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Message: [QUOTE="Nehanda, post: 29436, member: 2262"] Women engineers met for breakfast at the Protea Hotel in Naguru on March 21. The Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers set up this event to tackle the gender gap in their field. Everyone came together under the banner "Empowering Women in Engineering: Building a Sustainable Future." Engineers, students, and industry bosses talked about real ways to include more women through mentoring, making connections, and honest talks. The meeting aimed to support UN Goal 5 for Gender Equality by helping women break into a field where they remain scarce. Despite progress in science and tech areas, female engineers face many roadblocks - society thinks they cannot do the job, they lack resources, earn less money, and often handle family duties. Everyone agreed these problems need fixing fast to make engineering more welcoming. Flavia Gutto Bwire from the National Building Review Board pointed out hidden biases during her speech. She said people react strangely when seeing women on electric poles because, deep down, many believe women do not belong there. She mentioned Uganda's first female engineer registered way back in 1989, seventy years after Britain started its Women Engineering Society. The numbers tell the story - globally, only 14% of engineers are women, and Uganda counts just 186 female engineers out of 1,536 total as of March 2025. Aboth Yakoba wants young and experienced engineers to learn from each other. She calls this plan "360-degree mentorship," where older engineers guide younger ones but also listen to fresh ideas from newcomers. She believes this back-and-forth helps everyone grow better skills. Ronald Namugere from the Engineers Registration Board shared good news about progress—female engineers have jumped from 84 to 191 since 2016. He pushed women to tackle technical work head-on instead of staying with easier tasks. Makerere University student Ndagire Namubiru Polly explained why mentorship matters to her civil engineering career path. She finds inspiration in seeing successful women engineers who show her what might happen next. She believes women can build careers as engineers along with their roles as mothers and wives. Most importantly, she wants to make an impact just like her role models have done before her. [/QUOTE]

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