Today organisations are more sensitive
Published on : Sunday 08-03-2020
Was there any specific reason to opt for studying engineering, was somebody mentoring you?
I had always wanted to do engineering as I was good at maths and science in school. I did not have any mentor.
A career in engineering means going beyond the routine 9 to 5 job. How did you handle this part?
I was lucky that I had a very supportive family – my husband and my in-laws. So even during the time we had our son and he needed care, I was still able to travel for work as he was cared for at home.
A woman is also expected to manage the home – how supportive is the family?
Extremely supportive, I must say. I could leave my home and son in the care of my in-laws and husband and even travel for work without a worry, as mentioned earlier.
Travelling for work is routine for engineers. How is your experience on this count?
Luckily I was never working directly on projects. But my work did involve long stays abroad like up to 2 weeks. I was lucky it did not extend beyond that. Here again, since I had a very supportive family I could manage that without experiencing any significant disruption.
Did you ever think of an alternative career, something less hectic?
No I never wanted to change my career track. I was very happy with my choice of career and I think that was also because my organisation treated me well.
Were there issues like gender bias you had to deal with, which is not unheard of? Any discrimination you faced?
No. I am lucky that fresh out of college I joined a company and after working for 39 years in the same company I retired last year. The company never made me feel discriminated against based on gender.
Do you think workplaces today are more sensitive to gender issues in general, than a generation earlier?
Yes – there is definitely much improvement. Today organisations are more sensitive and I think this will help more women to pursue their careers in engineering and other male dominated fields.
Having said that, are there areas at work that still restrict women when it comes to leadership role?
Not that I know of. But at grass roots level, we are always more careful not to take women in commissioning if it involves travel to remote sites especially in a country like India where we still need to evolve on providing safety for women.
Any advice you would like to offer to the next gen – our youth or even your children?
I would tell my children/youth to follow their heart in career choices. You should feel happy to go to work when you get up in the morning.
Can you sum up your approach to life in three words?
Be happy and content!
Rekha Subramaniam earned her engineering degree from Guindy Engineering College, Chennai in 1980. She joined as a graduate engineer trainee in Hindustan Brown Boveri (HBB) at Vadodara where she worked in various roles and in 1998 took over as Business Unit Manager for Distribution Relays at Vadodara. Rekha moved to Bangalore in 2004 to head the Capacitor Division, and subsequently moved to various other Business Units like Instrumentation & Control and for the last 7 years before retirement was the HUB Manager for Substation Automation and Control. All through the period, Rekha has been with the same organisation, HBB, which became ABB following the amalgamation of the two companies in 1989.
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