Manufacturing: Paving The Way For Women
Diversity, equality and inclusion are the driving forces behind the success of Apollo Tyres as we continue to strengthen our multicultural and diverse teams to build a culturally inclusive environment in which our employees feel safe and valued. As a leading tyre manufacturer, although we do our best to create a welcoming space that enables people of diverse backgrounds to succeed and flourish, we know more must be done.
In an era where we regularly hear that the sky's our limit, women today are still underrepresented in the manufacturing world.
Despite accounting for around half of all workers overall, women only account for less than one-third of the manufacturing workforce. In a time where we are seeing the leaders of our generation rocket up to the edge of space and back in less than a day, then why can't we address this clear shortfall?
As the Vice chairman & Managing Director of Apollo Tyres and with a workforce of over 18,700 employees, I can wholeheartedly say that the manufacturing industry needs the contribution of women so that we can benefit from diverse perspectives to help us enrich our decisions and limit any corporate biases and inequities that we work so hard to eliminate.
Women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity should be free to pursue their chosen path in life with an equal opportunity to thrive.?
With diverse teams comes innovation and growth, encouraging us to broaden our views and effectively communicate, create and problem solve through individual training, background and life experiences. Investing in the power of women and actively helping them to succeed in their chosen career path of manufacturing is not only necessary but is essential for the rebuilding of a more sustainable and thriving economy and society.?
As a business leader and as a father, I made it my task to understand why the manufacturing industry is less accessible to women.
Interestingly, a recurrent reason is that women see manufacturing as a male-dominated industry in which it is difficult to fit in or advance. Perhaps this stems from the issue of engaging girls from a young age to study STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects at school due to the industry stereotypes that remain. Research shows that only 35% of girls aged 16 years old choose maths, physics, computing or technical vocational qualifications, compared to 94% of boys. Only 9% of those girls then go on to study those subjects at degree level.
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Whilst steps have been taken to make the manufacturing industry more diverse, the same outdated image of a 'man's world' remains.
However, times are changing and stereotypes were made to be broken. The manufacturing industry will no longer be left behind. The sector must open up if it is to flourish, and with that comes the welcome opportunity for women to join our workforces and be given the equal right to advance in their chosen fields. As the saying goes, we must shout it from the rooftops by reaching out to schools, colleges and educational institutions to eliminate the age-old stereotype image that has hung over the manufacturing industry for so long.
We must work together to break down these barriers and give young girls looking at entering the field the support and encouragement they need.
Although the industry is moving in the right direction, with 58% of women in the US responding in a manufacturers survey that they have seen positive changes over the past five years, let us continue this progress and celebrate our female workforce by highlighting their experiences and leave behind the outdated stereotype to welcome a new era of manufacturing in which the young girls of today are the driving force.
?Although there is a marked difference in the intake of women in the Apollo Tyres plants across continents, this is an industry matter that reaches a global scale. In our plant in Hungary, the recorded onboarding of women is relatively high at 20%, with the active participation of women in roles across tyre manufacturing, plant technology and quality assurance. In R&D, we see women taking up the position of senior tyre engineer, laboratory manager, standard and regulations engineer, moulds engineer and new product development. The percentage of women in the workforce is still relatively low in our plants in India. So, why could this be?
Perhaps one of the reasons why the Hungarian plant attracts a higher percentage of women is because it uses advanced engineering and AI. Technology has the potential to be one of the best levellers we've seen, with the possibility to close the gender gap for good. As the digital revolution gains momentum and the increasing use of AI in the sector continues, I am confident that we will see more women joining the industry.
So what can we do to ensure that Apollo Tyres continues to take positive steps and level the gap in India and across continents?
We set policies and guidelines that move beyond words on a piece of paper but actively work towards attracting and retaining more women in the workforce. Through our internship programmes, we want to build a strong calibre of female and male graduates that we can educate and support so one day they go on to uphold a senior position at Apollo Tyres. We hope that we see more girls and women follow their passion for manufacturing and take the leap in joining our Apollo family.
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3 年Well said sir. Also good to see your efforts and approach.
Business Manager at Adarsha Tyres
3 年Sir, It is a really an outstanding thought to get the reecognition of women in the dept. of manufacturing, one of the key dept. to run the industry where the men is dominating over the years, and one few areas where women are not been recognised due to short of experience and other factors, Sir, my concern in your particular statement as mentioned will create a very big disaster as far as the working men and experience is concerned, The companies are recruiting more women, there by the men are being sidelined in every dept. and not getting any kind of offers from the company and crores of men are jobless in our country, because of the mistakes made by the companies, Men do not have any kind of respect at home or in the society, because wife would be working with good salaries and the husband is jobless, Sir, It is my kind request to you to have a survey on this particular issue, It is really a serious threat to the relationship of husband and wife, and also to the family, we had seen so many people where even divorce incidents are happening due the comparisons of the positions, salaries, and other factors, We should really think about the days about 30 yrs back where the working population of men was at par compare to women and almost all the families lived happily and had a peaceful life, Can we compare now, what went wrong, Those days we had food in our house, not now because the wife does not know anything about cooking, or do not have time to prepare food at time. Sir over all my concern is women empowerment is good, but to limited extent, In a country like India where people are hired in so many ways either by internal recruitment, referrals, influences, and other areas of consideration, Crores of graduates are coming out every year, but people getting the opportunities are very few in numbers. Unemployment raises, A talented person will get ignored by the companies and hire somebody from the referrals, where can the companies expect the growth when they have recruited a useless people, This applies for all the dept. and all the companies, Shortfall raises, companies growth will take a new dimension of loss, so much to say, but people think of me in a different way, Sir, this not an essay, it is truely a fact, a lesson to learn from the mistakes of so many people from the top management professionals who are working with the companies in India. Regards, Jose Varghese. Mob. 9449494566.