Carol Ho spends six days a week at construction sites across Hong Kong, working from 8am to 6pm in conditions that are often punishing.
During a typhoon, the 24-year-old assistant geologist once found herself wading for hours through knee-deep muddy water, documenting rocks as wind and rain battered the site.
Some days, Ho works at sea, where basic facilities can be hard to come by.
“Having your period is really inconvenient when going out to sea ... Not every boat has a toilet, and even when they do, you can imagine what the conditions are like,” she explained.
The lack of female restrooms also reflects how few women work in this industry.
“Since I started working, I’ve only just met another woman for the first time,” she said.
For the past year and a half, Ho has been visiting sites to analyse rock samples and build geological profiles that help construction projects maintain safe conditions.
That process begins with understanding the history of a site, including whether the land has been reclaimed or filled in. Drill rigs extract samples from below the surface, allowing Ho’s team to assess the weathering profile and create a geological cross-section of the ground.
If a site was previously reclaimed or if material had been dumped there, Ho said geologists would find a layer of landfill or other deposited material.
These observations are critical for engineering design because Hong Kong’s geology can vary sharply.
“For instance, Yuen Long has a lot of marble. If there are significant [amounts of] marble, the design approach differs from traditional methods,” Ho said.
Working outdoors and travelling to different parts of Hong Kong fits Ho’s personality as an extrovert who prefers to be on the move. She said a conventional office job was never going to be the right fit for her.
“I love exploring,” she said. “Because geology involves so many field projects, we have been to all sorts of places – Lamma Island, Cape D’Aguilar and Sharp Island – to do field mapping. It really suited my ‘wanderer’ personality.”
A day in the life of a geologist
Each site Ho visits offers a different glimpse into the ground beneath Hong Kong.
“In my daily routine, I see many types of rock that you’d never encounter on the surface, such as metasandstone and metasiltstone,” she said.
“Hong Kong actually has a huge variety of rock types, and they’re not easy to differentiate. When I identify them correctly, or when the geological profiles I produce are recognised and validated by my superiors, I feel like my knowledge is truly expanding.”
Ho is currently working offshore near Lung Kwu Tan at the far western part of Tuen Mun, where the days are long and physically draining.
“You have to commute by boat, and it can take half an hour just to get from the boarding point to the work vessel. It all adds up,” she said.
“You spend the whole day on a boat or travelling along a circuitous route. By the end of it, you don’t have the energy to do anything else. That’s why being able to see friends after work feels like a luxury.”
When she first started this job, some of her friends questioned her decision.
“They would ask, ‘You could choose a more glamorous consultant job – why didn’t you?’” she recalled. “The usual career paths are private consultancy or government work. I am technically in consultancy, but I personally don’t like sitting in an office from 9am to 5pm.”
Navigating a male-dominated industry
Ho is part of a group called Dream Girls, a social media platform created by a construction company to give a peek into the careers of young women in Hong Kong’s engineering and construction sectors.
Working in a traditionally male-dominated field comes with challenges, Ho said, though she also acknowledged the solidarity she found with other workers.
“Actually, the people on site can be quite full of love,” she said. “They might be loud and gruff, but in the middle of summer, I’ve met wonderful workers who would point their own fans towards me. When I’m logging rocks, they’ll help me move the samples into a shadier spot.”
But not every experience has been positive.
“Of course, there are definitely some who aren’t as nice,” she said. “I’ve heard people say things like, ‘You’re a woman – just stand aside and don’t get in the way,’ or they’ll flat-out refuse to help you carry things.”
Ho also noted that some companies refused to hire women because the role required them to scramble over hills and climb into shafts. But the ability to do these tasks has nothing to do with a person’s gender.
Some men also twisted certain work duties into chances to harass Ho. For example, one task involves climbing down mud pits – deep, narrow excavations that can expose female workers to degrading comments.
“While [climbing down] ... I’ve heard some really insulting comments from men,” she said. “Because of that, I feel women workers really need to be given respect.”
She added: “I’m not saying women need to be treated like fragile flowers, but we shouldn’t underestimate them either. Being a man doesn’t automatically mean you’ll be better at this.”
Looking beyond the difficulties she has faced, Ho also argued that society should have more respect for all construction workers, who are often dismissed despite the skill and endurance their jobs demand.
“Some people can be quite harsh. They just look down on us as ‘construction workers’,” she said.
“I’ve fallen into the mud myself – honestly, there’s no difference between me and the site foremen in that sense. We’re all ‘dirty’.”
Ho added that people should appreciate all workers regardless of whether they went to university.
“When I see the foremen in the middle of summer, literally drenched in sweat, it’s clear how much they give,” she said. “I believe they have their own professional expertise ... [and] every single job deserves to be respected and to be seen.”
