Nothing but women – great news!

Right in the middle of the maintenance shutdown they suddenly realised there was nothing but women leading the work from the operations room at the plant. A milestone in SunPine’s very own equal opportunities efforts:
“I noted how many we were, and that we were only women”, says Camilla Eknor, start-up coordinator.

Traditional male industries are now moving toward more gender-equal workplaces.

During the latest maintenance shutdown at SunPine there was one shift with nothing but female employees leading the work to start up the plant. It was a snapshot that showed great change had taken place, and a moment that gave employees pause for thought to register what had happened.

Camilla Eknor had the role of start-up coordinator during the shutdown, and on Saturday she realised there was nothing but women in the control room.

“Our shift was four women. I reflected for a moment, having noted how many we were, and that we were only women. What great news!”

“I know that SunPine has worked hard to recruit more women. There’s always been a few working here. But you get so used to working in a male dominated industry that you don’t react when there are so many men around; it’s always been that way.”

“This time we all happened to be women – it’s great that there are enough of us for things to turn out this way.”

Camilla Sundström also got a surprise when she stepped into the operations room:
“Jeez, there’s only women here today…”

She also remembers the first time the company teamed up two women as process operators on one shift:
“In the beginning, back in 2014, when two of us women were working as operators, it was a bit of a test, but we had no problem running the plant, naturally. Everything has worked out well. Many of the contractors who come here are taken aback a bit: ‘My my, two women running things.’ Well that ain’t no big deal (chuckling).”

Carina Marklund has been around since the beginning in 2010:
“There’s bound to be more of us. But it’s all been perfectly natural and we never gave it a moment’s thought.”

Elin Ekebjörk began at SunPine this year and was also surprised in the beginning:
“I had no idea there were so many women working here. So it’s pretty awesome, actually.”

Katarina Samuelsson hopes that more women will take an interest in the industry, and she would welcome more female recruits to SunPine:
“There’s no problem being a women and working in industry. Not in my view.”

“I did my work experience training elsewhere and there was this old geezer who would say things like ‘you girls shouldn’t work in industry, it’ll ruin your complexion blah blah blah,’ but that was 10 years ago. It’s not like that today. Not here, anyway.”

Mikael Bergvall, process operator, overhears our conversation and adds:
“I think a mixed environment makes for a better workplace. In my experience, everything works really well.”

NAME: ELIN EKEBJÖRK
AGE: 21
JOB: PROCESS OPERATOR
SUNPINE EMPLOYEE SINCE: 2019

NAME: KATARINA SAMUELSSON
AGE: 46
JOB: PROCESS OPERATOR
SUNPINE EMPLOYEE SINCE: 2018

NAME: CARINA MARKLUND
AGE: 45
JOB: PROCESS OPERATOR
SUNPINE EMPLOYEE SINCE: 2010

NAME: CAMILLA EKNOR
AGE: 34
JOB: PROCESS ENGINEER
SUNPINE EMPLOYEE SINCE: 2015

NAME: CAMILLA SUNDSTRÖM
AGE: 34
JOB: PROCESS OPERATOR
SUNPINE EMPLOYEE SINCE: 2011Back to the News archive