Celebrating female leaders on International Women’s Day

On International Women’s Day 2023, First 5000 encourages you to celebrate female leaders and we are excited to share six female leaders who are challenging stereotypes and misconceptions to pursue a career in manufacturing.
A podiatrist. A fashion business founder. A biomedical researcher. These are just three of the professions that women have come from on the way to positions of leadership within Australian manufacturing businesses.
While manufacturing has long been viewed as a smokey and blokey industry the actual picture is far more diverse and inclusive than many realise. In fact, when manufacturing is evaluated as seven distinct steps along a value chain, female participation increases threefold within the industry.
These roles in pre- and post-production account for researchers, designers, engineers, marketers, sales staff, and numerous others – but all have one thing in common, they are critical roles underpinning a manufacturing business. Addressing this misunderstanding is a work in progress and crucial to ensuring that Australia has the best stewards and talent driving local manufacturing.
“Among other things, broad workforce participation is about commercial viability. If we want manufacturing to be as strong as possible, we couldn’t do it with half the population,” explains Kristi Riordan, the co-founder and CEO of Harvest B, and one of the female leaders profiled below.
“You need the full labour force to be participating.
Dr Jens Goennemann, Managing Director of AMGC, agrees, adding that an outdated, production-centric view of manufacturing is part of the problem.
“It is not all about blokes in hard hats and high-vis vests. The factory floor is one small component of the manufacturing value chain,“ says Dr Goennemann.
“Embracing the full manufacturing value chain highlights roles where women are much more likely to participate. These include positions ranging from R&D to design through to sales and services. The importance of doing so is highlighted by some of the outstanding leaders we are profiling on IWD 2023.”
Best foot forward
Penny Crawford, a podiatrist by training, ran her own business in Gunnedah for 27 years. The self-described “longtime frustrated inventor” noticed a lot of patients who worked in the local mines came in with issues due to gumboots, a product with a long-time lack of innovation attached to it.
“The gumboots they were wearing in 2013 when I first started this journey were the same gumboots that people wore in the 1950s. And these are people walking up to 12 kilometres a day on uneven ground in dark environments, hazardous areas.”
Crawford is the founder of Crawford Boots and describes her product as footwear with the comfort and stability of a work boot, but the waterproofing of a gumboot.
Separately, Crawford Boots is involved in an AMGC Commercialisation Fund-backed collaborative project led by Molycop, recycling end-of-life products such as gumboots to lower carbon emissions from electric arc furnace steelmaking.
Crawford says that her enterprise has made her appreciate the complexity involved in manufacturing, and the necessity of understanding steps such as R&D, design, and logistics, rather than production alone.
“When you develop a product from a concept to an actual, tangible item for that product to be successful and viable you need to understand your manufacturing process and your supply chain,” Crawford shares.
She believes there is an exciting “manufacturing revival” underway in Australia and a growing appreciation of the range of skills needed.
“Trades are now being recognised as a worthwhile career for males and females, and there’s the avenue for that. You’ve got the design, you’ve got research, even the accounting side,” says Crawford.
“There are so many parts to manufacturing. It’s fantastic that nowadays we’ve also got consumer awareness – they look at their product, they question it, they want to understand it, they want to know its provenance, they want to understand its supply chain, its origins, the materials used. So, I think the manufacturing value chain is the career choice of the future.”
Successful succession
Serena Ross has helped her family electronics business, Circuitwise, find its focus. After stepping into the CEO role in 2019 and helping implement a strategic reset with her brother Sean, the company has grown 30 per cent year-on-year.