Though historically underrepresented, women are increasingly stepping into high-growth sectors like advanced manufacturing and clean energy. While underrepresentation persists, the opportunities for women to gain a strong foothold and a promising career are expanding.
New headlines about women leaving the workforce continue to populate the news, such as this stark assessment of 212,000 women leaving the workforce between January and August 2025. But, we aren’t letting this blanket statement skew our understanding of the employment gap, particularly in manufacturing and the skilled trade sector. Since 2015, the number of tradeswomen has surged by 77.3%, reaching its highest percentage in 2024 with 366,360 tradeswomen in construction and extraction occupations.
A Pathway to the Trades
Greater visibility, such as the push for more inclusive hiring practices and a breakdown from past industry stereotypes, has increased the attention of new talent on manufacturing or the trades. For new workers entering the industry, manufacturing offers stable, well-paying careers without a four-year college degree. On-the-job training and developmental programs mean that those who start out in entry-level positions can work up into higher level roles. Plus, with an average hourly wage of $25.24, higher than the national average across all industries, it’s competitive and appealing. The industry’s heightened focus on reskilling and retraining increases the opportunity for those seeking career changes or progression opportunities.
As technology and manufacturing applications advance, there’s a sizable talent pool of highly educated women to serve in technical roles. In 2021, “47.8 % of all women employed in the total labor force had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 40.7% of men.” As more technologies are adopted, the industry is going to need the right staffing. Currently, manufacturing has only 20.3% of women in STEM roles compared to 33% of men.
A Few Areas of Stride:
- Inspectors, Testers, Sorters, Samplers, & Weighers: In 2023, women made up 38.6% of manufacturing employees in this role. Despite position postings expected to decrease, this high attention to detail role offers growth pathways into broader quality assurance positions.
- Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Women make up 9% of electrical and electronics engineers. With a positive growth rate, this area offers an opportunity for long-term opportunities.
- Welding, Soldering, and Brazing: The number of female welders increased by 47% from 2017 to 2022. Even though the overall total of women in welding is about 5%, the increase by numerical standards has been huge.
- Wind Turbine Technicians: This is a high-growth occupation, projected to grow by 50% between 2024 and 2034. Women's representation is low at about 2.7%, but women in this role earn 93 cents for every dollar men earn, a significantly smaller gap than the industry average.
Growing the Pool: Challenges and Opportunities
Talent recruitment and retention for both the shop floor and professional positions are an interest for manufacturing CEOs, although current economic and political conditions remain most top-of-mind. Stricter return-to-office (RTO) policies are making it harder to both attract and retain existing employees. According to Manufacturers Alliance member data, 33% of organizations noted that it’s harder to attract candidates and 22% cited an increase in retention challenges since these RTO policies were enacted. For female employees, this is a greater issue, as 63.1% noted that the lack of flexibility in the workplace is their top obstacle, compared to only 38.8% of men. The top challenges heard from men? Insufficient compensation and minimal opportunities for advancement.
Biggest Labor Force Challenges Across Male and Female Employees
Source: The Manufacturing Institute, 2022
Given the noted challenges, the same respondents were asked what steps they might have taken to address the challenges. Other benefits (like leave, retirement plans, or safety protections) and job training and continued education were the top two, each with over 71% of respondents offering this recommendation. For those women interviewing or communicating about an open position, health care, paid time off, and flexible/remote offerings were the top benefits that they valued.
