The Chicago Tribune (7/22) reports on a study released 7/21 by the NAM-affiliated Manufacturing Institute that calls on US manufacturers to draw on the “full power and potential” of women to improve the industry’s global competitiveness. The study, which also had input from Deloitte and the APICS Supply Chain Council, found that women account for just over a quarter of manufacturing jobs but rarely ascend to executive positions, “even though they make up nearly half of the total U.S. labor force,” the Tribune notes. The study cites problems including manufacturers’ lackluster recruiting and retention programs as well as a failure to inform women about careers in manufacturing.
IndustryWeek (7/21, Putre) notes that the new report is titled “Minding the Manufacturing Gender Gap” and is based on survey responses of 600 women “working across all levels of manufacturing.” Many of the respondents said there is a double standard in an industry that favors men, including in pay, with women workers receiving less than their male counterparts in the same job. The study recommends that manufacturing try to recruit more women by tapping into “their social networks; retaining them through mentorships, better pay and more flexible hours; and fostering girls’ interest in manufacturing careers as early as fourth grade,” IndustryWeek says. “If we can begin to close that gender gap, it will be possible to simultaneously close the skills gap,” said Gardner Carrick, the Manufacturing Institute’s vice president of strategic initiatives.
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