Khaled grimaced. Oliver McInnes would have been a difficult role model for any child, but as a widowed parent to an only daughter he’d set a virtually impossible standard for Olivia to reach. She didn’t see it like that, of course. She’d simply turned her mind to the task and worked at it until she succeeded. There was no question that she was as good as any son could have been. She was better.
He listened to her explaining her education choices. Engineering hadn’t been an easy path for a woman to take, but Olivia had excelled. She’d worked in all sorts of challenging environments and learned how to earn the respect of her male colleagues. Sadiah asked whether Olivia felt she had to be better than the men she worked with. Olivia laughed.
“Oh, yes. I’ve been the token woman at more interviews than I can remember. They start the day with every intention of hiring one of the men, so it’s my job to give them no choice but to hire me. It’s the same once you’ve got the job. The guys are always watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake. Often they’re too busy watching me to keep an eye on their own job and that’s when they slip up. I find that once that’s happened, it’s easier to establish a more equal working relationship.”
He remembered seeing her in action on the rig. The men there all respected her and he’d bet that she’d had to work hard to earn that when she first started.
Finally, Sadiah concluded her interview. “What advice would you give to the women listening today?”
There was a pause before Olivia answered. “Don’t let anyone take your dreams away from you. Know what you want in life and do everything in your power to make it happen.”
Khaled’s mouth twisted. He switched off the radio and stared at the pile of papers that Jamil had left on his desk. He still had so much to learn about Saqat. There were so many things his father had done that Khaled had taken for granted. These weren’t his dreams. He longed for his tiny office back at the museum where he could set the agenda for his own research. He’d hoped to lead a field team out to Australia next year. No hope for that now. No one had deliberately taken Khaled’s dreams away from him, but circumstances had worked out that way, and there was nothing to be done about it.
He pushed the papers aside and pulled out the MCI contract. This was one thing he could do. If he couldn’t have his own dreams, he could at least make sure Olivia achieved hers. Tomorrow he had a meeting with her, and he was determined to find a way to make it work. She’d already told him about her plans for increased safety measures and crisis management. Khaled had some more suggestions for minimizing the environmental impact of the rigs. He was sure she would agree to whatever he wanted. There would still be compromises, but together they would find a way through them. MCI Oil would always need to maximize its profits for the sake of its shareholders, and Khaled would always prefer not to take any risks in the Saqat waters, but they weren’t living in a utopian idyll where they could both get exactly what they wanted. They had to deal with the tough choices forced on them by reality.
…
Jamil knocked lightly on the door to Khaled’s private office.
“Come in.”
“Ms. McInnes to see you, sir.”
He was sitting behind a vast desk, piled high with files and papers, much like his office in the Natural History Museum had been. He smiled ruefully at Olivia. “It doesn’t seem to matter how much space I have to work in, I always fill it.”
“Do you know where everything is?”
“More or less. Have a seat.”
She moved a pile of papers off the nearest available chair and sat down. Khaled offered her some coffee. He poured them both a cup, then walked round to lean against his desk.
“I enjoyed your visit to the radio show.”
Olivia smiled. “So did I.”
“I hope lots of Saqati women were inspired by it. There are no laws in Saqat that could prevent a woman from doing the sort of job you do, but still we have very few women working in such roles.”
“Why not?”
He thought about it for a moment. “I suppose because social pressures are much harder to change than the laws. I can’t make women apply for jobs or go to university, and there are a lot of people who still believe that women don’t need as much education as men because they will spend their lives at home, bringing up the children.”
“There are people everywhere who think that. Most of them are men.”
He nodded, acknowledging the point. “We’ll need teachers who will show our children that it’s not true. We’ve a long way still to go.”
“Your wife could also set an example.”
“Aliya is an educated woman. She hopes to establish her own business. A fashion boutique.”
“I see.” That didn’t sound likely to inspire Saqati women to great endeavors. “Sadiah is wonderful.”
“She is. She’s a real inspiration. Not just to the women, either. A lot of men listen to her show.”
“You know, the one thing that would help to change things most for the women in your country would be economic growth.”
“I know.”
“More money means more jobs, more jobs require more education. For everyone.”