22%

That is how many females are in senior Health, Safety and Environmental roles within the Manufacturing sector.*

When I received these statistics from LinkedIn, I was initially surprised as it felt so low! Then I thought, actually, it makes sense. It is historically a male dominated sector so it doesn’t take a maths genius to comprehend those stats. It also takes time to get into a senior leadership role so to affect this percentage we should have been pushing more females into the profession 10-15 years ago as a minimum.

Interestingly, at the junior end of the market, there is a slight increase, with 28% of HSE professionals across the manufacturing sector being female.

Does that mean that more females are entering the industry and will eventually move into senior leadership positions? Or is it that female safety professionals are not getting to those senior level positions?

If it is the former, I think it is a fantastic trend that on the face of it, more females are entering health and safety roles in the manufacturing sector. If it is the latter, I wonder and worry why this might be the case.

But does it matter?

Do you think it is positive that more females are moving into safety in the manufacturing sector and are there benefits to females working in this industry/department? Are there any drawbacks?

Or should we just focus on skills and competencies, irrespective of gender?

Let me know your thoughts.

If you are interested in what other statistics we have access to, such as talent pools in your area, then please get in touch - aisling.reid@hserecruitment.co.uk or on 0121 454 5000.

*According to recent Linkedin Statistics