AUTOMATION INDUSTRY, PERFECT FOR WOMEN

As a 24-year-old I got my first job as an engineer. I was considerably younger than all my colleagues and they were all men. But the fact that technology only should be for guys, I never understood. That I would choose the technical path was clear early on, due to my constant curiosity about how things work and a fascination for problem solving.

MY PROFESSIONAL CHOICE FELT EASY AND GIVEN

I have always had female role models close at hand, including a mother who is also an engineer and a grandmother who wrote books on experiments. When I started studying to be a mechanical engineer, I felt at home from the start.

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A WOMAN IN INDUSTRY?

Difficult question, I have never tried to be a man, but in a corporate culture where everyone does their best and works together, gender and prestige become unimportant. When I first came to Front, I didn’t know much about the industry, but I was fascinated by the fact that systems, machines and robots were presented in a completely new way. It was the solutions and the technology that were in focus. I immediately felt the atmosphere of “wanting to move forward and we will work together to get there”. I want to be a part of this!

“Most of it is about solving problems, communicating and creating security. These are things that both men and women can do just as well.”

FEMALE AND MALE

Workplaces where people are different, are better for everyone. That is why it is important to attract girls to technical professions. We are too few and I do not know why. Is it the lack of role models? Do women not want to get dirt under their finger nails? Do men want to work with other men? Are guys better at taking the opportunities that occurs? Or is it that boys are given chances and girls must create their own?

Are we treated differently from men? Unclear, but welcome to the 21st century when everyone is equally valuable and together we must teach those who live in the past to behave accordingly.

Assholes are found here and there, sometimes even at our customers’. To me, they might behave like rotten eggs because I am a woman, to my colleague it may be for other reasons. Personally, I am most surprised and a little shocked when it happens, but the fault is on them, not me!

INTEREST IN TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED

We should definitely become more women in the industry, especially in the automation industry. I believe in letting technology take its place early in school and then be involved continuously, highlight ambassadors and role models and stop saying that girls who choose a typical male path are brave. That makes it harder than it is. Technology is fun!