The following stories from Mexico and Mongolia are extracts from the booklet 'Women in the Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Industry."
MARINA JOSEFINA PEREZ MONTIIEL (MEXICO)
My name is Marina and I am 56 years old. I’ve been working in the refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) sector for 26 years. My company is called Refrihogar. My father is a retired refrigeration technician and I obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics. My daughter Maria Jose’s age, 26 years, is exactly the same number of years I’ve been in the RAC sector. As a single mother, it was necessary to have a regular income as well as enough time to look after my daughter; and with my father’s advice, I decided to open a RAC store.
In the beginning, it was not easy to grow and develop in a sector that was traditionally dominated by men, whether they were suppliers or clients. For them, trusting a woman who didn’t have any experience in the area was difficult to accept. Nevertheless, I believe that this obstacle at the beginning became my main motivation for showing that, with training and determination, I can slowly achieve things which, at first, I thought I could never achieve.
After 10 years of working, I met Gonzalo, who was a refrigeration and air conditioning technician, and who eventually became my husband. He joined Refrihogar, managing the servicing department. Through capacity building, I discovered the importance of the sector in which I work; I discovered that refrigeration was essential in sectors such as food, health, tourism, research, and so forth. I also discovered its importance in terms of its impact on the environment.
I regularly update my knowledge of the sector through courses given by my suppliers, and I took one that changed my views on and motivation for continuing in this weld. The course was called Good Practices in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning.
- “We must promote the participation of new generations of women throughout the sector, supporting them and encouraging them to participate in a field of work that is becoming increasingly important.”
This course was a trigger because it motivated me to enrol not only Refrihogar employees but also all the technicians that I knew through the business. I wanted them to become aware of the importance of our trade and its environmental impact. I wanted them to become aware that it was necessary to prepare ourselves for the changes that we were going face with the phaseout of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). We reached out to the authorities at the Mexican Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) who organized the course, and they informed us of what we had to do so that the course could be made available in the city of Oaxaca. With their invaluable support, as well as that of the school where the training took place, about 100 technicians were trained in our city.
As I mentioned before, with time, new challenges came and I was invited to take part in the opening of a recovery and recycling (R&R) centre in Oaxaca. I have to say that in the beginning, the desire I had to participate in and to have an R&R centre was very high because it was very difficult. I live in Oaxaca, in the south of the country, which is a state with the richest ancestral traditions and customs. For example, the municipality of San Francisco Lachigoló, where the R&R centre was eventually established, is governed according to traditions and customs. In the town hall, there were only men and no women. The mere fact of asking for permission to put up a centre that handled hazardous waste and industrial land use was a process that involved at least one year of visits only at night, since the service provided by the members is not remunerated and they could only work at night after completing their daily tasks. Convincing them that what we were trying to do was something good for the environment was difficult - even more so because I am a woman, and because it was uncommon for women to perform this type of work. Nevertheless, it was gratifying to see that after a time, the municipal office saw that what we were doing was not dangerous, but in fact, quite the opposite.
We integrated the community into the project, hired people born there, and tried to ensure that the majority of the purchases for construction and maintenance were done in the community. I believe that women’s achievements in fields where we did not participate before showing us that our capabilities are equal to those of any person and that we are not less strong, intelligent or capable; I believe that we must strive for equality in work, and for equal recognition of our capabilities in the RAC sector or any other sector in which we take part. We must strive for our empowerment.
Now, Maria Jose, my daughter, is taking over the centre for obsolete-equipment destruction. She has grown by participating equally in our work in the RAC sector. We must promote the participation of new generations of women throughout the sector, supporting them and encouraging them to participate in a weld of work that is becoming increasingly important and in which our main goal should be equality and empowerment of women.
PROF. ENKH AMGALAN (MONGOLIA)
In 1985, I graduated from the Kuban State University of Technology in Krasnodar, Russia, which was then the Soviet Union. My training was in food technology. I started my professional career as a technician, then worked as a design engineer in various food industry related institutions in Mongolia. Since 1988, I have taught at Commerce College, specializing in refrigeration technology. Even if I do not have in-depth training in this field, I understood its importance. It was relatively unknown in my country at the time. The population of Mongolia was only 1.9 million and it was not common to have fridges at home. Only some State-owned dairy and meat producing factories and supermarkets had refrigeration equipment. Most of the servicing personnel, engineers and technicians for such technology were educated in the Soviet Union. Since 1996, I have worked as a lecturer at the Mongolian University of Science and Technology, where I set up a laboratory for food technology, including an operational refrigeration exhibit using an IF-56 compressor. In the 1990s, the Mongolian economy made the transition to a free-market economy and many companies and structures collapsed. Only in the early 2000s did the economy start to recover, driving the mining, agri-food and construction and building sectors and creating demand for the engineers and technicians of the refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) sector.
