Report addresses labour shortages and gender gap in manufacturing

A new report has found that, while the gender pay gap in manufacturing is narrowing, women still earn 15.9% less than men and the UK lags behind other leading manufacturing countries in women’s participation.

The Women in UK Manufacturing 2024 report presents an overview of the progress and challenges encountered by women participating in UK manufacturing over the past year. It was launched at the Changing Perceptions conference as part of the Women in Manufacturing initiative, a network of professionals united by a shared commitment to increasing diversity and inclusion in the manufacturing sector.

The Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult and Innovate UK established the Women in Manufacturing initiative in 2022 with the aim of raising women’s participation in manufacturing to 35% by 2035. As part of the scheme, the Women in UK Manufacturing 2024 report offers actionable insights for businesses, industry associations and government officials to improve diversity and inclusion in the sector.

The report found that:

• Little progress has been made in women’s representation in the past year, with a slight increase in women’s participation from 25.9% to 26.1% between December 2022 and December 2023.
• While small gains were made in skilled trades, and managerial and senior official roles, there was a significant decline in women’s representation in professional occupations.
• Rising part-time roles highlight a persistent gender divide in unpaid work, with women spending 50% more time on unpaid childcare, adult care and household work than men.
• The gender pay gap in manufacturing is narrowing but women still earn on average 15.9% less than men.
• The UK lags behind other leading manufacturing countries in women’s participation; among the top 15 global manufacturing leaders, the UK ranks last.

The Changing Perceptions conference at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) featured presentations, panel sessions and workshops.

Dr Lynne O’Hare, HVM Catapult Chief Portfolio Officer, delivered one of the welcome addresses.

She said: “We know we don’t have enough people in the sector, so we need everybody. The industry has an attractiveness problem and we know it’s harder for certain types of people to get involved because of some of the perceived barriers.

“We need to look at those barriers and just knock them down because there’s nothing that actually really stands up to much scrutiny.

“We need that diversity of thinking and skills if we are to solve the world’s toughest engineering challenges – to benefit the planet, our health and our national security – and accelerate the UK’s industrial transformation.”

The conference also included a panel discussion on inclusive innovation in manufacturing chaired by Nandini Chakravorti from the MTC, and a panel session discussing women in manufacturing through the lens of early careers with engineers from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and MTC.

You can download the full Women in UK Manufacturing 2024 report here: https://engage.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Women-in-Manufacturing-report-2024.pdf