Untapped Potential

It has been proven that empowering women stimulates productivity and economic growth. However, in the manufacturing industry, women continue to constitute a clear minority.

In Canada, women account for 48 per cent of the labour force but only 28 per cent of the manufacturing workforce. For more than 30 years this job share rate has not changed. Attracting more women into manufacturing professions is not only critical to help companies grow and replace their aging workforce, it provides women with careers that are high value, high tech, highly skilled, and high paying.

We had the opportunity to speak with six women-led Ontario Made companies to get their perspectives on a variety of topics.

Meet the Manufacturers

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

Robin Linton: “International Women's Day means taking the time to acknowledge a massive percentage of the world who are honestly anything but revered every other day of the year. One day is definitely not enough, but it feels really special as a way to bring to common discourse that it's time to challenge the status quo and honour the women who came before us. We need to be active every day of the year in challenging the current systems in place in order for this progress to continue.”

Katherine Porter: “Especially in areas where there is under representation, it’s important to carve out time in order to shed light on things that have been accomplished. Really paying attention to the social, economic, and political achievements of women is very important. In some ways, I think we can feel like we've come very far as a gender, but the research really shows that gender parity won't be achieved within our lifetime. We need to make sure that we're taking time to call out achievements in those areas, normalize them, and celebrate them for us to continue to push for gender parity across all industries.”

Leila Keshavjee: “This is a tough question - I really think we should be recognizing women all year round. It needs to go beyond just a day – really recognizing that women are not as funded as males and they have additional barriers compared to their male counterparts. When will we reach a point that there is true equality? When will this industry have more diversity and more women of colour? Even though more brands are women owned, we still have a long way to go.”

Esther Vlessing: “It’s about taking the day to take note of how far women have come and then checking in with society and businesses to discuss how we can all do better. I was reflecting back on all of the women that I've met and gotten to work with through CEMM over the last few months of the pandemic. From seamstresses, to factory owners, and lab technicians, these incredible women are helping to build the infrastructure for making isolation gowns and helping our nurses and doctors. International Women’s Day allows us to celebrate not only the frontline heroes but the heroes behind the heroes on the frontlines.”

What made you choose a career in manufacturing?

Leila Keshavjee: “When I started to think about the creation of my product, I actually couldn’t find anyone to manufacture it in the way that I wanted. Manufacturing allows me to innovate quickly, keep control of the quality of my products, and know exactly what the product is made of. People are looking for good quality products that also taste good – this is exactly what manufacturing allows me to do.”

Sabrina Fiorellino: “My story is a bit unique - my mom is a double lung transplant recipient, and my grandfather passed during the first wave of COVID. We weren't able to see him and it was the first time I couldn't visit him in the hospital. Because of all these things, I wanted to do something to help. With my background in construction, I fundamentally understood that part of the issue facing COVID was a space issue. If we could have these dedicated ICU rooms that can treat the sickest COVID patients, we're allowing hospitals to function.”

Esther Vlessing: “One of my biggest influences is that I’m a fourth-generation manufacturer. My father had a furniture factory in Concord, Ontario, and I pretty much grew up there in-between sofas and lots of foam. It was one of my favorite places to hang out and I guess I was inspired by seeing that operation and how at home I felt there. Manufacturing is also one of the ways that I’ve been able to express my solutions and problem solve. The problems that I thought I could solve have always been manufacturing related.”

Rhonda Barnet: “I live in Peterborough, Ontario, and it’s a legacy manufacturing town – when I grew up all the best jobs were in manufacturing – these were really the jobs that were well paid and that people strived to have. By the time I was ready to launch in my own career, I really didn’t know how to penetrate the sector. I was lucky that I found a job in a local engineering company working in their accounting office. The engineers saw my mathematical side and helped foster opportunities for me to be able to leverage my Bachelors Degree in Mathematics.”

Kim Thiara: “I ended up at AceTronic by way of my dad [AceTronic’s former owner] just asking for some help. I came in to start doing the administrative side of the job for him. It slowly started evolving where I was doing sales for the company. I began to realize the importance of how we [AceTronic] impacted the bigger world around us. I have always been interested in seeing how I can make something easier or better for someone. By way of AceTronic, we were doing just that for our customers. That really resonated with me as a person – being able to be a resource for our customers that they could rely on. That gave me my passion, and that’s still here with me today.”

What are the biggest barriers you have faced and how did you overcome them or are overcoming them?

Rhonda Barnet: “I’ve been working in the sector for 30 years and I’ve faced many challenges and adversities. At the start of my career, I certainly faced a gender pay gap barrier. I also faced a bit of discrimination when I was pregnant with my second child – just in terms of advancement - because it was known that I would be leaving to have this child. I very much work in a man's world and I've faced things like walking through customer facilities, and seeing pictures of naked women hanging up. You really have to push hard to elevate the standards in the workplace.”

Leila Keshavjee: “I think with any business, acquiring customers is one of the hardest things. While there is support for local, retailers are not supporting local in the way that I think they could be. It’s not just I support local – how are you really supporting local? Are you removing some of the barriers for local brands to thrive? There’s still a huge amount of retail space for brands that aren’t even manufactured in Canada – why is that? The change really needs to happen higher up by giving local brands more opportunities to thrive. We need people with platforms giving that opportunity to local businesses.”

Kim Thiara: “Besides the male perception of women in the manufacturing industry, I've always been one to push the message of ‘buy local’ and ‘buy Canadian.’ My conversations with a lot of my customers was that we all need to support local industries - if we don’t, where are we all going to work? Manufacturing is integral to the overall health of a country - it's a huge economic driver and once you lose it, it's virtually impossible to bring it back. So that was my biggest hurdle - just trying to toot the horn of buying local and supporting local businesses. Seeing the Ontario Made Program come to be was something that I’ve been waiting for, for a very long time.”

Katherine Porter: “I have always been creative and a jack of all trades. When you see the world through the lens of being female, you're conditioned by what you see other people around you doing, and I wasn't seeing a lot of people doing work that I’m starting to do now. This is something that took a lot of time for me to chip away at. I’ve navigated it by taking risks and trusting my gut, and have found new opportunities to do work that I didn't know existed as a result.”

Robin Linton: “A big barrier would be not necessarily fitting into how people perceive me, largely because of my age and gender. I think this is something that a lot of women, especially young women, could relate to. In my experience, intentionally gathering with other women has been very helpful. Whether in professional networking settings or personal friendship groups, creating a strong network of support is very helpful.”

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Esther Vlessing: “I would say that if you have big dreams, it's okay and even necessary to start small. It can be so daunting if you have big desires to look up at the castle that you want to build – you have to really focus on laying one brick at a time. Each thing that you do throughout the day, it's like one small brick that you're laying. Only in hindsight can you actually see the full picture of the things that you've built.”

Sabrina Fiorellino: “Be calmer. When I was younger I would get angry very quickly, took things very personally, and used to have a lot of self-blame. I always tell people that there is no substitute for experience. I think that I would tell myself, it's not you – just keep your head down and move forward.”

Robin Linton: “I would tell Little Robin that you don't have to be what other people expect you to be. I've often made myself small to fit in with others expectations, often tied to gender and that takes a lot of work to undo. I do think especially as women, we're socialized to balance everything and not take a lot of credit for it. I would want younger me and younger women in the world to own their achievements.”

Kim Thiara: “Always remember the passion that you had when you first started working. Times get really tough, and there's going to be times that you wonder why the hell you're doing what you're doing. I think you need to go back and remember why it is you chose to do what you're doing, and just reignite that passion. You can't lose sight of that. I would also tell myself to not get comfortable. If you get too comfortable with something, that means you're not growing. Growth happens when we're in an uncomfortable state. Don’t get relaxed and just think your business is carrying itself. Get uncomfortable.

Why would you encourage young women to enter careers in manufacturing?

Kim Thiara: “Where do I even start – because the future is so bright right now. There's so much opportunity whether it's on the manufacturing side or the technology side, we have so many different resources in Ontario to help grow this industry for us. Manufacturing used to be viewed as dark, dirty, and dangerous, but there is such a multitude of careers that are in the manufacturing industry. Manufacturing is no longer dark, dirty, and dangerous – it’s come a long way.”

Rhonda Barnet: “Manufacturing offers really good, well-paying jobs and we pay above average salary against other sectors. You have the opportunity to be part of making things instead of just consuming things. You think you could make products better - manufacturing is a chance to do just that - to make things better, more environmental, and more usable. When we really put diversity into a workplace, especially where we’re developing new things, we come out with better outcomes. Women need to be in the room so that we do develop better products and so that women are in control of the things that get made in the future.”

Sabrina Fiorellino: “My advice to everyone is that you don't need to be the smartest person, you don't need to know more than everyone else. It's a marriage between believing in yourself, and being willing to work that hard to get there as hard as it takes. I would encourage young women to do anything they want, including male dominated fields, like manufacturing or construction. It's extremely rewarding to be able to know you did it against all odds, against all barriers, and that you were able to achieve things that everyone told you couldn’t.”

Katherine Porter: “The more that we encourage diverse minds to participate in rethinking how we make things, the greater chance we'll have at creating new and creative solutions to the problems we see in the world. If you want anything to exist, it has to get made and finding elegant ways to make that come to life is an incredibly valuable thing. Let’s get more women into the world of manufacturing and let's see what they can do.”

Leila Keshavjee: “Manufacturing gives you full control of what you’re creating. It not only allows you to create, but to innovate. In my case, I don’t believe in additives, I don’t believe in using colours – we don’t need that extra stuff. By creating the product myself, I was able to build what I wanted to build.”

Esther Vlessing: “There is so much opportunity in the sector for women. Especially if it’s something that calls on them, then it’s something that they should do. I sum manufacturing up using three adjectives – thrilling, challenging, and rewarding.”