Introduction to me

Hello and welcome to the very first episode of More Than Just a Girl, a podcast dedicated to highlighting the incredible achievements of women in engineering, business, STEM fields, the world of writing, and beyond. I'm Ramachia, your host, and I'm excited to be going on this journey with you. Before we dive into our topics and interviews, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and share the inspiration behind this podcast. I'm a woman, a daughter, a sister, a mother, a wife, an engineer, and I'm also the past president of the Association of Professional Engineers of Belize. I'm the first woman to hold that post at that. As a female engineer, I've experienced firsthand the challenges and triumphs that come with working in a male-dominated field. My journey has been filled with moments of doubt, perseverance, and ultimately successes. I come from a very humble family that brought me to Belize from Nicaragua when I was just a few months old. I studied civil engineering in Cuba, started in 2002, but my time in Cuba didn't only teach me about engineering. It also instilled in me the importance of speaking up for what is right and advocating for equal opportunities. The word feminist started to become a common label for me, as it did for most women studying engineering. I quickly learned that the feminist label is so filled with heavy baggage and that to many, being a feminist meant we hated men, we wanted to be standing up, and we burned our broads. But to me, being a feminist means so, so much more. To me, being a feminist means wanting everyone, not just women, to have fair and equal opportunities. Now fast forward to 2008, when I graduated and began my career. I faced numerous rejections and was often underestimated because of my gender. Boy, was that an eye-opener. I visited many construction companies in Belize and got so many no's. I was even told that I am too small and too pretty to be an engineer. Now what do you think about that? Well, when I finally got my first job as a site engineer, could you believe that on my first day I was more concerned about what not to wear so that I could look less girly instead of whether or not I was capable of doing the job? I mean, of course I knew I was going to rock at this job. I had studied for six years to get this degree. But my big concern was the risk of not being taken seriously due to my appearance and gender. After all, I was joining what they call a male-dominated field. Being one of the first women in Belize to work as a civil engineer on site made me stand out like a sore thumb. And back then, the men made it even harder as they could. Being one of the first women in Belize that worked as a civil engineer on site made me stand out like a sore thumb. And back then, the men made it as hard as they possibly could for me to fit in. Truth be told, up to today, few women are given the same opportunities as men or even the same respect as these men. 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