Question: I am a recently graduated engineer and have just joined a small software company in India. Our company is divided into project teams that are further divided into groups of three people.

My first project is starting soon and I've been assigned to a group with two women. Unfortunately I'm come from a traditional background, am rather shy and was in a male-dominated college track which means that I only rarely interacted with women. While some might think this is a stupid question, I'm feeling very nervous about working together in this group. 

**How should I build and maintain a professional relationship with my female coworkers?**

Answer: 
Why does them being a woman have any bearing on how you interact with them in a professional workplace? To have a professional relationship, **you should interact with them in the same manner as you do with men in a professional setting - with respect.** Colleagues, irrespective of male or female, appreciate and expect professionalism, respect, and recognition for the merit of work well done.

A colleague's gender is irrelevant to how one should conduct oneself in a workplace, and no special preference should be shown in one's professional conduct **solely due to the colleague being female.** To show special deference, or to apply different standards of conduct when interacting with women **can even be perceived as insulting.** She is no different from any other colleague, other than she is a woman. 

Some of the comments below say this might be dangerous or ill -advised because of one's behavior with men. **If you treat men "roughly" because its accepted within your culture, then no you should not extend this treatment to women.** As mentioned by @ Matthew Read in a comment, rather than look for the lowest common denominator and adapt to the "culture", be the change you want to see and treat all with respect. 

In the end, I will borrow a quote from @ Patricia Shanahan and say this "**You should speak and interact with them just like male colleagues."**
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> In my college days ,we had group of only boys and I rarely speak/ interact with girls.
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Personally I am very skeptical of gender-separated education for exactly this reason: It insufficiently prepares people for interactions with the other gender which will be necessary during their work-life.

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> How should speak / interact with them?
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Just like you would with a male in the same professional context.

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> Will I get trepanned by these project partners to do the whole group work alone?
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The risk of one person doing all the work while the others lay back and get all the reward exists in any team. But that has nothing to do with gender. Remember that they need to prove themselves just as much as you do (in fact even more as they are fighting against gender bias) and can not afford to stand out as lazy either. Also, they likely went through the same education you went through, so do not assume that their skills are any better or worse than your own until you see evidence to the contrary.

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> How should I maintain professional relationship with the opposite gender ( female) project partners? 
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Just like with any male partners. Do not flirt, do not be condescending. When you want to praise or criticize their work, be honest but [do not attribute their skill to their gender](https://xkcd.com/385/).