Apparently the two roles aren&#x27;t perceived as compatible by whoever felt the need to apologize to a fellow engineer for saying something that no engineer would be upset to hear, or for that matter at all unlikely to say. If he has to choose, as apparently he does, between thinking of her as an engineer and thinking of her as a lady, then I&#x27;d suggest that the role she&#x27;s earned should trump the one to which she was born.