What holds us back as Women in Food

One of the goals of my business is to champion women’s success within the Food industry, to support them to be more assertive, feel heard and to have successful careers without running themselves into the ground.

The reason I choose to work with, and champion, Women in the Food Industry is simple. I have been a woman in the Food Industry for over 20 years and it’s a tough environment. There is inequality, there are harsh male dominated environments and there is inequality in leadership. And, it nearly ran me into the ground.

Your ‘work ethic’ will get you far (to start with)

For too long now, women have been recruited into roles because they “are the right cultural fit” which we all know is code for “will work as hard as possible for the company”, only to be side lined at future points in their careers when they inevitably get frazzled from constantly trying prove themselves by taking on extra, working late and being perfect.

When it comes to leadership, the stats speak for themselves. According to IGD Inclusion and Diversity Research (2020) only 7% of CEO’s and only 28% of Board Level execs in Food & Grocery are women.

The only functions where there is some parity are Marketing (50% female leaders) and HR (72% female leaders). Without female role models at the top, where is the inspiration for young female graduates finding their feet in our industry? I for one can remember feeling like the only women that made it to the top were those who had become quite hardened by the environment.

And I just want to clarify here that I am not talking about women having career breaks to have babies here.

Yes, that’s a factor for some, just as it is in all industries but there are whole bunch of other reasons why women become disheartened, disengaged and choose not to take the steps into leadership in the Food industry.

Here are some of the factors that I have witnessed over the years, which I believe to contribute:

1.??????Bias and bullying still exists in the Food Manufacturing and Grocery industry – there I said it. I have seen way too many times individuals be crushed by the words or behaviour of others around them. It happens between retailers and suppliers and it happens cross functionally within businesses. But let’s not blame men here, I experienced bullying early in my career from a female counterpart at a retailer. This isn’t all about gender, but my point is an angry male factory manager can be both physically and mentally terrifying to a young female graduate (also spoken from experience) and as women we are often less well equipped to handle it. Which brings me to my next point…

2.??????Women are hard wired to be helpful. We are brought up as girls to be nurturing, to be people pleasers and to put others needs ahead of our own. Little girls are rewarded for being “good”, for being quiet and for not making a fuss. We carry this with us into adulthood and it does not bode well in an environment that will happily take advantage of that. On top of this, women take on more responsibility for caring roles outside of work which adds a layer of pressure and ‘mental load’.

3.??????Women take on more than they “should”. We say yes to everything in and out of work (see above for why) and we take on responsibility for more than we should. Again, this is a generalisation (there will always be exceptions) but what I have witnessed over the years is women that are often more emotionally invested when something goes wrong, but not being equipped with how to handle those emotions at work. This leads to self doubt, which leads to us second guessing ourselves and not pushing ourselves forwards any more.

4.??????Lack of flexibility is detrimental. I get it, it’s manufacturing and retail. The nature of those industries mean that shift working is necessary and operations need to be present to make it happen. But for way too long the “bums on seats” mentality for support functions doesn’t bode well for women and the flexibility often needed for responsibilities outside of work. I had hoped the pandemic had helped with this but I am seeing lots of evidence of people being "encouraged" back into the office.

5.??????Discrimination is still a thing (even though we like to pretend it isn’t). I don’t think it’s always conscious discrimination, I think it is a culture based on a history of male dominated ways of working. I think that something needs to change to truly embrace supporting women in Food – firstly to give them the tools and support to cope with the harsh environment and then to take the lead in changing the culture themselves.

So, what can we do about this? Well, there’s a whole lot that businesses can be doing to help support women. Starting with actively recruiting with diversity in mind (so all the women aren’t just in HR and Marketing!); providing unconscious bias training (we all have biases we need to be more aware of), as well as providing more flexibility and not discriminating against those who request it. And a whole lot more.

I am sick to death of seeing a brain drain from the industry,

I am sick to death of seeing a brain drain from the industry, when women reach their 30s & 40s and the juggle just becomes too much, so they exit the job, turn to freelancing or a take total industry career change. The years we have spent nurturing this amazing talent just goes out of the window and we lose that talent and wisdom, for the sake of a lack of flexibility or because of the bias that comes along with that flexibility.

I can’t singlehandedly change this stuff but what I can help with is:

• Helping women and teams be more assertive and speak up more. This will enable them to actually ask for what they need.
• Supporting women to get find ways to juggle the mental and physical load which often ways heavier on us than on men.
• Boosting self confidence which starts to wane when we are doing 1000+ things at once and feel like we’re doing it all badly (when actually we are superwomen for managing that!)
• Speaking up and standing up to the biases that get in the way. Being able to assertively push back when a man speaks over you or takes credit for your work
• Getting that pay rise and promotion that you know you deserve but don’t ask for

I am a Woman in Food. I love working in Food, but on many occasions I have been ready to jack it all in. I talk to women every day that are ready to jack it all in.

I can’t change the culture of a whole industry on my own.

I can’t change the culture of a whole industry on my own. But it is my mission to empower women in Food to be more assertive, to get the recognition they deserve, and then collectively we can change the culture.

That is how we will effect change, together.

I will be covering all of this in my up coming Invisible to Valued course, which you can sign up to via this link .