A trailblazing trio
Port Authority of Jamaica females standing out
IF THERE is ever an embodiment of what it means to have and to display ‘girl power’, it lies within the performance of three young women employed to the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), who are shaking things up in what is generally considered to be a male-dominated field.
Meet Shinelle Fenton, 27, Alexia Gordon, 30, and Tameka BucknorLynch, 34.
This year, as Jamaica joins nations across the world in observing Maritime Awareness Week, the theme of empowering women is one that speaks personally to the trailblazing trio.
Common to them all is a natural instinct for technical, hands-on tasks that stemmed from their school days. Fenton grew up in Sandy Bay, Clarendon, and attended Glenmuir High School in that parish before moving on to the School of Engineering at the University of Technology. She excelled in mathematics and physics.
‘A WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE’
One might assume that it would be tough for a woman to survive in a ‘man’s world’, but not for these three. Ironically, Fenton described herself as the ‘man on the ground’ as she holds several key functions on the project site at Old Coal Wharf, the location for the Port Royal Cruise Port, PAJ’s newest port development. These include quality assurance, liaising with the project team and interacting with the contractor and government agencies.
How she does it all is a simple equation that amounts to respect – mutual respect. “The men respect me and they respect that I am doing this kind of job,” she said. “They respect that I respect them in their different areas of expertise; I learn from them and they learn from me.”
Gordon, who attended Jonathan Grant High School in Spanish Town before venturing off to the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), where she studied marine engineering, said she is accustomed to things the way they are.
“From high school growing up, I’ve always been around boys so you get accustomed to it,” she said. “There will be one or two bad days or one or two persons who don’t really think a female should be there, but that gives you the drive to push yourself and prove that women can do it too.”
She said she loves the industry she is a part of and has enjoyed travel experiences to countries like Panama, Curacao, Dominica and Venezuela on container vessels, while studying.
On a regular basis, her role with the PAJ as a marine engineer includes “routine maintenance of marine equipment, including pumps, compressors, generators and some electrical work as well”.
She finds it interesting but admits that some days are difficult.
“Sometimes we have challenges but we are a team and we work together,” she said, adding that she has an excellent rapport with co-workers.
Like her, Bucknor-Lynch, who has been with the PAJ since 2011, is passionate about the marine industry and works arduously as a second engineer.
“I work on every vessel and every equipment that the PAJ has,” said the past student of Albert Town High in Trelawny, a step on the journey to the Jamaican-German Automotive School and then to the CMU.
Bucknor-Lynch is second in command for the boy tender (which is a larger ship used to service or support other boats or ships, generally by transporting people or supplies to and from shore or from another ship) . “On a daily basis we carry out maintenance of engines of seagoing vessels, small and large,” she said. “We basically maintain and operate; we work in a field that requires us to be responsive to an emergency so we are always ready and on standby for an emergency.”
So diligent is the set of female bosses that even the unexpected on the job is a welcomed challenged. “It has become a part of us,” BucknorLynch said. “Whatever your career is, it is part of your life so therefore, you adapt to what it takes to be in the field.”
Sharing her sentiments on this year’s theme and what it means to her personally, Gordon said, “It shows females that we can do it. Not because the marine industry is male dominated; try it and you might end up liking it.”
Fenton, too, had an opinion on the subject. “Some persons generally do not know that women are in this field, so I appreciate this theme.”
And according to Bucknor-Lynch, “I like when they say I’m a girl. “I always prove that yes, I’m a girl, but I’m just as good as you are,” she said. “I like the idea of us as females standing out.”