Gender Gap Widens In Manufacturing

The Wall Street Journal reports that in spite of Mary Barra’s promotion to chief executive at General Motors, overall, women have been losing ground at American manufacturing companies.

Since the U.S. job market began recovering in early 2010, the number of men working at all levels in manufacturing has risen 7%, according to Labor Department data. Over the same period, the number of women in manufacturing has edged down 0.3%.

The percentage of U.S. manufacturing-company employees who are female has dropped to 27% from a peak of about 32% in the early 1990s. That runs counter to the general trend of rising female employment: Women currently account for about 49% of all nonfarm jobs in the U.S., up from 47% in 1990.

The WSJ article claims that few manufacturing jobs require heavy physical labor, however many Americans still think of factory work as something mainly for men. “The perception is that it’s still dirty and dark and dangerous,” said Allison Grealis, director of Women in Manufacturing, an organization formed in 2011 that promotes efforts to “attract, retain and advance” women in the industry.

A 2012 survey of more than 600 women working in manufacturing found that 70% said they would encourage their sons to go into manufacturing careers but only 55% would urge their daughters to do so, according to a report released last February by consulting firm Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, a research affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers.