Women in logistics

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Historically, women have been underrepresented in the management of resources (logistics). This has been caused by two reasons: women’s lack of interest in working in such environments (e.g. transport) and/or different barriers that limited their access to male dominated working environments.

According to a study conducted by the Ohio State University , opportunities for women in such industries have never been better. However, this is not reflected in the number of women working in the industry nor in their remuneration packages and the findings of a recent Wikipedia:Europhia study indicate that women are not very optimistic about their present and/or future career prospects.

Nowadays, the number of women in the logistics and supply chain industry barely reaches the one fifth quota of employees in logistics. In transport, for example, 20.5% of employees are women. Globally, women working in logistics and supply chain get paid one fifth less than their male counterparts. Despite regional differences, this is a matter of concern.

When trying to gain access into male-dominated work environments, women face a number of barriers. Lack of work-life balance programs, discrimination from their male colleagues and even from women themselves (the queen bee syndrome) hinder women’s access to such environments. Moreover, it seems that employers do not have a strategy to attract women and schools and the industry seem to offer little support to women wishing to enter the logistics and supply chain labor market. Work-life balance programs, career opportunities and gender equality have been identified as some of the factors that would help make the industry more attractive to women .

Measures such as ‘career pathing’ and a mentoring system to keep women on an advancing career track, more help with on-site child-care and other family services, fair pay and promotions could benefit both women and the industry .

Several initiatives have been established in different countries to help increase the number of women in the logistics sector.

In the UK, Women in Logistics UK was formed 2008 with the aim to help increase the number of women in the sector, improve life for those women already working in logistics (and therefore retain their talents) and to address the gender imbalance issue.