Dr. Rukaiya Ahmed — Modibbo Adama University

Dr. Rukaiya Ahmed

[Dr. Rukaiya]: Good afternoon, I'm just about to record a response to the questionnaires on the British Council Gender Equality Partnerships. I've got someone who is going to ask me the questions and I will record the answers and forward to Dr. Amina, sorry Professor Amina, thank you.

First of all, in terms of demographic data, age I'm 60.

My highest qualification is PhD and my occupation at the moment, I'm the Director of Physical Planning Unit at Modibbo Adama University but I also do part-time lecturing. Religion, I'm a Muslim. My years of experience, I would say 30 years plus but I'm not all in obviously academic environment but it's in built environment, physical planning, mainly administration within the environment. So I have got a master's degree in architecture and a PhD degree in urban and regional planning and I also have a master's in business administration.

Okay, now someone is going to ask me the questions and I will give the relevant answers. Thank you.

[Interviewer]: Question one, can you tell me about your experience working in higher education within the built environment sector in northern Nigeria, greater Cairo?

[Dr. Rukaiya]: My experience in working in built environment, like I said, I'll repeat again, it's not in the academic environment but in physical planning which I think is even more challenging than academics because I find more female academics in built environment than in the administration part of it.

Obviously, actually both departments where I worked as a Director, Physical Planning in two universities of northern Nigeria, I have been the only female in the whole department. So I found that quite challenging and then when I'm heading department as a female, I think generally in northern Nigeria men have something about leadership and control, they don't believe a woman should lead so it took a long time for me to convince people or for them to get around the idea that yes, I'm a female, I'm the head of department and they have to listen to me.

I think my advantage in that is because of my age so in both departments, in both universities, I have had years of working experience and you know I was over 50 when I started so I use that as saying okay, I know I'm a woman but you know some of you I’m old enough to be your mother so you know take it as that you know so but it is challenging I must admit so. Next question please.

[Interviewer]: Question two, what motivated you to pursue a career in higher education in the built environment field?

Like a prompt passion of creating inclusive and equitable spaces for learning, a desire of challenging traditional gender roles in the field, and a commitment to empowering future generation through education.

[Dr. Rukaiya]: Okay, what motivated me is I think a kind of, I saw it as a challenge because I realized that it's an area where women shy away so and then society generally feel women should pursue careers that are feminine, they call it. Engineering and architecture is seen as masculine so that is you know one of the things I saw and I saw it as a challenge. And then also I grew up in a family where we already have senior architects who I see as role models so that is another factor that pushed me into it. To be honest when I started, when I applied and started architecture there weren't many female architects around me. Especially, I can't prove it but I think I was told I was the first female architect in Adamawa State, at that time it was Gongola State so that is something I need to check but it's generally believed. So it's not an area where female generally go into so I took it up as a challenge to see if I can be one of the female that push the boundaries. Thank you, next question.

Okay my race obviously I'm black from Africa and from Northern Nigeria, Fulani [to be] specific from Adamawa State.

I think some of the challenges the female academics or female in built environment in university settings in Northern Nigeria is a lot to do with cultural norms, that females are not supposed to perform certain roles or they are not supposed to cross certain boundaries, that's one of them. And also I think lack of opportunities as well so the career orientation, the guidance does not normally tally with what the society, I mean what we, if females want to go into professions like that they are not encouraged and they think it's not something that they should be doing. And also in the working environment when you get into it you have some female can actually face sexual harassment you know from their fellow colleagues that are men, being few but generally to be honest I think it's just more of societal norm than anything so the harassment part of it could be just occasional or very rare I would say.

I think currently there are more opportunities for female to get into academia in the built environment than when we were growing up. Firstly, because there is a lot of awareness in the society about the role of women and there's a lot of encouragement from many different organizations, many different women organizations especially telling the women, encouraging them, sensitizing their families and even their husbands that how important it is for women to be in every sector of the society so I think that plays a role and I think the opportunities are now there more than before.

