BEATRIZ DOMINGO

INTRODUCTION
Hello! We are a group of girls who are involved in the Pompeu Fabra University project called Wisibilízalas and we would like to do an interview with you about your life.
Okay!

For starters, what is your job and what do you do in this job?
Now, I have two jobs: one as a road engineer, which I have been doing for twenty years. Now, for example, I am in a highway concessionaire working within the whole process of the concessionaire, which at the moment is involved in the exploitation of roads. And I'm also part- time in an institute teaching maths classes.

SCHOOL LIFE
Now that you have explained a little about what you are doing now, we want to ask what your school career was like through elementary and secondary school. We know that this idea of elementary and secondary school is very new, but more or less where you studied, what courses you took, what subjects were your favorite ... Explain a little about this when
you were younger.
Well, I did EGB, that this is until the second of ESO, when you finished class eight. Well, there I was and all the subjects went well for me. What I had to do, I did. The first two years of BUP are obligatory subjects and in the third year of BUP it meant choosing the subject, and as I liked and I was good at maths and physics, I did these. And also, I did the COU with maths, physics, drawing and chemistry. With that you were already on your way, especially those students who were scientific and technological. The option is always there.

At this time when students did EGB, did the teachers treat boys differently than girls? For example, in the subjects of maths, science, technology ... and so on.
No. I was not conscious of that. There were good people and there were people who were harder to get along with. But I wasn’t aware of why some were perhaps more difficult to get along with than others.

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Since childhood, did you already know that you wanted to work in the field which you do now?
No. I didn’t know. I was just doing it, I was studying, and I was doing well and I just continued studying. But in fact, when I chose my career, until almost a week before I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do. That is, it didn’t have a very clear orientation. I wanted to do well and it’s was hard to choose what to do.

And since when did you start to like what you do now? That is, when did you decide to choose it?
Well, I've always liked what I've done. Without choosing it. So, I started doing things, and as I was doing them, I liked them more. And I had no clear direction. When choosing a career to do, a week before I had still not decided. I knew very well that it would be an engineering job, or architecture which I was also thinking about. But wasn’t until the last moment that I choose engineering of canals, bridges and roads.

You mean to get the necessary marks?
Yes. If the degree was difficult.

COLLEGE CAREER
Well, you have already explained to us that you have worked on the engineering of bridges and roads. Where did you study, was it hard to get your degree ...?
I studied engineering of roads, canals and bridges. To enter a certain mark was needed, but not much, but what characterizes these degrees, especially, is that many people enter, and in the first-year half of the people leave. That is to say, 400 entered, in my time, and after the first year there were 200 and in the second year 100. That is to say, really what was complicated were the first two years of the degree. Then, with the 100 people who stayed, you were going on until the end. But the great selection was in the first two years of the degree.

When you chose the degree/ career, was there anyone who told you that it might be better to do something else? That you choose something easier, I mean?
No, my parents always supported me at home. They never said that I would do something else better. It always seemed good to them what I was choosing.

In college, were there more men than women or was it the same number?

Many more boys, many. The girls were in a minority. Maybe we were 10% or so. 10 or 15%.

Why do you think it is like that? That is, that there are so few women and there are so many men in the universities?
In the end, I believe that in this we are all free to choose one thing or another. And the career is very demanding and the path at school to enter into this career is demanding. You have to devote more hours to maths or physics rather than to history, for example. More hours and more effort. Because there is a much greater degree of abstraction, physics or maths than history. I believe that everyone should value what they are willing to strive for. But it is not at the time of doing your degree, it is the age of fifteen or so, when you must be clear if you really can take studies seriously and strive and have a certain attitude, or else do something else. I don't know why boys are more willing to work harder than girls, I don't know what to tell you. I don't think it's a gender issue either. I do not know. But it is a matter of whether you are willing to devote yourself to studies or not.

JOBS
You have already told us before what work you do now. Have you previously had other Jobs related to what you've studied?
Yes always. Of course, the good thing about the degree I have done is that I have worked on what I have studied. I finished (studying) in 1998 and I have always worked on what I have studied. I have always been linked to construction: the construction of roads, at the airport I have also built, public buildings ... Now I have been twelve years specializing in roads.

Was it very difficult to get to where you are now in your job?
No. You have to work and if I am working where I am working it is because I am a hard-worker and because that is what I do. But it is not a matter of effort, it is a matter of being like an ant and keep on doing it every day, and in the end, things work out.

Have you had any trouble getting where you are now? Has anyone put any obstacles in your way because you are a woman?
No, not for being a woman. I have had no problem being a woman. What happens if you are a woman, is that you must be more serious when working and you have to be more constant. For example, the world of construction is a world of men and for that reason you should be more serious, but well, being serious and hardworking is no problem. Or maybe it's the barrier that you have to jump over, and once you jump over this barrier and everyone knows you, there is no problem.

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Have you got any anecdotes or experiences from work?
Well, every day there is an anecdote and more experiences, because I am also lucky that every day, I do different things. And they are very stimulating jobs. It is not a mechanical job, in which every day you do the same thing and you are bored. They are stimulating jobs. What I do mean is that, for example, I finished road engineering in 1998 and since then I have been working on this. But, for example, during all this process I have also been a mother: I have had two girls and now one is fifteen and the other is thirteen. And you follow them on their journey; and they start school, they start doing things ... When they started school, I got into the whole field of teaching and I started working and five years ago I decided to train to be a math teacher. What I mean is that you start a profession when you are twenty years old, or you are eighteen you start a career and you decided to finish it; but you can always do other things because you feel like it. For example, when I was twenty years old, I didn't want to be a teacher, I had never thought about it. But five years ago, I decided and now I have two jobs, one as an engineer and the other as a maths teacher. And that happens in life, life takes you to places, from one place or to another, and in every moment, you need certain things or others. And you can orient your career towards one side or the other, or share two very different professions like me.

