Women Not a Part of the US Manufacturing Boom

Three decades of decline in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century left the US manufacturing industry and its workforce in poor shape. Production outsourcing, increasingly efficient overseas manufacturing techniques, and lower demand for American-made items made job opportunities scarce. Women were particularly badly hit by the decline, having only recently entered what many people considered a primarily male sector.

The role of women in manufacturing changed significantly between the end of the 1950s and the early 1980s. While the number of women employed in administrative and secretarial jobs in the US manufacturing industry remained consistently high in comparison to the number of men employed in similar roles, women were beginning to push toward a greater share in the boardroom by the beginning of the US manufacturing decline.

Unfortunately, dwindling American manufacturing industry exports prompted layoffs during the 1980s through the first decade of the new century. Interestingly, women were made redundant more frequently than men and entered the production sector less often than their male counterparts. Advanced production processes meant that a career in the US manufacturing industry no longer demanded brute strength and heavy physical labor. Previously, these strength-oriented job requirements had made the sector more appealing to men. Nevertheless, female applicants for production positions remained low.

Notably, female interest in the engineering sector also began to decline around the same time. Pundits with insider knowledge of both the engineering and the manufacturing industries have speculated that, after decades of battling through a male-dominated employment scene, women simply lost faith in their chances of success. In a nutshell, women may have given up both industries in favor of others deemed more "female friendly."

Now the US manufacturing sector is on the rise for the first time in three decades. Since 2010, the sector has added more than 530,000 jobs to the employment pool. However, the number of women in manufacturing has continued to fall. In 2013, figures hit a new low; in fact, women make up a smaller proportion of workers in the US manufacturing industry now than at any time since 1971.

As the demand for US products rises, the country's production sector will see an even greater boom. Already, American exports are increasing and employers are expanding their facilities. Regardless, females make up only 27 percent of the US manufacturing industry workforce. In fact, women have lost roughly 11,000 jobs since 2010, while men have gained 565,000 in the same time period. If adequate female representation is ever to become a reality in the production sector, significant research and investment will need to take place.

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