Team’s girl power first for electricity competition
Levin hosts event for powerlines workers
We might lack brute strength, but we use tools the way you are meant to use them and work together Laisa Pickering
For the first time, an allwomen's team competed in an annual challenge giving essential workers from within the electricity supply industry a chance to showcase their skills.
Annual Connection was held at the Levin Showgrounds this week and lining up in hard hats and orange overalls was an all-women team, called Ultimit Women.
An increasing number of women are joining the once male-dominated industry at all levels, and the Ultimit women's team more than stood up to their peers during three days of competition.
The women's team of Juliet Fordyce, Azra Wenzlick, Natasha Goodall, Sarah Russell, Emily Flynn, and Laisa Pickering came from different parts of New Zealand but quickly gelled as a crew after coming together two weeks before the competition.
Pickering had been involved in the industry for the past nine years and she was now seeing more women join the profession.
It was bringing about a change in mindset for employers, too.
Being visible as a team at the Annual Connection competition helped, especially when they were the first team to raise their power pole in one challenge.
“Okay we might lack brute strength, but we use tools the way you are meant to use them and work together,” she said.
Crews were tested on a range of disciplines including erecting 11m power poles, digging holes for earth wires, rescuing someone from a pole, first aid and electrical theory, and were also assessed on safety, communication, and team work.