Every week, the Timmins Kinette Club is celebrating women in the community with its Modern-Day Rosie initiative. The campaign honours Timmins women who are innovators, volunteers, freelancers, entrepreneurs and visionaries empowering other women. TimminsToday has partnered with the club to introduce our readers to the inspiring local leaders. To submit a nomination, email [email protected].
Today's Modern-Day Rosie is Elsa Nielsen.
Elsa Nielsen loves mining! Being one of the first female drillers has made her a trailblazer; she leads by example.
“I serve as an example of a woman who is strong enough to do the exact same physically demanding tasks as the rest of the men in my industry. By seeing me do my job, it normalizes the concept that there are women out there just as strong and physically capable as men”.
Elsa has been in mining for the better part of 12 years and has held many non-traditional female roles within the industry.
Elsa shares: “I was happiest in my career when I broke the glass ceiling in my industry and attained full-time development miner/driller status in a longterm heading”.
Elsa is a passionate advocate for women in mining, especially front-line workers. She has been a mentor to many of the new generation of women entering the industry, discussing career options, and giving perspective to challenges they face. She has been an inspiring speaker with Skills Canada, presenting to 300 female high school students looking for career choices, as well as the keynote speaker for the International Women in Mining portion of the highly-prestigious PDAC convention, the world’s premier international event for the minerals and mining industry.
“While there has been an increase in women entering upper management, there still exists a gap between management and the front-line in this industry. Being a female front-line worker, I am able to offer a very valuable and specialized lens on the issues and challenges facing women in mining today."
Elsa is not shy in front of the lens using her position to inspire others. She has become the “face” of women in mining as the international grand prize winner of the women in mining photo competition.
“I have seen great strides throughout my lifetime, with many women taking on amazing, typically male-dominated leadership roles. However, there are certain industries where equality is still not a given. Unfortunately, I find the mining industry still has a lot of ground to cover before there is true equality and any sort of female leadership beginning to shape that community.”
Today we recognize Elsa as that Leader! Thank you for shaping our community with your passion, strength, and perseverance; for reminding that doing what we love does not have a gender assignment!
