Women can be successful engineers

BANGALORE: “My mother decided that I should go in for engineering. Most women engineers give up their career options after marriage but women can be successful in the industry too,” said Tessy Thomas.Thomas is the Program Director for India’s Agni-IV missile which was successfully test fired in November this year. She was addressing a gathering of women engineers as part of the Indian Engineering Congress in the city on Saturday. Discussing the qualities needed for women to be successful in industry, Thomas said, “Knowing one’s goal and self reliance are important requirements. Girls must learn to be completely independent and follow intuition.” Elaborating her experience as project director of the Agni Program, she stressed the need for a multi disciplinary approach and the ability to handle political pressure under conditions of high visibility and expectations.Also speaking at the meet was Uma Reddy, Entrepreneur. She highlighted certain statistics from the United Nations which show that women do 66 per cent of the entire work in the world, earn 10 per cent of the income and own just 1 per cent of property. “In India only 12 per cent of 2 Million Small and Medium Enterprises are women owned,” she said.