Untapped Potential: Attracting and Engaging Women in Canadian Manufacturing

In Canada, women account for 48 per cent of the labour force but only 28 per cent of the manufacturing workforce. For more than 30 years this job share rate has not changed. Attracting more women into manufacturing professions is not only critical to help companies grow and replace their aging workforce, it provides women with careers that are high value, high tech, highly skilled and high paying.

To better understand the current realities of women in manufacturing CME released Untapped Potential, an action plan identifying five areas where action is needed in order to increase the number of women in manufacturing:

• More female role models are needed to inspire and encourage young women
• Access to modern manufacturing facilities to help change the perception of manufacturing
• More efforts to encourage young girls to pursue an education in STEM and/or the skilled trades
• Businesses need to adopt more inclusive workplaces
• Business need to find creative ways to improve work-life balance for employees.

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