Businesses are trying to identify strong candidates regardless of background, reviewing their hiring policies to increase the talent pool. Because of this, women are accepting jobs that men traditionally held – be it a desk job or manual labour. No harm can come from diversity in the workplace; hiring the best talent leads to better ideas and more opportunities down the road.
Sixty years ago, women who worked in offices were confined to secretary and assistant positions. It was rare for a woman to sit behind a desk and not attend to the whims of a senior manager. Over the past twenty-five years, this has changed. According to data from the World Bank, the ratio of men to women in the office has increased in the US from 75:100 to 82:100. Women hold more key positions within companies as analysts, in senior management, and even as CEOs in several companies. Little by little, women are succeeding when handed the keys to multi-million dollar corporations, ensuring that more women get a shot at these jobs.
But this change is not only restricted to the office environment. Manual labour has also tried to increase its appeal to women. In the truck driving industry, 5% of truck drivers are women, thanks to the efforts of Women in Trucking, and they hope the number will grow. According to President and CEO Ellen Voie, trucking companies are more likely to be inclusive since they have a higher demand of truck drivers. ‘They’re starting to broaden their view of who is a potential driver and they’re starting to wonder how they can get more drivers of a certain age group or gender or ethnicity.’, she adds. Sex, with regards to trucking, is a non-factor; if you can drive, chances are they will hire you.
The National Association of Women in Construction also notes that the role of women in construction jobs is rising beyond sales and office positions. Currently, 74% of women work in these positions whilst 20% are in construction sites. Nevertheless, the latter number has risen since the start of the millennium. This, the NAWC theorizes, is because the gender pay gap is considerably lower in construction than in other fields (93.4% vs 82.1%). The industry is making sure that women are better compensated, encouraging that more are employed.
Companies are going through great lengths to ensure that women have an increasing role in the workplace. Be it having an office cubicle, behind the steering wheel of a truck or mixing cement; equal salaries, openness to new ideas and exclusiveness, and the search for the best possible talent are but the tip of the iceberg that will ensure that a woman’s role will only increase.
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