KZN town planner calls on women to
step through by themselves and seize the initiative in the property world Bonny Fourie NOTHILE Mkhize is a shining example of a woman who has taken her passion, pushed through countless challenges, and is making a name for herself in the world of property. She grew up in the rural KwaZulu-Natal town of Ixopo, and attended high school in Ulundi, where she discovered a love of geography and technical drawing. This led her to move to Durban to study town and regional planning. She is still pursuing her career in the city. This has been her journey thus far: What have been some of the challenges you have had to overcome in order to be where you are now? My biggest challenge was getting a job after completing my studies. With the shortage of jobs in the country, I opted to start my own company. I also started the company to assist other young professionals with internship skills to start their careers. Starting a business from scratch can be very challenging and risky and having to build a reputation for yourself in a male-dominated industry takes hard work. Over the course of building the company, I have faced and overcome many obstacles such as finding suitable team members and securing jobs. What other obstacles do you witness other women in the sector facing? And what is your advice to them? As much as there has been some progress towards overcoming the under-representation of women in the built environment sector, there is still an imbalance. This leads to most women being discouraged from pursuing a career within the construction and property sectors.
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Stop waiting for someone to open doors for you
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