I'm not aware of any initiative to address inequalities or encourage equalities between, I mean gender equalities in academia especially in built environment. I'm not aware of any in existence but like I said there are so many pressure groups and organization sensitizing the need and importance of women to be everywhere so in general terms yes there are many initiatives in place but in specific term with built environment I'm not aware.

Okay like I said before there are lots of challenges if you're a woman especially if you reach position of authority over men and you're working with men. So the way I address challenges, one of the approaches or strategies I use is cooperation and then good communication within the team and then understanding and sharing ideas having an open mind not being judgmental. And then I use a lot of negotiation skills and I'm very patient in the way I deal with issues so I try not to focus on people I focus on issues so whenever I have a challenge we sit down to address that challenge we'll talk about that issue and then get ideas from people how we address it together. And the other strategy I use being a leader and given my age, I use that as an advantage in addressing issues or using my wisdom of knowing or being older than them and allegedly being you know wiser but you know sometimes it goes down well sometimes it doesn't but I have not generally come across any challenge that I have not resolved myself, I've never had to refer anything to higher authority so far.

I don't well I would say I have received formal education in terms of the MBA I did management so with Masters in Business Administration they touch a lot about how you manage people, how you manage teams, and how you overcome challenges in working in a team. And obviously the formal education you know being an architect and a planner you don't just learn the theory and practice but also how to you know conduct yourself with people and how to negotiate contracts and so on. So I think yeah yeah I did, I have received a lot of formal training thank you.

Yes I have got three degrees and a diploma in the relevant areas like BSC, MSC architecture did MBA Masters in Business Administration and I've got a PhD in urban and regional planning and also I've got professional registration in TOPREC you know the Town Planners TOPREC so Town Planners Registration Council and also NIA Nigeria Institute of Architects membership.

Like I said before I think my role model has been my older brother who is also a professor in architecture so I grew up seeing him as a role model he's very hard-working and inspirational you know anybody see him very independent so yeah we all look up to him. And he's not a female but I don't know of any female like I said when I was growing up I didn't know many female architects and probably I was told I was the only one in Adamawa or Gongola States. So I didn't have a female architect to look up to but the male people in my family doctors, architects have definitely influenced my career.

Obviously it's a very delicate balance how you get the right balance between professional life and personal life and also having to look after yourself not overstretching. So when I started my career obviously I had children as well so I had to get the right balance. Initially I took the decision to work part-time in order to devote the other time for my younger children and they were growing up so I spent a lot of my career working just part-time. So I only started working full-time when some of my children were old enough to attend full-time school and even after that you know apart from children you have responsibilities within the family you know occasionally it conflicts with day to day work but it's just a case of prioritizing you know knowing what is important. So if an issue comes up with regards your family and is so important you work with people so you have a system wherever you work so people can actually step into your shoes and do what you're supposed to do when in your absence so if you have an issue within your family that you need to attend to within work time take time off and within reason you know you can get a good balance you have your casual leave when you need to take it. And then you plan your work well so that things go on when you're not around and this day and age I mean there’s internet, it’s like everything you can do it from home. Sometimes I work from home, I wake up one morning and I'm not feeling strong enough to go drive into the office, I’d say okay I will ring them I'll walk from home and whatever it is in the office you can tell me and I can respond. So and when you don't feel strong you know you can get your health back and then move on your feet. So it's just a kind of being sensible you know you know your responsibilities and you can just plan around them. I think to promote and encourage inclusion of women in built environment the institutions can support by establishing obviously every institution should have a gender I don't know whether you call it gender department or gender center where they support and encourage female in all aspects of you know institutional involvement not only built environment. And also sensitization like I said before sensitizing generally in the society you know telling people how nice or how good it is to be in that environment and it's not as scary as it looks. And also to kind of identify some role models in that area and get them to mentor some of our youths in universities since the early days to encourage them in that area to take up the challenge. I think these are a few ways you can encourage.

Okay I’ll just like to apologize for all the delays I've never [inaudible] this thing until this morning I have a friend who is helping so thank you very much I wish you luck with the research.