In 2020, millions of women were forced to leave the labour force as a result of the pandemic. However, this does not appear to be the case for the average supply chain organization. In fact, supply chain organizations have been able to not only retain women, but also develop and promote them to higher levels of leadership. Women now make up more than 40percent of the total supply chain workforce and have recovered from a decline in 2020 at nearly all levels of leadership.
Gartner and AWESOME conducted a survey of 223 supply chain organizations between February to March 2021 for the Women in Supply Chain Survey 2021. The findings revealed the highest percentage of women in the supply chain workforce since the survey's inception in 2016.
Previous survey results showed that women's participation and representation in the supply chain profession remained relatively flat at all levels, with the exception at the executive level.
According to a new survey, women will make up 41 percent of the global supply chain workforce in 2021, up from 39percent last year.
As per the survey, the pandemic does not appear to have hampered supply chain gender equality efforts. COVID-19 had no discernible impact on the retention and advancement of women, according to 84 percent of responding organizations.
"Contrary to other industries, supply chain’s mission-criticality during the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many sectors did not reduce their workforce, but rather continued to hire and even faced talent shortages, especially in the product supply chains. This resulted in many women not only standing their ground in supply chain organisations but increasing their representation in organisations. We also recorded a record number of specific commitments and supply chain-led actions and saw existing programs starting to pay off," said Dana Stiffler, Vice President analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice.
Retaining midcareer women is a growing challenge, according to 54 percent of survey respondents, and 10 percent say it is a significant challenge. Only about a third of those polled said it was not a problem in their workplace.
The most common reason for midcareer women leaving is a lack of career opportunities. Almost 70 percent of survey respondents named it as one of the top three reasons for midcareer female attrition. The second-most popular option was development opportunities, but it was a distant second, chosen by only 36percent of respondents on average.
The only dip, which was predicted last year based on the softness of the 2020 pipeline at the VP level, was at the executive level, where it fell to 15percent from a high of 17percent last year.
This pattern has remained consistent since the Women in Supply Chain Survey was launched in 2016: As one moves up the corporate ladder, the proportion of women leaders decreases. In the average supply chain organization, women hold only 23 percent of VP-level positions.
68 percent of survey respondents with stated goals said the supply chain organization had a targeted initiative focused on women, a significant increase from 46 percent in 2020. Twenty-three percent rely on enterprise-wide DEI initiatives, and ten percent are considering launching a supply-chain-led initiative. In total, 90percent of respondents report active initiatives, which is an all-time high.
There was an improved representation of women at every level of the supply chain pipeline except the C-level, defying pandemic-era odds.In addition, there was a record number of specific commitments and supply-chain-led actions to ensure gender DEI follow-through.
Previous years have shown that setting goals and having stated objectives are crucial drivers for improvements in pipelines and other DEI outcomes.
The proportion of supply chain organizations with any type of goal increased from 64percent in 2020 to 73percent in 2021. Within the subset of respondents (29percent) who have stated objectives, 68 percent said the supply chain organization had a targeted initiative focusing on women, a significant increase from 46 percent in 2020.
It's encouraging to see that the larger share of this jump was for more formal targets and specific goals on management scorecards. For these respondents, there is greater accountability for results – and there is a visible correlation with stronger representation and inclusion showing up in pipelines.
The 2021 Women in Supply Chain Survey is a collaborative effort between a team of Gartner analysts who research supply chain workforce and organisational dynamics and AWESOME, a nonprofit organisation based in the United States dedicated to advancing women's supply chain leadership.
Other Key partners are Council for Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), a nonprofit organisation based in the United States for supply chain professionals, and boom!, a global community based in the United Kingdom formed to support and connect women in the supply chain profession, with membership spanning 30 countries.
Gartner and AWESOME collaborated to create the survey and recruit participants. Qualified participants worked for companies with at least $100 million in annual revenue that ran an internal supply chain organisation, ran supply chain as a separate business unit/specialty/practice area, or served as vendors of supply chain services and solutions.
The survey questions focused on the following topics: company goals and initiatives to improve women's recruitment, development, retention, and advancement; representation of women of colour; practises to increase women's engagement and success in supply chain organisations; midcareer pipelines; and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey also gathered baseline data on how many women work as frontline managers/supervisors, senior managers, directors, vice presidents/senior directors, and executives in supply chain organisations.