Is there a lot of competition between men and women in your career or in your work?
Among people there is competition, there is a lot of competition. There is a great deal. And that is one of the most complicated things. For example, I am in the world of construction, and in the world in 2007 there began a fairly big crisis. Then the competition was no longer about being promoted and becoming the boss, it was just to keep the job. And there is a lot of competition, and you have to be very solid. In the end, you also have to make sure that companies love you and you must be very robust. Yes, there is a lot of competition and there were many people who lost their jobs, there have been people who had to go abroad to work ... In the end it is not a matter of elbowing, of being the best at pushing others out of the door, but trying to be better than the rest with your qualities.

What recommendations would you make to people who are studying this degree at the moment?
What I would tell you is that they work hard, that they are very good, that they are hard- workers, that they are serious people, and that at the time when they study they do the best they can and try to be the best and when they start work they can be taken seriously. And do the best you can consistently.

Regarding what you said about the competition, have you ever been restricted in your work?
By partners or the bosses?
Yes, the bosses. If you have asked them to do something and they have not accepted it, or the opposite. Or how typically they may tell you not to get pregnant or something. Or if you ask them something and they say no with an excuse that is not very credible.

No. There is restriction always when you are asking for things and they can say yes or they can say no. But as for personal life, they have never said if I could get pregnant or not. What is true is that when a woman is thirty years old, the logical thing is that she has children, and yes that means for companies, having many people on leave to have children, represents a risk. Because if I am doing my job and I have to go on maternal leave for half a year because I have a child, it could cause them problems. But hey, we have to be aware and I was aware that I wanted to be a mother and in that period of being a mother I knew I would not be working 100%. The whole issue of family reconciliation is a problem that you find out about four years or so later. I have chosen to have a family and dedicate time to my family, and perhaps men, I think that in this sense, are different and do not feel the same need to have a family. Maybe sometimes they prefer to work and not have a family.

After all these years doing this job that you are doing, would you change? Or if you could choose it again, would you choose the same career?
I would. If I would choose the same? Yes. And it has gone well. It has not been difficult; I believe that the subject I do is not a difficulty. In life you are doing and well, that's it, with effort and work you are doing perfectly.

PERSONAL OPINION
Now that you have explained more to us about your journey to get where you are now, can you explain your opinion about everything that is happening now regarding women's work, feminism, ... and so on.
Everything that is happening is what has always happened, right? I mean to say that it is not something where there is a change of tendency, on the contrary. I would say that more and more women are doing jobs of this kind. Do you agree? I have no clear statistics on the subject, but I would say that there are more and more women involved in these issues. Why
are there more men than women? Well, only relatively recently, have women entered the labor market in a serious way. And whenever they have entered the labor market, they have been doing simpler tasks, more secretarial jobs, or things like that. And now more and more are doing any type of work. I see it with optimism and from my experience, women are just as capable as men to doing anything. In fact, what I think is that we don't define ourselves as being men or women. We are the way we are and we need some challenges and we will achieve them whether we are male or female, whether we are tall or we are short, ugly or handsome ... In the end each of us has some qualities and if these qualities are for Do STEM
careers, we already have them. We do not differentiate them for being men or women. There are men who have qualities to do STEM careers and others do not, and women alike. And we have to get the most out of them. What is true is that for STEM careers it is not only worth having STEM qualities, they must be enhanced and they have to work, and that is difficult. As I said before this has a fairly high degree of abstraction and you have to work hard. And we have to work on these qualities and move them forward. But I do not believe that being a woman defines us to do or stop doing one of these things, the qualities we have are more. And there is also an important aspect, which I think defines us a bit, and that is the whole issue of the importance of the family. I think women do have that maternal instinct and the most developed family instinct; I think. And that does define our trajectory a little because they give more importance to some things than others. For example, in traditional companies, the man works from nine in the morning until nine at night and he spends most of the day in the company because that is where he feels good. At least, and perhaps I dare to say that for women, work is not something so important to dedicate all our efforts to. And the whole family facet is important to us and we want to dedicate time to this facet. This I think is one of the differences that we find. Companies ask us often to hold managerial positions and we may not be willing to give them because we have other priorities.

Do you think that on the contrary, there are jobs and careers where there are few men and many more women?
I don't know the statistics, but yes. Law, teaching and so on, are more careers for women. I dont know much about statistics, but there are careers where there are more women. Yes, there is a higher percentage of women than men.

Why do you think this happens in these cases?
It is a cultural issue. I believe that now, in fact, it is increasingly obvious. For example, the other day they told me that there are more and more boys in nursing. I don't know, I´m speaking about things that I’ve heard. But culture is very important.

Do you think these inequalities will change over the years and will there be the same number of men as women in the future?
Trends should be seen, but yes. I believe that the trend is increasingly taking into account that we can do what we want, I think. Now, the issue is that not all women can and want to do a STEM career. That is, we must not force anyone. I think it is not a reasonable objective that 80% of STEM careers are made up of women. This is not the objective. The goal is that
everyone who wants to do a STEM career can do it, whether it is a man or a woman. And work hard to do it well.