Zahra El-Nashar

Egyptian engineer who pioneered women's participation in the Suez Canal project and broke gender barriers in civil engineering

Zahra El-Nashar (1918-1999) was a trailblazing Egyptian civil engineer who became the first woman to work on the Suez Canal expansion project in the 1950s. Born in Alexandria, she earned her engineering degree from Cairo University in 1942 - one of only three women in her graduating class. Against societal expectations, she chose to pursue structural engineering, an entirely male-dominated field.

In 1955, she joined the Suez Canal Authority's engineering team for the canal deepening project, defying gender norms in a post-colonial context. Her innovative designs for reinforced concrete structures were critical to the project's success, earning her a commendation from President Gamal Abdel Nasser. El-Nashar's work directly contributed to Egypt's national sovereignty efforts by modernizing this vital trade route.

She later established the Women's Engineering Society in 1962, creating a professional network for female engineers. Her 1968 textbook Structural Design Principles for Hydraulic Projects (ISBN:978-977-02-4505-6) became a standard reference in Egyptian engineering curricula. The 1972 film Bridge to the Future loosely based her career (IMDb), though fictionalized for dramatic effect.

El-Nashar's legacy includes the 1980s initiative to train women in dam construction techniques, which supported the Aswan High Dam maintenance programs. Her story is documented in the 2015 biography Breaking Concrete Barriers by Hoda Mostafa (ISBN:978-1-78308-412-3). The Egyptian Engineers Syndicate now awards the annual Zahra El-Nashar Medal to outstanding female engineers (EES). Her work exemplifies how technical expertise could be leveraged to challenge social norms in the Arab world.