The Increasing Need to Encourage Women into Manufacturing

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to participate in the Women in Manufacturing initial stakeholder meeting hosted by CME, where the goal is to increase the number of women working in manufacturing. Some of you may be thinking, “What’s the big deal? Why does it matter where women work?”. There are more great reasons than you may think other than the obvious one of breaking down gender barriers. The number one issue reported by manufacturers in CME’s 2016 Management Issues Survey is a severe shortage of skilled workers. To fill this shortage, we will need an increase in both male and female workers into the manufacturing sector. Also, there are some tasks in manufacturing which have been proven to be performed more effectively by women, typically tasks which are very detailed oriented or require a delicate touch.

You may be wondering just how large is this gap of women workers in the manufacturing sector? Here’s a few interesting stats published by CME.

• Women represent only 4.4% of jobs in industrial, electrical and construction trades, 4.5% of jobs in maintenance and equipment operation trades, 8.3% of jobs in transportation and heavy equipment operation and 15.7% of jobs in machine operation.
• The share of manufacturing jobs held by women has not changed in over thirty years.
• The number of young women entering manufacturing has been decreasing over the last thirty years, from 34% to only 25%.

So, what can be done to close the gender gap? That is what the Women in Manufacturing Action Group is working on. Since its establishment in 2017, they have completed a survey and published an action plan, held annual forums, spread the word through government and media outlets and they are just starting to establish provincial WIM member groups with Manitoba being the first.

At the Manitoba kickoff meeting, the support was overwhelming from local manufacturers and the brainstorming session was energetic and hopeful. Many ideas were brought forward including discussions around struggles with childcare, work life balance and shift work, ways to get youth engaged, improving the image of manufacturing and highlighting the vast array of opportunities and skillsets needed in manufacturing.

The first meeting in Manitoba was a huge success. Keep in contact with us and CME to learn more as this initiative begins to rollout and gain momentum.