Last week presented a great opportunity to focus on our wonderful women in the workplace as we joined in the celebrations of International Women’s Day on 8th March 2018.
We often focus on our processes, highly skilled engineers, and setters, so to make the most of the day we highlighted the top team of ladies that we have working here at the Pentagon Group (incorp. Pentagon Plastics Ltd and Phoenix Engineering).
Women in UK engineering
There is no denying that engineering is still a strongly male dominant industry but from the privileged position of overseeing the marketing for the business and visiting many trade events over the last few years I do feel the gap (all be it slowly) is beginning to close.
Organisations such as STEM and Tomorrows Engineers, to name but a few, are a driving force behind encouraging women into engineering and the fruits of these labours will show over the coming years as this initiative continues. But let’s not forget the often-unsung heroes of a business too.
In the manufacturing industry of the current era, women are more commonly found in office-based roles as opposed to being shop floor based. Roles in Finance Management, Office Management, Purchasing, HR, Marketing, and Quality are all female lead roles within our business. Each area is essential to the smooth running of the day to day manufacturing.
Diverse roles
Such roles also require skill, knowledge, expertise and a depth of industry and technical knowledge. As an industry, we tend to focus heavily on the manufacturing and engineering roles (and rightly so) but it is great to be able to bring praise and recognition to all that goes on behind the scenes in the hands of our lovely ladies at the Pentagon Group.
We are fortunate enough to have a strong female presence in our mould shop as well, spanning both our day and night shifts, a presence that we are keen to see grow further in time.
Having the female presence in the mix of our workforce brings not only the right skills to the job but also an air of fun and light-heartedness. Oh, and of course not forgetting keeping all our boys in line…
Gabby Day, Communications Manager, Pentagon Group
