Ulaanbaatar 2013

Mongolia Compact Gender Summary Report: Best Practices And Lessons LearnedAnnex 3: MCA-Mongolia Program SUCCESS STORIES 13“Most people might agree that engineering is challenging for females and thus this is suitable formales. But challenging situations always give me strength and power as a woman. For example,working in larger substations and finish substations for use and looking back at the accomplishmentsand my contribution is a real source of pride,” says Ms. Erdenebileg Ayurzana.Ms.Erdenebileg is an electric engineer, specialized in transformer diagnosis. Working in a companywhere 80% of employees are male, she has not only broken with tradition but has also excelled inwhat is traditionally a very male dominated arena.Ms. Erdenebileg knew from her early education days that she was technically-minded. After receivingher bachelor degree at the Mongolian Technical University, Power engineering school in 1999, shepursued her master degree at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, specialized indiagnosing transformers. She did not stop there and is currently working on a Ph.D in engineering.While upgrading her professional skills, she saw many opportunities within the sector for herself andbecame even more encouraged about her future job prospects. She joined the Nalaikh substationupgrade project, and supervised those 35 male engineers in the Nalaikh district funded by MCA-Mongolia‟s Energy and Environment Project. Straight after completion of the assignment shetransferred directly to the “Wind Park in Salhit” project which is also funded by MCA-M. Among thecriteria to select her as a supervising engineer were previous experience in acceptance and approval ofnew technology and equipment, operation and submission of new substations, and English andChinese Language ability. “Involvement with the Energy and Environment Project at the extension ofNalaikh substation has contributed to my work career and to the accumulation of my work experienceas a supervising engineer,” she says.Her leadership ability and management skills enabled her to supervise and lead 40 male engineers atthe current work at the Wind Park in Salhit project funded by the Energy and Environment Project.Her role in this project is to provide technical supervision for the installment and adoption ofequipment. She is also responsible for the information scader system connection. Her male colleagueshave been impressed and consistently praise her performance. “She does not differ from malecolleagues at the field work in substations. All male colleagues listen well to her and follow well herguidance. She is a very good role model among engineers. Especially when she works at the outsidefield work she has never gotten discouraged,” says one of Erdenebileg`s male colleagues.According to Ms. Erdenebileg, “It was easy to communicate and supervise male employees.Overcoming weather conditions was a challenge, not the supervision of male engineers. The mainchallenge for me as woman was to survive in the cold winter weather.”Ms. Erdenebileg is not only a dedicated worker for the company. She also has an academic andresearch-oriented side. In the past she has carried out a number of research studies in her field andsome of them have been published in academic publications.Going forward, she has ambitious plans. She is envisioning contributing to the Mongolian PowerTransmission system standard to ensure it meets international standards. She is willing to introduceand adopt internationally accepted approaches in Mongolia such as how to plan larger maintenance aswell as operational planning and organizations of building substations. As she pursues her Ph.D, shecontinues learning about the application of medium voltage (to 35 kv) grounding system. Once shecompletes her Ph.D, she will continue to apply her research within the industry.“Can you survive without food? Can you survive without tobacco? Do you like it when your childsmokes?” These are common questions with which she starts her advocacy among large audiences.13 These are an extract from the brochure that was published as part of the women‟s leadership campaign carriedout by MCA-Mongolia.70Page 70 of 80