{"id":1668,"date":"2019-01-21T06:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2019-01-21T06:00:28","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T10:00:28","slug":"signs-of-change-for-women-in-the-auto-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/signs-of-change-for-women-in-the-auto-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Signs of Change for Women in the Auto Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.test.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Signs-of-Change-for-Women-in-the-Auto-Industry.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1669\" width=\"387\" height=\"259\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Signs-of-Change-for-Women-in-the-Auto-Industry.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Signs-of-Change-for-Women-in-the-Auto-Industry-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.staradvertiser.com\/2018\/09\/27\/news\/detroit-needs-women-and-change\/\">Tiffany\nHsu of the <em>New York Times<\/em> writes<\/a> that Debbie\nManzano \u201cholds the rare status of being a woman at the helm of a major U.S.\nproduction facility,\u201d overseeing the manufacturing of Ford\u2019s F-150 truck at a\nlarge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. A Ford employee for twenty-four years with\nbroad education and experience, Manzano faces typical challenges. She reports\nthe following:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>People who have never had a female boss are skeptical\nof her abilities.<\/li><li>People who have always wanted a female boss have very\nhigh expectations.<\/li><li>Her desire to hire more women goes against Ford\u2019s reputation\nas a hostile work environment for women, as described in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/12\/21\/us\/ford-apology-sexual-harassment.html\">a\n2017 <em>Times<\/em> article<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>Manzano acknowledges that sexual\nharassment has been pervasive in many Ford factories but she notes that she is\nnow \u201cin a position to do something different about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Hsu writes that women are underrepresented in every level of manufacturing because of prejudice, pay inequities, and lack of supportive family-leave policies. This is an old story, so why does the representation of women in manufacturing matter at this time in history? In addition to the demand for more opportunities for women, the current tight labor market in combination with an aging factory workforce means many skilled jobs are vacant and in coming years millions may potentially go unfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Manzano\nacknowledges that the dearth of women in manufacturing, especially at the\nleadership level, means that women do not have enough \u201csafe spaces.\u201d She\nexplains that while men can be excellent mentors, women, especially those\nworking in male-dominated industries, need other women to go to with concerns,\nlike harassment, that they may not feel comfortable bringing to a male boss. They\nalso need to be able to share their successful experiences with other women in\nmale-dominated industries as a form of support. To encourage women to hire on\nat Ford and stay, Manzano has:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Provided more networking opportunities for female\nworkers.<\/li><li>Pushed managers to incorporate women into succession\nplanning to prepare more female leaders.<\/li><li>Developed initiatives to encourage women and girls to\nget the skills and education for advanced operations and manufacturing\npositions becoming available. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>Manzano agrees that Ford\u2019s internal\nculture needs to continue to improve and that pressure from the #MeToo movement\nis helping.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>The process of change may truly be underway. <\/p>\n\n\n<p>Photo courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/longzheng\/5346608921\/in\/photolist-99sLyr-djXHdM-d3auHY-ZpMNFT-nnVSJu-99sLmn-djXzmq-TBAZoC-djXBDJ-nkWX1y-djXEL6-djXuwK-djXKAB-djXxpm-djXDQN-QxLFUf-gWRSvw-aFjxaw-e4tJJU-q3D4qz-gWRWo2-adMA5p-6vWMTs-JHQbkd-e573zt-p6UgUa-hqfSKa-8cgGK2-dHXqT8-6QhKFq-nnBtra-e4o9zP-9St1X5-6ZPr8J-7pHbH9-3akTUi-9Sq4BT-55hS47-GpcAKQ-9StF8N-aaQbU1-9brKKF-dG22y8-9aVs15-9SpmNF-9Sq1me-e6gUir-4nZRfw-d3uAT7-aFu99c\">Long\nZheng<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0\/legalcode\">CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n]]>\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<![CDATA[]]>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,44,134,217,526],"class_list":["post-1668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-metoo","tag-auto-industry","tag-debbie-manzano","tag-ford","tag-sexual-harassment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annelitwin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}