be able to make happy human beings too (Figure 5)!
Figure 5. The author gathers with other women and her son at a Jiangsu University cultural festival.
And last, but not least, women should start wearing their badges with honor. We should begin to be kind to ourselves; we should pat ourselves on our backs and let the world know that we are here to make a change and to stay!
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3256820