But misperceptions, male-centric culture, focus on work-life balance among barriers to recruitment and retention, finds report
Manufacturing represents a great career option for young women wanting to get into high-tech industries, according to an action plan released last month by the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) association and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).
But it’s an uphill battle: Women account for 47.5 per cent of Canada’s total labour force, but only 28 per cent toil in manufacturing, said the 58-page report Untapped Potential: Attracting and Engaging Women in Canadian Manufacturing.
Currently, women make up less than 10 per cent of skilled production workers across Canada, and less than one-quarter of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workers, according to Lesley Lawrence, senior vice-president for Ontario at BDC in Toronto.
“We need to dispel the myth that manufacturing is kind of a dirty, dark, archaic type of industry that maybe women have a certain perception over, whereas today we know it’s about technology, robotics, the computer design of tomorrow,” she said. “We need to do a better job of engaging young women, obviously.”
Potential obstacles
So, what is stopping women from entering the field? Work-life balance may be one issue, according to the report.
“Entrepreneurs need to be focused on supporting, promoting and inspiring women and being aware of the work-life balance and family commitments, and understanding it is a priority for women,” said Lawrence.
Women have specific challenges, according to Anita (Patil) Huberman, CEO of the Surrey Board of Trade.
“It is different for women than it is for men, and that’s a reality,” she said. “Until employers understand that, I don’t think things are going to change.”
One innovative company is considering implementing a “mom schedule” so women can work fewer than 40 hours a week, according to Allison Grealis, president of Cleveland, Ohio-based Women in Manufacturing (WiM), which has about 1,000 individual members representing approximately 500 manufacturers.
“Think of the talent that is sitting at home; for example, many moms who have advanced degrees in engineering or science and mathematics who, because they wanted to raise children and be more active in that process, are opting not to work or can’t find a place of employment.”
Another issue identified in the report is that the industry tends to be “so male-centric that women don’t want to work there, and yet because it’s so male-centric, we need women to work there,” said Rhonda Barnet, president and COO at Steelworks Design in Peterborough, Ont.
As a result, the CME hopes to change certain factory-floor cultures and break down barriers “so that women know that it’s being talked about, there’s a lot of attention on it so companies are changing. And I think just even starting the conversation will get more young girls interested in walking through the door,” she said. “They see it as a progressive workforce.”
Employers need to collaborate with universities, business associations and the CME, and should begin public relations campaigns so manufacturers make it plain their “workplace culture is open to women,” said Huberman.
There’s a poor reputation among women when it comes to manufacturing not being the best career option, she said.
“That myth needs to be changed... We need to be able to present opportunities for women.”
Skilled-trades gap
Another concern is the skilled-trades gap. Steelworks, for example, will see about 50 per cent of its skilled workers retiring in the next five to eight years, said Barnet, and “there’s not enough young people behind there.”
“We have this gap in our labour force of people sort of 30 to 45 that there is a very low representation of skilled trades in general, not just in females.”
The proportion of young workers has dropped 75 per cent over the last 30 years in manufacturing, she said.
“That’s our real issue: Young people have not come through the door at a high enough rate.”
Increasing the level of apprenticeships is a potential option to attract more women, according to Huberman, but it is a challenge because some employers are not open to them.
“They should say in their employment ads ‘We’re willing to train, we’re willing to provide apprenticeships,’” she said. “The need for human capital is so dire — especially as our population ages — the owners are aging, (and) they are looking at business succession.”
Role models
One of the ways to attract more young women to manufacturing is by having them actually see successful women enjoying careers in trades, said Barnet.
“There’s not enough role models out there to demonstrate that women can be successful in manufacturing, so we need to do a better job of demonstrating that, and reaching out to young girls.”
Successful women in manufacturing should become mentors and advocates to “speak and bring visibility to what life is like in manufacturing these days,” said Lawrence.
And it’s not just the morally correct thing to do, she said.
“When you have diversity in organizations, it brings, number one, better financial results; it brings increased innovation in organizations, generally higher employee engagement, so organizations recognize that there is a lot of benefits that come from diversity.”
Human resources can do more to support the effort to attract more women by “asking some of your successful women in those organizations to mentor outside of the organization,” said Lawrence.
“For HR professionals, it’s assessing what are your current plans for attraction and retention and development, and then finding partners and other organizations and allies when you are looking for resources to develop your talent. And how better to promote your diversity advocacy than they align with organizations that support women and different segments of the population?” said Grealis.
“We see progressive companies having success with attraction and retention when they look at development plans, as they look at how to give people the right skills for the right job.”
By 2020, growth of the Canada labour force will be at zero, according to the action plan Untapped Potential.
“When we are not growing the labour force, then we have to make sure that we are utilizing the one that we have,” said Barnet, who launched a Women in Manufacturing Working Group through the CME.
When it comes to employee engagement, odds are actually in women’s favour. A 2017 survey by CME and BDC of 800 men and women found that women enjoy working in manufacturing, and 80 per cent of respondents would choose to make the same decision if the opportunity was posed again.
“When women walk through our doors and commence their career in manufacturing, they find it very gratifying and they want to stay there and they want to share it with other people, they will recommend it to other people,” said Barnet.
“We know once we get them there, we’ve got a good chance of keeping them there; we’re not getting enough women walking through our door.”
Getting the word out
One of WiM’s goals has been to better market manufacturers with a “Hear Her Story” campaign that launched in 2012 and has so far profiled more than 50 women, said Grealis.
“We walk through a day in their life and we publish these on our blog and through social media, so that educators and students will hopefully observe them to hear what a real day in the life is like for women in manufacturing: That their jobs are exciting, they’re making really cool things and hopefully excite some younger women to look at a career in manufacturing.”
But it is tough to dispel myths, she said, citing the example of her 10- and 11-year-old children who went through a manufacturing component in their social sciences studies at school and “they still use words like ‘factories’ and ‘pollution’; those things are still kind of ingrained in our history and so I think if we can better showcase what modern manufacturing looks like — many of them are very clean, they’re very high-tech, they are places that rely on automation and their interfaces are very similar to technology that kids play (with),” said Grealis.
“The more we can do to showcase what these modern facilities look like, the better chance they’ll have of getting these young kids to consider a career in manufacturing.”
It’s really important to show examples, according to Céline Razat, website contributor and senior project manager at Sculpteo in San Francisco, a 3D printing company.
Razat volunteers for the group Women in 3D Printing to feature interviews and portraits of female leaders in the industry.
The group is striving to counter the messages that are often featured in women’s periodicals, for example.
“What you can see on the magazines for women is mostly makeup; it’s mostly you have to take care of your hair, you have to take care of your clothes, and when you see a magazine for men, you can get some really interesting information about technology or cars or how to go into space,” she said.
This is sending the wrong message to young girls, according to Razat.
“There are two options: You have to be cute and the perfect woman, or the other option is you have to be a mother.”
North of the border, loozxking to accelerate the progress of women with STEM, 3M Canada partners with organizations that support education programs for students, such as Let’s Talk Science and Canada 2067, according to Amy Grant, HR business partner in London, Ont.
“It showcases future work opportunities in all fields related to STEM,” she said.
“We really believe in diversity as a competitive advantage, and that next generation of manufacturing is around those technologies like 3D printing and robotics and automation.”
“The diversity message really helps us remain competitive.”
Next steps
The next step, according to Lawrence, is for the working groups to put more “tangible actions in place to support women to get into the manufacturing stream.”
“Our real vision on this is to help support, promote and inspire women in manufacturing in Canada because we recognize — the working group members and CME and BDC — that we really need a strong, vibrant, diverse workforce in manufacturing.”
