I didn’t plan to end up in tunnelling, it found me. Back in high school, I was the only girl who picked construction as an elective, and I ended up topping the class. But despite that, breaking into the industry felt impossible, so I let the dream go. I tried nursing, juggling study by day and bartending at night, until I had to walk away to support myself full-time.
Eventually, I landed a job on the gate of a tunnelling site, looking after logistics. That’s where I met a few tunnellers who told me about an entry program for women with no prior experience. It was my golden opportunity. I was accepted and on my first day, I was dropped at the end of a 2km tunnel to drive a 30-tonne dump truck. I’ve been working my way up ever since.
These days I’m on the excavation crew, taking on a mix of machine operation, physical tasks, and anything else that needs doing. I like being an all-rounder because there’s always something new to learn.
Sure, there are challenges. I’m half the size of some of my crew, but I’ve learnt how to think smarter, work safer, and adapt. There’s still bias and assumptions that I can’t do the job just because I’m a woman. But I’ve learnt to meet that with resilience. I carry myself with confidence, and I take pride in proving people wrong. Every time I succeed at a “man’s job,” I help change how the industry sees women.
To any woman thinking about civil construction: if it’s in your heart, go for it. The first step is the hardest, but it might just be the one that opens the door to a whole new life. Every time I show up and do the job well, I’m helping to challenge outdated mindsets. My presence is helping rewrite pre-existing narratives that women don’t belong in construction.