Australian manufacturing is transforming and is today one of the nation’s most dynamic industries. Yet, one metric proves that Australia is not taking full advantage of the industry’s potential – that is its low female participation.
According to research conducted by Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC), one of the key factors contributing to low participation of females in Science, Technology, Maths and Engineering (STEM) is a lack of representation of female leads in STEM and understand all the exciting opportunities manufacturing has to offer.
Women, in particular, said that having a better understanding of the industry’s opportunities and seeing themselves included in communications about manufacturing had a strong impact on their ‘mental availability’ to choosing manufacturing as a career path.
This is a point reinforced by Dr Heba Khamis, CEO of Contactile a cutting-edge Sydney based biomedical company specialising in bestowing robots with the sense of touch and human-like dexterity.