Manufacturing Institute Honors 130 Women with STEP Ahead Awards

Noria news wires
Tags: manufacturing

The Manufacturing Institute recently announced that it will award 130 women with the Women in Manufacturing STEP (Science, Technology, Engineering and Production) Ahead Award.

The STEP Ahead Awards honor women who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in their careers and represent all levels of the manufacturing industry. In 2015, STEP Ahead launched Emerging Leaders awards to recognize women currently employed in the manufacturing industry who have already made significant contributions and excelled early in their career.

"These 130 women are the faces of exciting careers in manufacturing," said Jennifer McNelly, president of the Manufacturing Institute. "We chose to honor these women because they each made significant achievements in manufacturing through a positive impact on their company and the industry as a whole."

The STEP Awards are part of the larger STEP Ahead initiative, which was launched to examine and promote the role of women in the manufacturing industry through recognition, research and leadership for attracting, advancing and retaining strong female talent.

A recent survey from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute found that 80 percent of American manufacturing companies have a moderate to severe shortage of available, qualified workers.  Contributing to this gap is the underrepresentation of women in the industry. While women make up approximately 50 percent of the labor force, that number is only about 25 percent in the manufacturing labor force.

The 130 STEP Award recipients will be recognized at a gala on March 26 in Washington, D.C. The STEP Awards program will highlight the honorees' stories, including their leadership and accomplishments in manufacturing.

Below are the names and companies of the honorees, with the "emerging leaders" indicated with an asterisk:

For more information, visit www.themanufacturinginstitute.org.