Rold contributed to the “Women in Manufacturing” working group

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Laura Rocchitelli, President & CEO of Rold, has take part in the “Women in Manufacturing” working group of the World Manufacturing Foundation and she has contributed to the creation of the white paper “Back to the Future”. “Women in Manufacturing” is one of the focus topics of the “Back to the Future” project, which addresses the role of women during and after pandemic and analyzes how the new normal status will help in rebalancing the gender difference in manufacturing. As reported in the white paper, the Manufacturing sector and the global economy in general are being seriously affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. However, an increasing number of studies and articles by international and state institutions, businesses, trade unions, academics and women’s organisations point out to a relevant factor: the impact of the pandemic is not gender neutral, and it has different consequences for the men and women in the manufacturing industry around the world. Overlooking such differences would be akin to analysing the situation from a flat, two-dimensional perspective. Only through adding a gender lens will the industry and policy makers be able to draw a three-dimensional picture of what the problems really are and what the solutions might look like for the Back to the Future scenario that the World Manufacturing Foundation is intending to outline to stimulate future courses of actions in a post-Covid-19 manufacturing paradigm. To cover the situation of women in manufacturing with some depth, the Expert Group felt it had to differentiate between developed and developing countries, local realities and social backgrounds, and decided to focus primarily on the higher added value activity of the manufacturing industry, as it felt this segment should lead the way in the “back to the future” manufacturing and therefore contribute more to generate momentum for closing the gender gap.