HomeBusiness NewsFuture Female Forward | Seeing positive trend in terms of women joining shop floors, says ABB India CHRO

Future Female Forward | Seeing positive trend in terms of women joining shop floors, says ABB India CHRO

From boardrooms to shopfloors, the participation of women is growing in numbers. Shopfloors were seen as out of bounds for women about a decade back- thanks in part to the nature of work involved, and lack of infrastructure to support women in these roles- but the situation is changing. More and more women are breaking into the rough and tumble of a factory floor and proving themselves to be equals.

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By Ritu Singh  May 16, 2023, 10:24:07 PM IST (Published)

2 Min Read
Future Female Forward | Seeing positive trend in terms of women joining shop floors, says ABB India CHRO
From boardrooms to shop floors, the participation of women is growing in numbers. Shop floors were seen as out of bounds for women about a decade back, thanks in part to the nature of work involved, and lack of infrastructure to support women in these roles. But the situation is changing. More and more women are breaking into the rough and tumble of a factory floor and proving themselves to be equals.


Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Raman Kumar Singh, Chief Human Resource Officer at ABB India, said they are seeing positive trend in terms of women joining shop floors. He added that processes and roles in ABB factories are gender-agnostic.

“Having women in factories is a little more difficult than having women on typical white-collared jobs. However we see a change happening both culturally — where women are comfortable working in factory setups, managers are open to women working on their shop floors and even government is making relaxations. So overall I think there is a positive trend in terms of women joining shop floors,” Singh said.

However he highlighted that availability of women willing to work in factories is still a constraint.

In sectors where manufacturing is more automated, like FMCG, pharma, etc.  where pays are higher and jobs require more skill, the ratio of men to women on shop floors is better but in sectors like cement or chemicals, there's a long way to go.

A Deloitte survey has shown that India still has a long way to go in stepping up efforts to increase women participation on India's shop floors.

According to a Deloitte Survey on blue collar workforce trends, only 18 percent of companies surveyed have female night shift blue collared employees and only half have a door-to-door pick-up and drop facility and less than half have a female security guard at the plant premises in all shifts.

While positive intent has pushed women to the fore, their advent has also coincided with a growing awareness among top manufacturing companies about the need for women on shop floors. That said recent studies suggest the male-female ratio in blue collar jobs remains an abysmal 12:1. So while we've walked some distance, we need to sprint the longer way ahead.

Also Read: Future Female Forward | How Hindustan Unilever's Sumerpur plant is bridging the gender gap
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