subscribe: Posts | Comments

More women wanted in manufacturing

0 comments

ManufacturingThe EEF has called for more women to join the manufacturing industry.

The manufacturers’ organisation highlighted the lack of women working in manufacturing in its first ever ‘FTSE 100 – Women in Manufacturing’ report, which was released last week.

Women make up just 23 per cent of the manufacturing workforce and 19 per cent of manufacturing directorships.

Furthermore, only one in ten engineers are female and some FTSE 100 manufacturing companies, including Croda International plc and Melrose Industries plc, have no women on their boards.

Terry Scuoler, the CEO of EEF, explained these statistics in the report, which was produced in partnership with Cranfield School of Management and sponsored by Lloyds TSB Commercial.

He wrote: “The reasons are complex and include subject choices made at school, careers advice, the image of manufacturing and in some cases, the fact that women still bear a greater share of family and domestic responsibilities outside of work.”

GCSE and A-Level choices are particularly significant as these determine what degree can be studied at university.

According to EngineeringUK, 91 per cent of women forgo a career in engineering by not choosing to study a triple science GCSE.

There could not be a more different situation in China, the world’s industrial leader, where more than a third of engineers are female.

Richard Holden, Head of Manufacturing at Lloyds TSB Commercial, believes that the UK can only achieve a similar level of industrial success as China if more women work in manufacturing.

He commented: “If the UK economy is to fulfil its potential, we need to challenge the male dominance in the manufacturing industries.

“Women are a valuable untapped talent and we cannot continue excluding half of the population from exploring successful careers in the sector.”

The report claims that manufacturing firms would also benefit from more females in the workforce.

Dr Ruth Sealy, Deputy Director of Cranfield’s International Centre for Women Leaders, urged that “companies with more diverse boards demonstrate greater corporate governance, better decision-making, are more innovative and creative and have greater access to the widest talent pools.”

The EEF Information & Research Team interviewed five women who are on the boards of FTSE 100 manufacturing firms to investigate how to achieve gender balance in the industry.

They found that these firms need to progress female employees into senior roles more readily and work with schools to challenge assumptions that manufacturing is dull and only a career for men.

The women also agreed that mentoring programmes would make a real difference.

Anne Minto, Non-executive Director of Shire plc and Tate & Lyle plc, believes that mentoring would give women the skills to apply for senior positions, as well as a much needed confidence boost.

She said: “Sometimes people just need to be told you can actually do this!”

The EEF further recommended that manufacturing firms should be more flexible to accommodate women who have children and that teachers need to give sound career advice and guidance.

Nevertheless, the EEF found that progress is being made towards gender balance.

Women are securing 36 per cent of new manufacturing directorships and FTSE 100 manufacturing companies have a higher than average number of women on their boards.

Furthermore, women in these companies account for 8 per cent of executive directorships, which compares favourably to the 6 per cent of women executive directors in the FTSE 100 as a whole.

Dr Sealy remarked that “it is encouraging to see that the manufacturing firms are not slipping behind overall” but cautiously advised that “we need to maintain the pace of change.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *