Maria Villamil is vice president of WET Design, the company that designs and builds those famous Dubai and Las Vegas fountain shows; she has 26 years of experience in several areas of complex manufacturing. Deborah Walkup, a degreed mechanical engineer, is senior director of technical operations with InforNexus, with 30 years of experience providing technology solutions to manufacturing and distribution organizations.

The last section of this chapter relates the personal story of the two coauthors. Maria Villamil immigrated to the United States from the Philippines as a girl, and used her can-do attitude acquired growing up on a farm to enjoy a rewarding career in manufacturing. In the process she has learned virtually every aspect of complex manufacturing and taken on roles traditionally reserved for men, and rarely by a woman of color who speaks English as a second language. Maria shares her story of the steps she took to progress from receptionist to vice president of manufacturing.

Deborah Walkup also grew up on a farm learning a wide variety of mechanical and engineering skills from her father. Coming from a family of engineers and her love of fixing and designing things, it was natural for her to pursue an engineering education. She faced bias against women in STEM starting in middle school and continuing through high school, the formative early years shaping career paths. After receiving her degree in mechanical engineering, she benefited from government programs creating opportunities for women. She shares her personal story of the opportunities for women in technical and engineering areas traditionally dominated by men.

In this chapter they explore the history of women in traditional manufacturing, including the many obstacles they were forced to overcome and the many initiatives underway to encourage women to enter STEM education and training, which are essential for the success of manufacturing and distribution organizations.

Introduction

The history of women in manufacturing dates back to the early years of the Industrial Revolution. Back then, women were not always included or welcome in industrial workplaces. Factories that fabricated items in mass quantities have historically been male-dominated. Manufacturing jobs were considered inappropriate for women, and women weren't typically educated or trained for manufacturing jobs.

During the Industrial Revolution there was a migration of farm workers to cities to become factory workers. In some cases there were more farmers than land, in other cases men traded the uncertainty of farm life for set hours and a weekly paycheck, and more women were relegated to domestic roles. Most of the women in the workforce were low income and women of color.

In the United States, during World War II, the shortage of men opened the doors for female workers in factories and they remain open today. Factory jobs provide some of the highest wages for entry-level positions and, through the efforts of unions, offer more job protection than other careers. By working in factories, women became wage earners who could support a family, with or without a male partner.

A good description of the role women played in manufacturing during World War II is documented on the History.com website.¹ “Women were critical to the war effort: Between 1940 and 1945, the age of ‘Rosie the Riveter,’ the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945, nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home. World War II opened the door for women to work in more types of jobs than ever before, but with the return of male soldiers at war's end, women, especially married women, were once again pressured to return to a life at home, a prospect that, for thousands of American women, had shifted thanks to their wartime service.”²

While women had been participating in the workforce in greater numbers since the Great Depression, the United States’ entry into World War II transformed the jobs open to women. Prewar, most women worked in traditionally female roles such as teaching and nursing. After Pearl Harbor, women were asked to take on roles formerly reserved for men. The aviation industry saw the greatest use of female workers, with over 300,000 women helping the war effort in 1943, which was 65% of total workforce. Prewar, only 1% of the aviation industry workforce was female. The munitions industry also became heavily dependent on female workers.

The iconic image of Rosie the Riveter was a great propaganda tool to recruit women to the war effort. Rosie was based in part on a real-life munitions worker but was primarily a fictitious character. The bandana-clad Rosie with a muscular arm became one of the most successful recruitment tools in US history. Although female workers were critical to the war effort, they were paid far less than their male counterparts, with most women earning about 50% of male wages.³

With men pulled into military service, mothers were faced with the burden of balancing work and childcare. The federal government acknowledged the issue by passing legislation providing childcare services for industries supporting the war effort.

Not all women were treated equally in the workplace. African American women found that white female workers did not accept working next to a person of color. African American women were paid less than their white peers. Japanese American women fared even worse, being interned in camps for the duration of the war.

Exhibit 15.1 is the iconic poster created by J. Howard Miller. While it was only shown briefly in Westinghouse factories, the poster in later years has become one of the most famous icons of World War II.⁴

Women as Innovators

Women in households are typically the decision makers for most purchases, and for many items they are also the end user. They wash dishes, clean floors, and do the laundry. They also operate most of the appliances. Women have a deep understanding of how products are used and know how they could improve the lives of anyone who uses these products to perform household chores.

Their input for product design is valuable in the development and manufacturing environment. Unfortunately, most product designers are men, and they design products for men; occasionally they design smaller versions in pink for the ladies. Even the design of products like women's underwear or feminine hygiene products is dominated by male designers. Most of these aren't very comfortable and can be hard to use. Why do we expect men to have a better idea of how to design these products that they almost never use?

Exhibit 15.2 shows a notorious example of patronizing product design with the BiC pen “for Her.”⁵ This product was roundly skewered in Amazon reviews for being unnecessary and patronizing.

An important and obvious reason why women are great contributors in the world of manufacturing is the fact that they have a unique perspective on normal day-to-day life experiences. These daily life experiences should be strongly considered when adopting manufacturing as a career choice. How can things be better and what can be done to make life easier are questions that should be asked. This is what allows us to be creative and to freely innovate and make our vision come to life. This type of mindset was instilled in both Maria and Deborah by their fathers growing up and has been a valuable asset in their careers.

Women Hold the Answers (Skills Where Women Excel)

Women make great leaders. Women have many traits that organically lend themselves to being great leaders such as being great listeners, experts in work–life balance, being able to multitask, being empathetic and nurturing, and being able to manage a crisis well. Anyone running a household and raising children had better be good at crisis management.

Jack Zengler and Joseph Folkman in the Harvard Business Review investigated the management skills that women and men possess and how they rank in effectiveness. “But the women's advantages were not at all confined to traditionally women's strengths. In fact at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts – and the higher the level, the wider that gap grows.”⁶

Exhibit 15.3 shows research by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman comparing male and female leadership effectiveness.⁷

Zenger and Folkman maintain that women are superior to men in 12 of 16 leadership competencies they measured. Interestingly, women had the highest scores in two traits thought traditionally to be male strengths, taking initiative and driving for results.

Exhibit 15.4 is from Zengler and Folkman's research and shows the comparison across 16 leadership qualities.⁸

Zengler and Folkman ask why organizations are not employing exemplary women as leaders and believe that the answer is because of blatant discrimination. When they shared their findings with a group of women about why they believe their colleagues were rated so highly on taking initiative and self-development, their answers were around the still-tenuous positions they felt themselves to be in the workplace with such comments as “We need to work harder than men to prove ourselves,” and “We feel the constant pressure to never make a mistake, and to continually prove our value to the organization.”⁹

Women's Inspiration

Women's inspiration to enter the manufacturing industry has evolved over the years. It is important to learn how these women were inspired and how they got into the field of manufacturing. Inspiration comes from different sources; from supporting a household to becoming the substitute workforce while men were out fighting the war, inspiration for women to enter the manufacturing industry is quite diverse.

Women as inventors and those in leadership roles serve as perfect inspirations for girls to pursue careers in manufacturing. Women innovators such as Hedy Lamarr have certainly been an inspiration. Hedy Lamarr was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of all times who was also a brilliant engineer, inventing a radio guidance system using frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology that was incorporated in Bluetooth. She epitomized glamour, which could be easily romanticized by young girls.¹⁰

While there is data that shows that girls are good at math and science in grade school and middle school, their interest declines in high school and college. As Carly Berwick writes in Edutopia, there are three main barriers and solutions as we discuss next. ¹¹

Companies Working to Overcome Barriers to Women's Entry

There is a lot of work to be done to bridge the gap between women as a minority group in manufacturing and equity in numbers. The first step is to break down historic barriers of entry for women into these industries. Organizations that are involved in getting women to enter the field of manufacturing are a step in the right direction: they can be used to encourage more and more women to not only consider a role in manufacturing and engineering, but to embark on lifelong learning to improve their standing in a male-dominated field.

RippleMatch has compiled a list of 28 companies that have initiatives to close the gap for women in manufacturing and leadership roles. These are the manufacturing companies that made the list.¹³

• Abbott. Since the late 1800s, Abbott has always had women leaders. Therefore, it is not surprising that Abbott is now a leading workplace for women. Several of Abbott's female leaders rose through the ranks and benefited from Abbott's one-year mentorship program and commitment to women's career development.
• Aramark. Aramark has taken major strides to be more inclusive and supportive of women. Their corporate board is now made up of 30% women, up from none five years ago. Aramark also offers a business resource network for women employees.
• Carbon. Carbon is a manufacturer of 3D printing and led by a female CEO. Carbon's leadership is 45% female, with a goal of reaching 50%. In a traditionally male-dominated field, Carbon is leading the way to increasing representation with many majority-female teams.
• Honeywell. Honeywell offers women an great environment to tap into, including women-only networking events, longer maternity leaves, and a seamless transition back into the workplace after having a child.
• Juniper Networks. Juniper Networks is committed to enabling women to fill representation gaps in their workforce. One program to achieve this is their WeTech Scholarship program, which grants four $10,000 scholarships to female STEM majors. Juniper Networks also partners with Anita B.Org and Grace Hopper to ensure they are continuing to engage and build a more fully representative workforce.
• Kimberly-Clark. The company has increased the number of women in their senior management by 66% over the past decade by a combination of on-the-job leadership training, professional development opportunities, and flexible work schedules that help women with various personal obligations.
• Lilly. After a 2015 analysis revealed the poor representation of women in leadership roles, Lilly took quick action. The company launched a program to improve women's trajectory, including inclusivity and bias trainings, and concrete goals to increase the number of women in management positions.
• Medtronic. Over the past several years Medtronic has been proactive in closing the gender gap. In 2020 they achieved a 99% gender pay equity globally. Medtronic is now working on evolving development programs to create more career opportunities and learning styles.
• Nestlé. Nestlé is committed to increasing female career opportunities and is also working quickly to achieve equal pay for all employees.
• Pfizer. Pfizer has an outstanding portfolio of programs by their global women's network that has served to unlock the full potential of female employees. Programs and initiatives include development, robust mentorship, and very visible support from Pfizer's senior executives.
• Unilever. In March 2020, Unilever announced that it had achieved gender balance across its management team globally. Their management level employees are now 50% female and their nonexecutive board members are 45% female. Significantly, they closed the gap in their historically underrepresented supply chain, finance, operations, and technical engineering teams.

Programs to Develop STEM Skills for Women

WorldWideLearn has compiled a list of 15 initiatives to encourage girls in STEM careers.¹⁴ They are:

1. National Girls Collaborative Project. A group of organizations working together to encourage girls to enter STEM fields when they start their careers.
2. Association for Career and Technical Education. The largest association that addresses pedagogical issues in STEM education. The association is involved in advocacy work, lobbying policymakers on issues that affect technical education in schools. They also offer resources to help educators meet the needs of technology students.
3. Association for Women in Science. A professional organization for women who work in STEM jobs, they offer mentoring and coaching services, as well as advice on work–life balance issues. They have resources to educate women in the field, including workshops, books, educational videos, and journals. They also support advocacy for female STEM workers to address issues impacting their careers.
4. Change the Equation. This organization works to increase STEM literacy to encourage young students to become more interested in science and math and then receive quality STEM education. They offer online resources for educators and discuss forums to discuss STEM issues and advocate for improved STEM education.
5. National Math and Science Initiative. This organization works to address the candidate shortfall of qualified women to work in STEM-related jobs. Their goal is improve student performance in engineering, science, math, and technology courses by shaping the way these classes are taught and improve the quality of educators teaching them.
6. National Center for Women & Information Technology. The nonprofit works to increase the number of women in technology and computing fields. The organization includes companies, government organizations, and universities.
7. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Their goal is to support mathematics teachers by helping them teach at a higher standard for all their students. Their vision is that everyone sees the value in mathematics and is enthusiastic about math subjects.
8. Million Women Mentors. This is a campaign that brings together higher education, government agencies, and nonprofits to mentor young female students who are interested in pursuing STEM careers.
9. American Association of University Women. Founded in 1881, this association work to empower women by addressing the economic, educational, political, and social issues that impact them. They also created a math and science summer camp and a STEM conference for female middle school students.
10. Society of Women Engineers. The society aims to inspire female students to pursue engineering careers and to support women entering the field. This includes helping female engineering college students. The society also runs outreach events to encourage female elementary school students to consider engineering careers.
11. Mathematical Association of America. The MAA works to ensure the accessibility of mathematics to all students. They have an interest in improving math education, research, and public policy.
12. Girls Who Code. This organization works to address the major gender gap in the software industry by inspiring young girls to enter these fields and by giving them a solid technical education.
13. NASA. NASA has many resources for students and teachers designed to encourage an interest in technology and science. NASA offers a number of educational resources and publications for teachers to keep them current in the agency's scientific work, and to help them teach science.
14. Anita Borg Institute. The institute celebrates women who are successful in technology careers and inspires those interested in following in their footsteps. Anita Borg was a pioneer who championed the advance of women in technology.
15. TechWomen. This organization is dedicated to supporting women from the Middle East and Africa who are interested in entering STEM careers. The organization runs mentoring programs introducing these women to their successful counterparts from the United States, allowing them to share ideas and connect with one another personally and professionally.

Growing the Role of Women in Smart Manufacturing

Today, women are making a tremendous impact to help industries make gains in every facet of manufacturing. Women have been instrumental in developing cost-saving technologies, leading the way in the adoption of Industry 3.0, mentoring young talent, implementing diversity, and implementing equity and inclusion policies. Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing is the automation of traditional manufacturing practices using Smart Technology. Smart Manufacturing introduced the integration of machine-to-machine communications, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is implemented for the automation, analysis, and diagnosis of problems without the need for human intervention.

These achievements come, but the number of women in manufacturing continue to lag behind the number of men. In manufacturing, diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) is often focused on women because the industry has historically been male-dominated. Today, fewer than one in three manufacturing professionals are women, despite representing nearly half of the overall workforce in the United States, according to the “2021 Manufacturing Talent Study” from Deloitte and Manufacturing Institute (MI).¹⁵ In fact, many of the largest, most successful corporations, such as Procter & Gamble, Cisco, and HP, are focused on transforming their internal culture by prioritizing DEI, often with a woman at the helm of these initiatives. They've recognized that in order to effectively serve a diverse, multicultural consumer base, the makeup of their employees must reflect that diversity. By focusing on inclusion, they're also able to lower the attrition rate for women and those of color. DEI, although often seen as a political stance, is simply good business.

Pay Inequality

In spite of the gains over the past decades, income inequality between men and women remains a chronic problem. Exhibit 15.5 shows the current breakdown of pay inequality by gender and race.¹⁶

In a nutshell, women make 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. The disparity is even larger for women of color. Traditionally, women were discounted in the workplace because it was assumed they wouldn't be there long, especially if they were unmarried; to be fair, many women do leave the workplace because they become primary caregivers for children and need more flexible hours and more supporting infrastructure like affordable daycare.

Maria Villamil's Story

Deborah Walkup's Story

Like Maria, I grew up on a family farm; ours was near State Center, Iowa, a very small town in the middle of the state. I loved working with my dad, and my first job was to hold the light while he fixed something. Both of my parents worked as professionals, my dad as an industrial engineer for a local valve manufacturer, and my mother as a registered nurse. My dad started as a machinist with the company and really understood everything about manufacturing.

My father's family is also chock-full of engineers. It wasn't inevitable that I would become one, but it was likely. Two of my dad's brothers were electrical and chemical engineers, two of his sisters married mechanical and electrical engineers, and in my generation, there is one mechanical, one computer, one aerospace, one chemical, and two industrial engineers. One of my father's sisters would have been a great engineer but she wasn't allowed in the program because she wasn't a man. Family reunions usually started with something like a softball game and then devolved into a working session to redesign the bases.

Eventually I graduated from holding the light to learning the different tools and handing them to my dad like a surgical assistant. My favorite was a crescent wrench – it had a great name, and it replaced a whole socket set. On a farm a crescent wrench and a Phillips screwdriver were essential for most repairs and every tractor toolbox had at least these two items.

The farm I grew up on had been my father's parents’ home before we moved in and we had all the equipment my grandfather owned, even the harnesses from when he used mules instead of tractors. I learned to drive an 8N Ford Tractor when I was four years old, and I could work the brakes if I stood on them with both feet.

We also did several construction projects while I was growing up. We built an addition to the 100-year-old farmhouse that added a family room and walkout basement. We also built a large machine shed and a garage. My job was usually fabricating the rafters. My dad would make one and I would copy it to make the full set. I also learned basic framing, drywall, cement work, tile work and grouting, and doors and windows. I feel very fortunate to have had this giant workshop available to learn all of these skills.

Life on a farm is also a series of production lines. When the chickens get big enough you set up a line to slaughter them, pluck them, cut them up, and package them for the freezer. Once a year we would also butcher a steer. We would corn feed them and dry age the meat for some of the best beef I've ever eaten. Sweet corn was another production that would consume our dining room for a week and fill our freezer for the year.

Because of this hands-on background I would always select shop class instead of home economics in middle school and high school. Every year I would sign up for carpentry, auto shop, welding, sheet metal work, or drafting. Every year these classes wouldn't show up on my schedule and I'd have to go into the principal's office and ask why. Every year they would say, “We thought you made a mistake.” That's also when I perfected my eye roll when school administrators in a small school continued to ignore my efforts to enroll in classes historically reserved for boys. I could understand that in a larger school, but my graduating class was fewer than 100 people, and that was consolidating kids from five towns.

I had the opportunity to do contract drafting in high school. A local construction company needed someone to put together perspective drawings of grain bin installations to bid on jobs. The owner visited our drafting class and asked who was the best drafter and everyone said it was me, and it was, so I was hired. My dad brought home an unwanted T-square, and I worked on the drawings in the evening, tracked my own hours, and got checks my parents didn't think I deserved.

College was another adventure. I worked part-time for minimum wage after school and summers for four years to earn enough money for my first year of school. Luckily, I was offered a co-op job with the company my dad worked for that paid five times more than minimum wage and that carried me through. It was also a great apprenticeship. I worked in the machine shop running drill presses, engine lathes, milling machines, and big CNC machines. The CNC machines were the best. There was a hoist, so moving big parts around was a piece of cake and the machines included programs, so if you set up your part correctly, zeroed the machine and hit start, it did all the work. I also worked in the assembly area, creating finished goods for customers. The last area I worked in was the office for the facilities team, the industrial engineering team, and the design team.

My focus at Iowa State was mechanical design and my first job, with Texas Instruments, was electronics packaging, which is the design of circuit cards and electronics housings. My next job was electronics packaging at Boeing, and then at Ford Aerospace. Part of the reason my early career was based on military and space applications is that these companies worked on government contracts, and they had quota requirements for diversity. So I benefited from affirmative action, and I am a strong supporter of correcting imbalances in gender and ethnicity. Before these programs, women might be able to study engineering, but even if they graduated, they probably couldn't get a job. These were jobs that gave me great experience and paid well.

While I was working at Ford Aerospace, the company purchased mechanical CAD workstations and software and I learned how to design parts in virtual space. The company we bought the hardware and software from was expanding and they asked me if I would work for them and help sell the software. This was my jump into the technical sales world and enterprise software. I went on to work for i2 technologies, FreeMarkets, Ariba, Sockeye Supply Chain, Docusign, E2Open, Atollogy, and Infor, where I am currently a senior director of technical operations.

Solution engineering is a wonderful blend of technology, personnel skills, magic, and applications. You respond to requests for information, meet with customers to discover their issues and goals, put together a solution and present it to them, and, if you are lucky, they select you and buy your software. I have always been amazed at the opportunities I've had and have enjoyed having the ability to follow my interests.

Summary

Women have played pivotal roles in manufacturing since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (Industry 1.0). World War II dramatically increased their participation in manufacturing when they took on several roles that had been reserved for men. In the past decade, major corporate, university, and government initiatives have been launched to encourage more girls and women to pursue STEM majors and careers in Smart Manufacturing. The future for women in Smart Manufacturing is very bright, with growing opportunities in all sectors of manufacturing and distribution, from small companies to global enterprises.

Sample Questions