As a young engineer, I was truly excited to work in extreme conditions! On an oil rig 30 miles off the Egyptian coast, with temperatures over 115 degrees, I saw dolphins jumping in the Red Sea alongside the rig. Months earlier, working in three feet of snow in Canada, I spotted moose in the wild more than once.
Not everything was rosy, though. Oilfield conditions were harsh. We often worked for more than 50 hours at a stretch, and the risk of explosions and toxic gas leaks was real. And as a sole woman on an offshore rig, things often got a lot harsher. I slept in cabins alongside men who were strangers. I had to pass men at urinals on my way to toilet stalls in community bathrooms. And on remote land jobs, I had no access to restrooms for hours.
Asian Woman Leadership 