May 17, 2024

Métamorphoses avec Elles: voices of change

The path to change also starts with parity, the complementarity between men and women. This article looks back at the important and inspiring initiatives shared by supply chain and logistics professionals at a round table discussion at SITL 2024.

Sabine Vu

Founder-president of the association

Olga Alexandrova

Associate Director, Land Division

Marie Defrance

assistant to the deputy president of CSIAM, and member of the board of Femmes en mouvement

Marie-Laure Furgala

Director of ISLI at Kedge Business School's Global Supply Chain, in charge of the women's community at France Supply Chain

Jean-Christophe Machet

Managing Director, FM Logistic

How can we attract more women to the supply chain and logistics industry?

In France, in 2023,

4% of drivers are women

Marie Defrance: It's estimated that France has a shortage of around 60,000 female drivers. But decarbonization could be an opportunity to recruit more female HGV drivers, particularly in the context of HGV electrification.

Electric trucks mean better working conditions, which may attract more women:

No vibrations under the seat, as there is no longer an internal combustion engine;
No more noise in the cab;
And for urban logistics trucks that leave their internal combustion engines running, the driver is exposed to chemical risks.

To complete the picture, as far as manufacturers' initiatives are concerned, we can mention improvements to the cab, the bed, and then the toilet and washbasin offer new hygiene and safety conditions. We can also see that more inclusive solutions for women would also be beneficial for men.

A round table to discover in full in replay

And in the warehouse?

JC Machet: When we sometimes have to carry loads, our employees are equipped with exoskeletons, load-assisting tools, whether they're men or women. So our businesses, which are increasingly equipped, can accommodate both men and women in materials handling.

Marie Defrance : Among ACIAM's member manufacturers, there are numerous initiatives and indicators in place to help women progress, including mentoring, coaching and training initiatives, to help women progress within companies. So I think this is a sector that's on the move when it comes to women and diversity of career paths.

JC Machet: The supply chain is an extraordinary playground for tomorrow's talent. In fact, today, I almost apologize for talking about women in the supply chain. In the supply chain, we need talent. We need to work on making our professions more attractive, regardless of gender.

The inspiring example of FM Logistic

In the transport sector as a whole,

women represent 20% of the workforce and 18.5% in the transport and logistics branch

JC Machet: Where we face a real challenge is on the jobs that are posted, which are often covered by men. So we need to make progress in our companies to find ways of making these jobs as welcoming and accessible as possible for our female employees at any time of day.

So, positions put forward, referents. And then, very shortly, we're going to start a training course reserved for our female employees. Because I believe there's nothing like a collective movement to inspire, reassure and encourage.

It's the complementarity of all profiles. We need to talk about diversity more than just gender. Diversity will ensure that companies are solid, strong and resilient, and that we live in a collective where everyone feels good.

It's true that logistics, warehousing and transport aren't jobs where you'd expect to see many female employees. And yet, this idea may have been true 30 years ago, but it's no longer true today.

49% of FM employees are women. The figure speaks for itself, and I'd like to say that this is only to be expected in a sector where we're recruiting, in a sector where there's a dynamic of development, in a sector that's reinventing itself by integrating new trades, automation, and seeking out new skills such as IT, data, analysis, and indeed also notions of sustainable development. Unfortunately, I have to admit, at executive level, we're at 41%, but again, that's beyond the conventional wisdom. And I want to communicate this positive information.

We need all the skills we can get, and it's just unthinkable at FM that we can't recruit from 100% of our potential.

The challenges of training and talent sourcing

In 2023,

the number of women entering and applying to engineering schools fell by 6%.

M.L. Furgala: I don't have parity in the sourcing of my students. I'm 70% male, 30% female. It's a little less unbalanced on the international side. I have more women with international profiles coming to my master's program. Nevertheless, every year I notice an erosion of engineering-type profiles, which account for around 30% of my recruitment.

Switzerland is in the process of putting forward a 2030 project, because they are well aware that if they don't recruit enough people in logistics and supply chain, this will be a brake on the country's economic development. It's about time France got its act together on this front.

It's a market that's recruiting, and we're short of manpower, we need to recruit, and we lack attractiveness. And it's true that France Supply Chain is working hard on this. Making a little-known profession attractive, a profession that is always difficult to explain to those around you.

Solutions to think differently about the world

M.L. Furgala: And why is it so important to have women in this business? Because if we don't, the tools that are going to be put in place will be gendered. You mentioned artificial intelligence. If women don't participate in the development of these tools, then artificial intelligence tools will be gendered.

So it's going to be a loop, but not a virtuous one. It's going to be a loop that's not going in the right direction. So we need to work on our attractiveness in the broadest sense. We can't do without half the world's population.

Foreigners have understood this much better than we have. There are many more women in countries other than France.

JC Machet: So, we share slightly different realities and we can see that culture gives a certain impetus. In fact, we have the same ratio as I told you at Group level, 49%, but the situation is a little different from one country to another. In Poland, for example, we have over 50% female employees. And among our managers too, i.e. we have many female executives and managers in Poland.

But many countries are matriarchal, from my point of view. And on the other hand, there are other countries where we still have a lot to do. We're in India. And there, on the other hand, we have an extremely low rate of feminization of the workforce, with less than 10% female employees.

What are we doing, for example, to support this movement, since that was one of your questions?

With the help of the Group's foundation and the involvement of our employees, we opened a classroom to bring back and welcome back young girls who had dropped out of school, so that they could get back on the train. Because in a family in India and in other countries, children are sometimes also a source of income for the household.

Why a community of women in supply chain?

The proportion of women in the supply chain is only

39% according to the latest Gartner report for 2023 and is becoming rarer in executive positions at 26%.

M.L. Furgala: We felt a bit alone. We needed to be able to exchange ideas, to have a network. So this community met a need. And among the actions we've developed, the notion of role model has come to the fore. This young generation needs to identify with us, they need to know that it's possible.

And the best way to show them this is to put forward inspiring profiles. So we've set up inspiring webinars with women in senior Supply Chain positions, where there's no question of taboos, including on the management of personal and professional life, gender diversity and the feasibility of combining the two.

I insist on the importance of having the right support when you're in a position of responsibility, because children are a shared responsibility. And it's also important for parents to act as role models for the new generation we're training.

What we'd like to develop now are tools to help these women in their day-to-day work to network, gain self-confidence and develop themselves, so that we're a little more present on company boards, since it's a profession, it's a social elevator, but we still need to be representative on management committees.

Marie Defrance: I think role models are very important for projecting oneself onto a career path, for breaking down gender stereotypes, especially in our transport and logistics fields, and for trying, in fact, to open up the field of possible careers for women in this sector.

Creating teams and collectives

who will be rich in their gender differences, and not only