Mongolia Compact Gender Summary Report: Best Practices And Lessons LearnedBeing a herder group leader, Ms. Javzan is in a rare position, as this has tended to be a position givento male herders due to stereotype that man is the “head of the family.” Though she feels that if womenare competent to lead the group, opportunity should be given. Regardless of gender, competency andmanagerial skills should be the main criteria for the herder group leader. She advises young womenand girls that “Opportunity is always in your hand.”“There might be a misperception that engineering is suitable only for males due to the natureof work. It is perceived as too hard for females. Actually this is not true,” says Mrs. Lkhagvajav. Herbrothers and husband are all road engineers, and being in road engineering is a family tradition. Herchildhood experiences are full of memories of her father, who was a road engineer working onconstruction sites. Watching her father inspired her to be an engineer herself. Currently working as asupervising engineer for the Highway Project for the MCC-funded construction of the 176.4 km roadChoir to Sainshand, she is a bridge engineer responsible for monitoring and examining every singleelement of bridge construction to ensure that appropriate standards are being followed.Since her childhood, she was determined to become a road engineer - a unique choice for a girl wherepursuing such a path was not a common tradition. Straight after her high school graduation Mrs.Lkhagvajav started working in the Institute for Road and Bridge architecture and construction as adrafts woman. She used to assist in drafting of road and bridge architecture designing that requiresdoing every single drawing by hand. She had been doing this work until 1997 when a computerizedsystem was introduced, giving her the opportunity to pursue an advanced career as an auto cadoperator. Her experience working as a drafts woman increased her desire and motivation to chooseengineering. Throughout her career she did not stop developing professionally and in 2005 she wasone of two female students among 12 males when she graduated from the University of Science andTechnology as a bridge engineer. Her choice of study paid off and she was able to quickly secure ajob.“Women engineers in road and bridge construction were rare; in fact, being a road engineerrequires frequent travels, working months away from family. It can also be a challenge to maintain thecost of living due to the inconsistent income during off season periods. She has never given upbecause of the stormy and harsh weather conditions while working in the field.Her typical working day usually starts in the office doing a quick monitoring of work done andplanning for the day and then going to the field. In the field she checks the process of road and bridgeconstruction and if standards are followed with high quality. As a supervising road engineer, thisrequires a high level of responsibility. She is delighted to see that security and life of people„s livesdepend on the result of her hard, responsible, committed work. This also contributes to a Mongolia‟sfuture development.When she completes bridge construction she thinks that her children will be proud of her work. Sinceher graduation she has contributed to the construction of three wooden and six concrete bridges andconstruction of about 300 culverts.Given the seasonal nature of engineering work, she often tries to strengthen her professional skills inthe off-season periods. She earned a master‟s degree at the University of Science and Technology andcompleted a thesis titled “Planning and installation of physical access for people with disabilities.”Her colleagues appreciated that her innovative work contributed to the design of physical features toimprove accessibility for people with disabilities for the first time in Mongolia, which resulted in theadoption of a national standard for people with disabilities.Mrs. Lkhagvajav thinks there is a great future in road construction and engineering for both males andfemales and hopes more girls will turn to the profession. The Mongolian government aims toconstruct 5,000 km of paved road over the next four years. It will not be possible to reach thisobjective with the existing number of road engineers, male and female combined, which shows a largeneed for trained road engineers. For Mrs. Lkhagvajav being a female in a male-dominated industryhas not been challenging, and she does not think other females should shy away from the professionjust because it has employed mostly males in the past. “We are all the same. There is no differencebetween women and men in their ability to do things,” she says. Nowadays she sees manyopportunities for female engineers to advance in their careers, and she hopes this inspires young girlsto pursue engineering, especially in road construction. With the construction industry booming in74Page 74 of 80
Mongolia Compact Gender Summary Report: Best Practices And Lessons LearnedMongolia, Ms. Lkhagvajav has certainly chosen a career where there is currently no shortage ofpositive future possibilities.Even though women today have opportunities to enroll in technical and vocational educationprograms in Mongolia, the majority still choose not to. Women perceive technical and vocationaleducation as a male domain in which they do not belong. This is particularly true of male-dominatedfields such as mining or construction. A total of 17,700 students are majoring in construction in 57vocational schools in Mongolia, out of which 3,775, or just 21%, are female. Most women continue tobe concentrated in a narrow range of “traditional” female occupations and industries where future payprospects tend to be lower. Ms. Gantumur Davaa, VET graduate, who majored with an interiordecorator in construction degree, is a woman who broke with this tradition.“In the beginning I actually did not want to choose construction. However, my parents wereboth truck drivers and I had to stay home with my siblings to look after my sisters and brothers,” sheexplains with a smile. “My parents made a decision for me to be a construction worker. As time wentby I became attracted by it and realized the value of the work. Now I cannot separate myself fromconstruction work.”Working in a predominantly male industry she has sometimes struggled by doing heavy things orcarrying heavy construction materials. But her desire to help others and a passion to improve herstandard of living kept her motivated.Though she received vocational instruction years ago, in the last couple of years, after the introductionof the MCA-M VET project, she was able to upgrade and improve her skills. She graduated fromTechnical and Vocational Education with a major in construction in 1993 but moved to thecountryside for the next few years due to limited employment opportunities.In 2010 she returned to her hometown seeking a better income and looking for an opportunity toupgrade her professional skills. This is when she heard about the VET project and decided to takeadvantage, as she saw growing opportunities in construction industry. In 2010 she signed up for andcompleted the competence based curriculum training to become an interior decorator of constructionin the Dundgobi aimag. From this course, she gained knowledge that she needed to establish herselfas an interior decorator.She witnessed firsthand differences between the currently implemented training curriculumfunded by MCA-Mongolia and the traditional teaching system during the 1990s. “Technology ininterior decoration, selection of construction materials and construction standards have been changedgreatly compared to the 1990s,” she observes. She believes that this new training curriculum under theVocational Educational Training project has made her aware of new technologies to use in her work.“The advantage of the competency -based training is that I care about the skills required to meet highquality standards,” she says.In addition to her thriving career path in construction, Ms. Gantumur also has a family offour. As a single mother, balancing work and home is a constant challenge. Ms. Gantumur is alsoapplying her drive to helping her community. Her focus is on unemployed youth. She is striving totrain a group of youth to deliver good quality of interior decorators, which will later help her and herstudents to establish their own small businesses.“Nowadays, many girls are interested in construction. But many of them do not get engagedin construction due to the hardship of the work,” she says. “I have seen that if one is really capableand equipped with required skills, they could gain much better income than they do generate fromother girly jobs. Thus I try to enable those who are not engaged but have passion and desire inconstruction through teaching and sharing with them.” She believes that “young girls and women inthe construction industry have to be tough and thrive on challenges.”She is quite cognizant that she is a role model for others. She advises other women “not togive up and keep on working towards their own advancement.”Page 75 of 8075
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