We celebrate International Women's Day by honoring Women in Portuguese Industry
Resilience, Creativity and Entrepreneurship of the female presence in factories have a clear impact
The United Nations warns that it may take almost 300 years to achieve gender equality, and launches yet another series of data that can only outrage us!
More of 380 millions of women live in extreme poverty, 1,2 billion have restricted access to safe abortion and 12 Millions of girls get married every year before their 18 years. Every 11 minutes, a woman is killed by someone in her family, and there are more forcibly displaced women than ever before. Nearly 130 millions of girls do not attend school. Women dedicate 512 billion hours of unpaid child care, and almost 1 in each 3 women suffered from food insecurity in 2021. The pay gap between men and women is around 20%, and just 1 in each 3 managers or supervisors are women. In July of 2022, women only occupied 26,4% of parliamentary seats.
This impressive list is part of the UN Women, the United Nations agency dedicated to gender equality, That's what we were able to understand by traveling a little through the journalism written, to celebrate today.
Instagram UN Women on International Women's Day
In global terms, the participation of women in the industry, from factories to manufactures, varies significantly depending on the country, region and specific sector, however, historically, has been dominated by men, with a much smaller proportion of women holding leadership positions.
In Portugal and many other countries, Statistics show that there is a gender gap in factories and manufacturing, with more men than women employed, the exact difference in numbers or percentages may vary depending on different sources and data collection methodologies, as well as the specific characteristics of the labor market in each country, Therefore, we chose to carry out a brief survey on the number of women working in Portuguese industry.
The truth is that although we have been improving in terms of equal numbers, in fact we felt this during our visits to Portuguese factories and manufactures, where you can see a very feminine patch of workers, we have two realities – inequality wins with 10 thousands ahead of men and despite the number of women at the top of listed companies in Portugal having never been so high, there is still great inequality in executive positions and a great discrepancy in leadership. Most women hold non-executive positions, despite Portugal being slightly above the EU average in terms of the overall percentage of women in management positions in publicly listed companies.
Women represent 48% of the active population in Portugal, however, just occupy 27% of leadership positions in companies and 30% of company management positions, and the presence of women in top positions is much lower than that of men, being 17% of general management roles performed by women.
Since in Portugal, 63% of family businesses operate in the service sector and only 26% in industry, what's left, are from construction and agriculture, and only 5% are CEOs. There are very few female presidents in current family businesses, and a large part of the Portuguese business fabric are, including factories and manufactures.
In recognition of the tireless work and contribution of women in Portuguese industry, Portugal Faz Bem wishes to pay a special tribute on this International Women's Day. We deeply value your role and, due to this, We commend your dedication and talent in increasing success.
It's with resilience, creativity and innovation that the female presence in factories has an impact on, we have already been able to witness it. The women, when facing challenges and obstacles, demonstrate remarkable resilience, adapting and finding creative solutions to challenges in a factory context. More, Your ability to innovate and think differently brings a unique perspective to the work environment, contributing to the continued growth and development of Portuguese factories. These characteristics not only strengthen the industry, but they also inspire other women to enter this sector and create their own brand, reason why their stories must be revealed.
As part of this tribute, We are currently working on creating a Podcast dedicated exclusively to “Female Leadership in Factories”, aiming to celebrate and highlight the remarkable work of today's active women, so that they can inspire future. Today, International Women's Day, We were pleased to send invitations to participate, to the first four women with whom we hope to have the honor of speaking.
Furthermore, we decided to illustrate the female presence in factories with images generated by artificial intelligence, using the command “show me the women’s 21st century factory”. In our opinion, the images manage to capture the strength, the resilience and diversity of women who shape the Portuguese industrial landscape.
May this tribute serve as a well-deserved tribute and encouragement, to further promote gender equality and women's empowerment in all spheres of industry.
Happy International Women's Day.
Authorship: Joana Beirão.