Time to celebrate women in supply chain

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated around the world on March 8. IWD’s purpose is to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. The day’s themes spotlight the women’s rights movement, gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.

Against that backdrop, a Gartner survey says that women now make up 41% of the supply chain workforce. They are taking a greater share of top corporate supply chain roles with retail and consumer goods businesses showing the strongest leadership profiles.

As supply chain leaders achieve titles such as Chief Supply Chain Officer, women are being promoted and included in these ranks. But only 17% percent of Chief Supply Chain Officers are now women, the Gartner survey found - up from 11% in 2019. Progress? Yes, but not enough and not fast enough.

The career path to these top executive roles in supply chain management can be tough and full of traps for women ascending the corporate ladder. Manufacturing operations and supply chain management have not been traditional roles for women. Supply chain management has long been a male-dominated field with pay inequities for the women who do succeed.

In 2020, male supply chain professionals earned on average 22.6% more than women, according to an Institute for Supply Management survey that found gender pay disparities in supply chain C-suite roles. According to the World Economic Forum, none of us or our children will see gender parity in our lifetimes. Gender parity will not be attained for almost a century.

History of International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day is not new. In fact, it has been observed since the early 1900s - a time of great change, expansion, and turbulence in the industrialized world. It was also a time of booming population growth, and the rise of new ideologies, including a woman’s right to vote. Just imagine a time when men had a say in elections, government, policy, and lawmaking, but women did not.

Women’s oppression and inequality were causing women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change, especially for voting rights. In 1920, the 19th Amendment was passed, including the words, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

We’ve come a long way, but there is still a very long way to go. Women are graduating with degrees in supply chain management in record numbers, and there are many rising stars. We need to keep working toward gender and pay equity. We need to encourage one another and support women all along their career paths. We need to identify and create jobs where women stand on an equal footing and compete equally with men for new opportunities.

I am encouraged by the progress women in supply chain management have made. Let’s keep moving forward.

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