Being a Girl on the Road

Engineering has always been a male dominated field but women are slowly making themselves more prominent.  Therefore I have always been told to be prepared that you will not be taken seriously and/or not respected as much since you are a woman.  I received the same speech from my superiors before heading out on the Road for work and in some cultures this way of life is absolutely true. 

Luckily my first training assignment it is absolutely the opposite.  Everyone working at the refinery from contract workers to fellow process engineers to management always wants to make sure that I am learning and enjoying myself; AND when I advise them of a method to complete an activity they take me serious and follow through with what I recommended. 

We were inspecting the reactors of the unit one afternoon which requires us to climb inside a confined space to look around as well as decend down a wire ladder to the bottom.  This is something I have never done before but super excited.  One of the contract engineers climbed out after fixing the ladder for us and advised that since this is my first time inside of this vessel not to go into the largest one.  At the moment I was not thinking and agreed since there were two more that looked exactly the same but smaller.  He was looking out for me I suppose....

After a few minutes I started thinking..."Wait a minute, eventually I will become Chief (head advisor for an assignment) and maybe I will be the only one on site OR I would be in an all female crew."  I need to be able to climb in and out of all sorts of vessels that vary in size.  I hooked the fall arrestor onto my harness and down I went.  It was a piece of cake!

Into the manway I go

Climbing on the ladder (bottom probably ~7-8 meters down) and the ladder is flat against the side which gives no space for your feet.  It's not your typical walk in the park - you do get exercise!

Out of the manway I come

Mission Complete!