Women empowerment & representation has been quite a frequent topic of conversation within the past few years, and I believe the most talked about is female representation in the boardroom or high-level management. It is no doubt an important issue to be addressed, but when it comes to issues that are relatable to most people, the best stories come from the common everyday people.
Tying back to Expedio, we have a good mix of gender diversity in both design and engineering team, but the person that would be the face of female representation in Expedio is Qiao Yuan, our girl powered mechanical engineer.
Qiao Yuan giving a proper finish to the structure of an art installation.
The engineering sector in Malaysia and globally have been largely dominated by men for the past few decades, and Qiao Yuan has been fighting stereotypes 1 project at a time. It’s no easy feat for her, as she battles with traditional mindsets of business owners and veteran engineers.
Engineering has always been portrayed as a very male dominated subject matter, and sometimes may require the need of getting down and dirty to complete a task. Hence, the thought of a female representative in this field, puts people on the edge of their seats. Don’t get me wrong, there are an increasing number of female engineers in Malaysia, but based on our observations, they are mostly based indoor, and not so much hands-on onsite. Qiao Yuan is one of the girls set in mind to defy that.
Qiao Yuan presenting solutions to the team.
Some of the stereotypes she commonly faced is where her capabilities are doubted due to purely gender differences. When is comes to physique, she was once perceived as unable to perform a task just because of society’s norm of not having girls doing tasks involving physical strength. The struggle is real especially among the older generation where female participation and lead in engineering was very rare during their time.
For a deeper insight into Qiao Yuan’s daily ups and downs, I asked Tee Chian, our Technical Director to shed some light on this and here’s what he has to say, “She holds a screwdriver stronger than a lot of guys I know. Once she had to drive a machine screw into a misaligned part and the 2 other guys with her couldn't even tighten it to anywhere she got it to. I had to undo the screw and not look like a pushover but my palms were suffering... red.” That shows a lot about not judging a book by it’s cover!
Tee Chian adding on to that, “She makes us men who think that we are far superior do a check on ourselves, always; if you're slow and hesitant for one moment, she'll grab that angle grinder and put it down on that metal for you. But on the weekends, she's in her skirt or dresses cooking up a storm in the kitchen, playing with craft, flowers and origami. It's a mix that I've been always working hard to balance but like she once told me that I'll always remember, “I’m a girl what…”
Qiao Yuan assembling and fixing up structures for an office system.
Qiao Yuan’s spirit is not withered by these obstacles and takes them down by challenging boundaries and stereotypes every day, 1 project at a time. As the local design & art installation scene is growing in Malaysia, Qiao Yuan plays an important role in bringing in the skillset, knowledge and craftmanship from a strong female perspective, challenging norms in the tech and mechanical engineering side. Talking about art installations, there was one time when the team had to dismantle their art structure at The Kancil Festival, REXKL, and it was 3 floors up carrying weight on both hands. After a few rounds up and down, the team sat down to rest and Tee Chian told her to slow down, but inside he was thinking, this one's a real tough one, what more she’s from the one and only legendary place, Serdang!
With so much potential & possibilities, we are excited to see where the road takes her!
