Women In Logistics: How It's Been and The Road Ahead

Logistics as an Industry??

As primarily a masculine industry, women didn’t find their place just as easily within logistics in the past. Whether that be for blue-collar jobs being assigned to men due to the physical requirements or women not being noticed for their prowess within the industry. But from only 8% of women in the workforce in 2010 to 20% globally, we’ve come a long way in talking about and practicing gender diversification in male-dominated industries. Opening up to gender equality in the workplace, more and more women are finding themselves as a part of the logistics industry.??

Bridging The Gap??

Gender parity within the workplace sculpts how employees create and experience company cultures. With the trend of hiring people who “fit” a company’s culture on the rise, creating an equal space for men and women within the workplace is important now more than ever. With the industry focusing on skill for its workforce recruitment, having a diverse spectrum of employees is inevitable bringing valuable assets to the table. Opening up a conversation about gender roles and parity in the workplace leads to more balanced, safe and equipped environments for women to flourish.??

Logistics having more “hardcore” and “male-centric” jobs comes from descriptors of how men are associated with roles that require physical strength, tenacity and travel, therefore roles like warehouse worker, sales officer or technical factory work often surpass women without cause. With women relegated to “soft tasks” like packaging or HR, it has created a picture that women can’t handle technical roles. But as the discourse towards gender roles in the workplace increase, women are taking what they’re worth with higher-level management and transportation jobs.??

Factors Of Change??

Workplace Inclusivity: Women are being asked, and listened to when they talk about changes that need to be made in office environments to make them more suitable and comfortable for women. More so in male-dominated industries, this feedback and checking in is important as often when the gender scale is heavier on one side, work culture and environments tend to sway towards the majority. With inclusion workshops, surveys and feedback forms, employers are trying to introduce and maintain gender-neutral workspaces.??

De-Genderisation: With improvements in technology, women can now take roles like heavy lifting with forklifts and picking and sorting machines to carry out tasks independently. Indian companies are actively trying to hire more women in blue-collar jobs to encourage gender diversity in all departments of logistics. More women are being introduced and chosen for higher roles, even though the disparity is still seen majorly within the industry.??

Awareness and Opportunity: There is a lack of awareness of growing opportunities within this industry with hiring requirements floating around niche networking circles, which are male dominated. As the industry functions within a tight group, it’s even harder for women to know and take up opportunities that might make the best of their skills. With some being diverse hires, they are not paid enough attention within the organisation to be trained and equipped so they can take up challenging jobs. This hampers the chance of logistics becoming a little more inclusive.?

Lack of Infrastructure: The transportation sector sees very little participation from women due to several factors. One, as truck drivers usually use shared accommodations and washrooms, hygiene is not seen as a priority and causes hindrance in women choosing this profession. Second, as these jobs involve a lot of travel and adjusting on the road, women are not seen as adept enough to handle and adapt to these changes. With the lack of clean public washrooms and living conditions, a large department in logistics remains unreachable for women.??

Speaking to women within the industry gives us real-time insight into how logistics has welcomed and appreciated women and their work. Here is what a few female employees have to say about WhistleDrive:??

There has been considerable progress within gender-skewed industries when discourse about creating gender-neutral workspaces and supporting causes around women and their place in the organisation.

Essentials like code of conduct training, POSH workshops to assure women of their rights against harassment and medical rooms catered and equipped for women are some of the additions that are now being seen in conglomerates.??

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But problems still exist within this space as cultural mindsets are still slow on change and women rising in the ranks lack incentive, especially mid-career. As many women, still being active homemakers in their families find it hard to find a work-life balance others don’t feel incentivised enough to continue working within companies.

The change has been slow, but considerable and hopefully more women will up-skill within the logistics industry as they do in others.??