Despite being a very male-dominated sector, 45% of the company’s employees are women.
International Women’s Day serves, among other things, to reflect on the role of women in society, in all areas. One of these is the world of work, where women have been joining the workforce, although in most cases without achieving equal conditions. The wage gap, under-representation in management positions and harassment are just some of the examples of the sexual discrimination that women still suffer in the workplace.
Industrial and environmental sector
There are sectors in which these inequalities are especially visible since certain professions have historically been considered masculine and women’s access to them is still slow. The industrial and environmental sector is one of them.
We must go to the university to see that engineering careers, for example, have a much lower percentage of female students than other studies related to the social sciences. Science and technology have always been very masculinized and this is detrimental to the incorporation of women into these professions, especially when there are few female references in these fields.
Women in the TEMA-LITOCLEAN group
The TEMA-LITOCLEAN group has conducted an internal review of the women in its own company, which belongs to a male-dominated sector, and the data suggest that the company is following a good equality policy, as more than 45% of the total workforce are women. This fact invites to continue working in the same line and to continue counting on female talent.
In addition to the numbers, TEMA-LITOCLEAN Mexico wanted to know the opinion of women workers in the industrial sector to find out how they reached middle and senior management positions in an environment so dominated by the male gender. From their stories, it is clear that they do not allow prejudices to become a difficulty, they are confident in their own abilities and in the advantages they represent for the companies.
The experience of these women, the challenges they have faced and the position in which they find themselves today has not been a coincidence but a causality. They work day by day, without lowering their guard, they know that they are at a disadvantage due to the gender issue, but they have turned this discrimination around and have used it as motivation to become stronger women, reaffirmed in their commitment to advance and be a reference so that every day more women are considered in the sector.
Although an increasing number of companies are committed to incorporating more women, and to doing so in decision-making positions, gender equality in the industrial sector is still far from being achieved. The proportion of women in senior positions is considerably lower despite their level of training. The goal must be equity, not because of a gender quota to be filled, but because of their capabilities and strengths in the world of work.