K2 Energy Group is proud to welcome our first female Rope Access Specialist Ainul Mardiyah. We hope Ainul is one of many in K2’s endeavour to continue to foster and encourage women to get qualified in rope access and enter the energy industry. Ainul has been employed by our oilfield division to work in a Singapore shipyard on a new construction offshore floating production facility carrying out pre-delivery fabric cleaning and painting activities on the four columns both internally and eternally using rope access techniques.
The below interview was with Ainul Mardiyah who is K2 Energy Groups first female rope access technician employed through our Oilfield Business Unit.
What drove you to get your rope access qualification?
– I was exposed to the outdoor environment and I had friends who worked in this industry. Which made me interested in these kinds of works after hearing stories from them. So, I gave it a shot and it turns out that I kinda like this job.
What advice would you give women looking to work in this industry /role?
– Honestly, it is a tough job but when you have amazing support from the people working with you, it gets easier. The encouragement from the other technician matters. There are people in this industry that are not so open to women being in this line of work. Prove them wrong by showing them that you can be not only as good as them but sometimes better. There might be times where you would have to put more effort than any one of them, but push through!
What’s it like breaking down barriers in what has historically been a male-dominated role?
– It was tough as I had to face criticism and prejudices from close minded individuals who were not open to accepting a female being working with them. As to them, this is a man’s job. Through those incidents, I felt the need to push the stereotypes of women not being able to do physical work. There were rejections along the line just because of the fact that I am a woman. However, I feel fortunate as I have had such great support from friends. I hope that the future line of women who are interested in joining this industry, wouldn’t have to face these kinds of stereotypical people. There are so many other barriers to break down, it would be so much easier to have more women in this industry for us to make a change.