Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 17, 2023 43 Carolyn Lee, president and executive director of the Manufacturing Institute, spoke at a Connecticut Business & Industry Association event in October. She said getting more women involved in manufacturing is key to solving the industry's workforce shortage. PHOTO | CBIA Gender Gap Manufacturers seek to recruit women to meet workforce needs By Liese Klein W hen she joined the family business 20 years ago, Marietta Lee saw few women on the shop floor or in the executive ranks at the third-genera- tion manufacturing firm, The Lee Company in Westbrook. A maker of fluid control technology for the aerospace industry, The Lee Company at the time offered few benefits that were helpful to female workers and little in the way of mentorship or networking for women. "When I started at our company, from a different industry altogether, and joined a manufacturing company, there were no women, really, in leadership roles," Lee said. She quickly realized the core of the issue: "When I started, I was a young mother. And certainly, child care was challenging." Now, Lee has helped her family company offer more benefits and support to women, and the female workforce has grown at all levels. In recent years, The Lee Company named its first female chief engineer and first woman manufacturing manager. Lee herself currently holds the positions of chief operating officer, general counsel and corporate secre- tary, in addition to serving on the boards of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) and Yale New Haven Hospital. "There is a huge population of potential workers out there," Lee said of women who could help manufacturers fill open positions. "If they were able to get good, reliable, affordable child care, they would consider entering the workforce. But because that's hard to find, a lot of these mothers stay home because it's beneficial and makes the most sense for their families." Affordable and reliable child care is one of the main obstacles to more women entering the manufacturing workforce, according to a new report from the national Manufacturing Institute and Colonial Life. The situation is urgent: Bringing more women into manufacturing could help solve the sector's ongoing workforce issues, according to Carolyn Lee, president and execu- tive director of the Manufacturing Institute, a partner of the National Association of Manufacturers. "Women are actually our biggest talent opportunity for manufacturing, because only about 29% of our workforce is made up of women," Carolyn Lee said. "If we could close the gender gap by 6% by 2030, we would add 100,000 new women to the sector, which would fill all the open jobs." The manufacturing sector has proven it can bring more women into the industry by improving childcare options and job flexibility, in addition to promoting female role models, the report said. "What we've learned over the years, through research and programs aimed at bringing women in and helping retain them, is that there are things that companies can do to attract and retain women," Lee said. Support system investment In Connecticut, manufacturers benefit from a high proportion of women in leadership, in part due to the prevalence of small and midsize family businesses like The Lee Company, said CBIA President and CEO Chris DiPentima. The state is also set to spend more than $100 million in initiatives to attract and retain women into the workforce, including investments to stabi- lize the child-care industry, which faced major disruption during the pandemic. "I think over the past year, we've also done a really good job investing in the support system needed to get more women involved in manufac- turing and really get more women involved in the workforce in general," DiPentima said. "I think it's a huge opportunity for Connecticut to address the manufacturing workforce shortage that we have today." DiPentima points to a 2022 CBIA report that found that 87% of manu- facturers reported difficulty finding and/or retaining employees, with 44% saying the lack of skilled applicants is the greatest obstacle to growth. The state has averaged almost 10,000 job openings in manufacturing for the last several years, with fewer than 3,000 new workers entering the sector annually. "We're well short of where we need Top perks CT manufacturers are offering to attract and retain workers: 21% — Flexible work schedules 17% — Flexible paid time off 15% — Tuition reimbursement 14% — Employee engagement and recognition programs 10% — Sign-on/retention bonuses 8% — Options for full or partial remote work 1% — Student loan assistance 1% — Child-care reimbursement Source: CBIA July-Sept. 2022 Connecticut manufacturing survey Chris DiPentima Marietta Lee

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