Giving Compass' Take:

• In an effort to address sanitation challenges, the city of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania is beginning to draw on the skills of women in engineering, overcoming the sexism in the field. News Deeply details the effort.

• What can this story tell us about the importance of STEM training with a gender equity lens here in the United States and around the world? Besides sanitation, how many other issues could be solved with more women in engineering?

• Read more about women advancing into leadership roles in Tanzania. 

For 32-year-old Lilian James, the biggest challenge of her job as an engineer is not the complex designs she prepares to replace the aging waste-water and sanitation system of Tanzania’s largest city, but rather the increasing sexism she experiences in the workplace.

Yet James — who works with Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) as an environmental engineer specializing in waste water — is seemingly unfazed by the chauvinism of her male counterparts.

“Some people look down upon me just because I am a woman. When it comes to expertise, they are usually surprised by my ability to solve complex engineering problems,” she says.

Perched on a swivel chair, her eyes glued to a laptop screen, James scrolls through multiple complex engineering graphics while briskly scribbling details on a piece of paper laid out on a table besides her.

She is one of the few women in the east African country to have ventured into the male-dominated engineering field. In Tanzania, very few women hold technical engineering positions like this — ostensibly, observers say, due to a lack of motivation and a common belief that engineering is a no-go area for women. “It’s a very challenging job, especially when you are the only woman working among men,” she says.

Read the full article about women engineers solving Tanzania’s sanitation problems by Kizito Makoye Shigela at News Deeply.