She sent out more than 100 job applications, many of which went unanswered in a time when sexism was rife in the industry.

“I was told that some big tunnel companies clearly stated that they would not hire a woman,” she says.

Frustrated over her lack of progress, Chow considered quitting the profession, but then landed a job with a consultancy firm.

Even so, she was the only woman at the company and her boss was not always complimentary about her presence.

“I once overheard him say, ‘Just take her as a vase [for decoration]. It’s not bad spending several thousands of dollars [on one].’,” she says.

“I felt really uncomfortable hearing this, so I swore to myself that I would do an outstanding job. I don’t want to be a vase.”

About a year later she joined engineering consultant Arup, and so began a career spanning 32 years at the firm where she worked her way up from graduate engineer to the current director of advisory services.

Over the course of three decades, she has taken part in a wide range of projects such as the San Miguel Brewery in Yuen Long, Hong Kong International Airport, and the HK$50 billion New Acute Hospital in Kai Tak which is now under way.

Not that everything has changed. Chow is still in the minority, a rare female director among the city’s businesses; and in her male-dominated industry women make up only about 8 per cent of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineer’s more than 16,000 members.

Teresa Lin Lau Shuk-ying, governor of a regional cluster with global women’s group Zonta International, which has been seeking to empower women and achieve gender equality for the past century said: “We hope we do not need another 100 years to achieve this and in fact I feel the world is more open to women as a majority have the chance to receive a higher education.

“Men are more open-minded and I always have the hope that this is achievable.”

According to the Women’s Foundation, only 55 per cent of 3.58 million women aged 15 or above were in the workforce in Hong Kong last year, lower than Singapore (60.5 per cent), Australia (60.6 per cent), China (61.4 per cent), and Japan (69.7 per cent).

The foundation said the city’s women were also under-represented in local politics, although the city’s leader is a woman, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, and several high-profile government departments, including justice and health, are run by women.

In the corporate sector though, only 13.9 per cent of 611 directors at listed companies last year were women.

Chow says her toughest challenge was to work alongside a large group of construction workers, who were mostly men from a very different cultural background.

“They swore a lot and disliked talking to women,” she says. “At first, nobody spoke to me at the construction site.”

They changed their attitude after seeing her operate in a professional capacity. “We then started to communicate and build up a trusting relationship,” she says.

To mix well with men in a workplace, especially those from different backgrounds, Chow’s advice for other female engineers is to refrain from setting too many boundaries for themselves.

“Don’t pick on their working habits that you don’t see eye to eye. As females, they don’t need to set too many boundaries for themselves. Try to understand their culture and find ways to bridge the communication gap,” she says.

This no boundaries belief also served as a guiding light for Chow when she sought a one-year sabbatical to engage in relief work for Médecins Sans Frontières in the Middle East in 2002. She has been a regular volunteer for the NGO ever since.

Her first stop was Afghanistan, where women’s rights are few and far between. She made use of her expertise, helping local people build houses and commercial premises, and repair vehicles.

Some local men questioned her ability at first, purely because she was a woman, but when they saw her demonstrate her knowledge they started to trust her.

Looking back on her experience Chow, who is married without children, thinks women should never belittle themselves.

“Women can achieve a lot of things as long as they don’t give up. They can really influence a lot of people,” she says.

Cathy Yau Man-shan, 36, a newly elected Wan Chai district councillor, was once among the 17 per cent of women on the 30,000-strong police force.

When she joined in 2008, she wanted to serve the public regardless of the dangerous and physically demanding nature of the job. Yau says she has been trained to be “tough” irrespective of her gender.

“Training officers specifically told us as female police, we need to be strong and fare better than our male counterparts,” she says. “For example, when we are being cursed in the face by the public, we should not flinch or shed tears.”

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When the anti-government protests against the extradition bill erupted in June last year, Yau, a long-time supporter of the pro-democracy movement, was at a crossroads and started to consider her future on the force.

“I felt very unhappy whenever I heard the police fire tear gas at protesters and being called ‘dirty cops’ by them. Should I spend the next 20 years in the force like this being viewed as a dirty cop by the public?” she says.

In July she resigned after an 11-year career as a police officer, and after years as a community activist ran in the district council elections in November, eventually winning her Causeway Bay seat.

Her desire to serve the public remains unchanged. “I just want to do my best in serving the public and improve many livelihood issues in the district,” she says.

Yau believes local politics should have more women as the community representatives.

“Hong Kong society is getting more open to having women taking part in politics,” she says. “There are some issues only women have concerns and they could offer some positive suggestions and deliver a unique voice for women.”

Wong Wai-ling, 37, a driver for Citybus, hopes to dispel the notion that women are not fit to be a double-decker bus driver.

Married with two daughters, Wong, originally a goods vehicle driver, switched to becoming a bus driver in August 2018 earning more than HK$24,000 a month after being lured by the job’s salary and welfare.

There are 133 women driving buses for Citybus and New World First Bus, accounting for only 3.5 per cent of the firm’s drivers. “But women could handle this job just as good as the male drivers,” she says.

Occasionally some passengers question about her ability and express concern about safety.

“That’s why I have a great sense of mission doing this job,” she says. “I feel happy being able to carry passengers safely to their destinations.”

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Wong says one of the advantages of having female drivers is their thoughtfulness to the needs of passengers.

“One time a passenger felt dizzy and I guessed she was suffering from low blood sugar. I then passed some sweets to her. Very quickly she felt a lot better,” she says.

She hopes to see more women working as bus drivers.

“It doesn’t require too much physical strength to control a double-decker bus now. Modern bus technology has made the steering wheels and brakes lighter than before,” she says. “Women don’t need to worry about their capability.”