Research shows that diverse workforces offer a number of advantages, including better innovative capacity. How can manufacturers harness this advantage, when gender diversity within the sector has remained steady at 27% over a number of years, and female CEO’s of manufacturing organisations is only 9.5%? This is one of the wicked problems tackled by the recent GMC Women in Manufacturing Network International Women’s Day panel.
Panellists Prof Svetha Venkatesh, Co-Director, A2I2; Samantha Yearwood, Commercial Manager, Geelong Textiles; Erika Hughes, Commercial Manager, Integra Systems; and Joanna Slowinska, Product Engineer, Carbon Revolution shared their experiences and perspectives with over 60 attendees at the annual GMC event.
While accepting that women are far more likely to take career breaks which have the potential to derail aspirations, Prof Venkatesh urged women to not lose sight of their ambitions and instead to adjust their timeframes.
Joanna Slowinska, a mentee in the WIMN Mentoring Program, shared that one of her key learnings is to be more confident and trust her own expertise when questioning approaches. The panellists agreed that this is key at every career stage – don’t shy away from conversations, ask the questions and pursue lines of thought.
As for harnessing innovative capacity, Samantha Yearwood detailed how she seeks out every employee’s super power – the special skill they bring, whether vocational or otherwise, that can help them to create an edge in their role, department or across the company.
Lots of discussion & connections continued throughout the room, with an air of positivity for the role of women in manufacturing now and into the future.