In 2005, I put forward the proposal to create a course on cold chain refrigeration at the University of Science and Technology. It became official from 2007. Since then, around 57 students, about half of whom were women, have graduated with a degree in refrigeration technology in the agri-food industry.
- “I put forward the proposal to create a course on cold chain refrigeration at the University of Science and Technology. It became official from 2007. Since then, around 57 students, about half of whom were women, have graduated with a degree in refrigeration technology in the agri-food industry.”
Given the prevalent cold climate in Mongolia, harnessing the natural cold has been always my interest. I completed my PhD on the accumulation of natural cold underground for food preservation with the help of low-temperature resistant heat pipes.
I once attended the workshop on the Montreal Protocol organized by Mongolia’s National Ozone Authority (NOA), and, since then, I have been actively involved in their good practice training for RAC technicians and the strategic integration of zero-ODP and low-GWP refrigerant-based RAC technology in Mongolia. I have been one of the organizers and founders of the Mongolian Refrigeration Association (MRA), which is now called the Mongolian Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVACR) Association and includes many people from the industry, including graduates of my course on refrigeration technology.
UNDRAM KHOSBAYAR (MONGOLIA)
From my early years, I have spent most of my time with my cousins. The most interesting fact is that all my cousins are now engineers: an electrical engineer, a geological engineer, a mining engineer, a construction architecture engineer, etc. This might have influenced me, as I became interested in mathematics and physics in high school because I wanted to become an engineer. I was admitted to the Mongolian University of Science and Technology and got a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanic Engineering of Food Production in 2015. When I was studying for a course named “Cooling techniques” in third grade, I gained information on cooling systems and cooling equipment. Following that, I did my internship at “APU” JSC, one of the major producers in the Mongolian dairy industry and worked in the milk production cold chain. During my internship at APU JSC, I took part in installing and assembling freezing systems and full freezing equipment that had been manufactured in Germany for milk and dairy products. I worked under the instruction of senior engineers and experienced specialized staff. During that time, I really felt what it took to be an engineer. It was a valuable experience and I understood essential parts of my profession.
I have been working as a lecturer for the Food and Technology Polytechnic College of Mongolia for about two years. I teach students specializing in “Repair techniques for the freezing and cooling systems of industrial equipment used for meat, milk, water and drink production”. In my course, I cover the use of refrigerants, their proper selection and principles for the structure and operation of the equipment. I also give instructions on workplace safety regulations. Mongolia has been paying special attention to enhancing the skills of teachers and professors in this field and our government has organized a number of workshops to inform experts about new technology and future trends in the cooling market. For example, I recently participated in the “Train the Trainer Workshop on Good Practices in the Handling of R 32 and R 290 Based Split Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps” organized by the National Ozone Authority (NOA) of Mongolia in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme’s OzonAction, Mongolia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Mongolian Refrigeration Association, now the Mongolian Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC R) Association. Unfortunately, Mongolia still has very few vocational training centres and laboratories with the equipment and tools necessary to provide students from the relevant vocational educational institutions, universities, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) centres with professional training. I can share my knowledge and education with students in such centres.
- “ When I applied for a job after graduating from university, I often heard the sentence: “Will not hire female engineers!”
On the other hand, most of the students in the field are male. This year, I had 30 students and all of them were male. This is due to do the fact that employers tend to hire male workers as servicing technicians, repairers and installers for RAC technology. Also, it’s a mainstream understanding in society that men have more aptitude in this field and are physically stronger than women. In this regard, I also faced discrimination. When I applied for a job after graduating from university, I often heard the sentence: “Will not hire female engineers!” Through my personal efforts, I worked as an equipment technician for a mining company and water-cooled alcohol-producing factory before starting my teaching career. I plan to study for a postgraduate degree in food network and cooling system engineering to prepare skilful human resources in this sector and make my own contribution to its development.
