BY JOSEPHINE AGBONKHESE & ANINO AGANBI

 By virtue of their population, women constitute more than half of the professional and technical workforce in Nigeria. However, most women still struggle for equity and equality in certain occupations, particularly male-dominated fields where sex segregation still persists. In this edition, we celebrate some Nigerian women who are blazing the trail in male dominated professions.

 Oil & Gas Folorunso Alakija

Although many others abound, no woman readily comes to mind as a trail blazer in this sector than the world’s richest black woman, Mrs Folorunso Alakija. A fashion designer turned world-class oil mogul, Folorunso is the Executive Director at FAMFA Oil, an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas exploration and production company.

Folorunso has always been on top of her game. Even as a designer, she emerged best designer in the country in 1986, just a year after establishing Supreme Stitches, her fashion outfit.

With her hands of gold, she turned into a goldmine a rejected oil bloc which no one wanted for several reasons. Having seen that the bloc had potentials because Folorunso and her team had turned it around, in late 1996, they were approached by the then oil giant Texaco for ‘real’ business. Later, Texaco became Chevron and they struck oil in commercial quantity.

Auto Mechanic Engineer Sandra Aguebor-Ekperouh

Engineer Sandra Ekperouh is the founder of Lady Mechanic Initiative of Nigeria. She has broken a major yoke by becoming the first women to join the auto mechanic profession in a society where nobody could ever visualize a woman going under a car to fix it.

The Lady Mechanic Initiative of Nigeria today consists of over 3,000 women working as mechanics.

Sandra’s bold step began as a dream when she was barely 13-year-old. She had attended Ivbiotor Primary School, Benin-City, before proceeding to St. Maria Goretti Girls Secondary School where she started her mechanic job. After that, she went to the Benin Technical College where she studied automobile in the automobile department vocational studies for three years.

 Urological Surgery Dr Abimbola Abolarinwa

Dr. Abimbola Ayodeji Abolarinwa is Nigeria’s first female Consultant Urological Surgeon, a specialty which deals with diseases of the male and female urinary tract and the sex organs in male. She works at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital in Lagos.

Abimbola who is in her late 30s was born in the UK and is married with lovely kids. She had studied Medicine at the University of Ibadan where she graduated in 2004. The former tomboy got qualified as Urologist in 2013.

“Actually I originally wanted to be an Orthopaedic surgeon right from Medical School. But when I started my Pre Part 1 rotations in WASC, I suddenly lost interest in Orthopaedics. I decided to do General Surgery as a default. Then I did the Urology rotation and got hooked literally. I realized it was interesting, cuts across being a physician and surgeon and not too populated. We have a high volume and turnover of Urology patients at LASUTH and there was a structured training programme in Urology developed by Prof Julius Esho. I saw Urology first hand,” she said in an interview.

Trailer Driving Hajiya Rabi’atu Abubakar Mashi

Hajiya Rabi’atu Abubakar Mashi, from Katsina State, is the first female trailer driver from the northern region. She is a trailer driver with Dangote Cement Company in Obajana in Kogi State, transporting cement to Lagos and other faraway locations.

“I’d never seen any woman driving trailers. My curiosity pushed me to try the profession. As it is, I have a passion for driving. So, driving heavy duty vehicles became a reality and I’ve been doing it for twelve years now,” she said in an interview.

Hajiya grew up in the palace of the Emir of Daura under the care of his wife, Hajiya Halima Bukar, who eventually supported her dream by buying her a ten-tyre truck when she wanted to fully join the business. This was because it was almost unlikely for any man to invest in a trailer and hand it to a woman driver. Rabiatu actually went to Lagos all by herself, bought the vehicle and drove it all the way from Lagos to Kano, where they constructed its body. She has since been in the industry for over 13 years and has been honoured on several occasions by prestigious institutions.

Building Construction Angela Jagun, Builder

As feminine as she looks, Angela Jagun is a thorough bred when it comes to building. She is a totally different person on site. This woman who is Secretary of the Nigerian Institute of Building, NIOB, has been a builder for over 20 and is unreservedly committed to her profession. She is the CEO of Burwood Construction Limited with headquarters in Lagos.

Jagun doubles as the Director of Jagun Consult Limited, an outfit which undertakes training for effective supervision skills for construction professionals and Microsoft office project as a construction programming tool.

The key to success in the industry, according to her, is “to be smart, work two times as hard as the male, seek knowledge constantly, respect yourself and others and insist on respect being shown to you”.

A graduate of building from the University of Jos, Jagun came out with Second Class Upper Division in 1991and also holds a postgraduate degree in construction. Currently, she is studying for a doctorate in construction management at the University of Salford, Manchester in Britain.