Taking Architecture was not the first choice Ar. Gene A. Mella. The love for Math desired her to take Civil Engineering; however, she realized that her family had a lot of Engineers, including her siblings. With her God-talent in drawing, she took the risk in Architecture, realizing the course is more than just drawing and Mathematics.
After graduating from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, Ar. Gene started as a draftsman and a Designer. According to her, being a "Female Architect" at that time was not a problem, but working on construction supervision projects in Qatar was a breath of fresh air. She experienced gender stereotypes among clients. Most of them preferred male Architects and Inspectors because they thought males were better than females. In her mind, she had to prove to them they were wrong.
"I believe that a Female Architect has the upper hand in terms of her ability to have a balance between structural stability and aesthetic beauty during the preliminary design stage; her ability to multitasking, detailed analytical thinking, and organizational skills during the Design Development stage, where she gets the opportunity to work and coordinate with different engineering disciplines for a comprehensive building design; and her nurturing ability to respect the design intent of the Designer during the Construction stage of a project."
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