“I fancied working in industry for a bit. Now I have a flexible job, where there’s always something to do,” says Anette Johansson full of enthusiasm. Having joined Pipeline Sweden’s plant in Ljung in 2022 as an injection molding machine operator, she now also prepares products for shipping, ensures the warehouse is fully stocked and acts as the contact person for new members of staff. In the Swedish plant more than half the workforce is female. From driving a forklift to overseeing shifts or getting hands on in the maintenance team – gender plays no role in these jobs. 

Approximately half the European workforce are women. According to Eurostat data, women were underrepresented in industry in 2022, accounting for approximately 18.1 percent of the workforce. However, attitudes are changing: In the past, jobs in industry were often associated with heavy lifting and repetitive assembly-line work. But nowadays, these aspects of the production process are performed by machines. Read more here: Industry of the Future Offers Top Career Opportunities.

“Advances in automation, digitalization and Health & Safety are turning sometimes physically demanding jobs into technically challenging and interesting professions. This brings new perspectives and development opportunities for skilled workers – regardless of their gender,” says Ulrike Baumgartner-Foisner, Senior Vice President Group Organizational Development & HR. On the whole, the boundaries between our work and our personal lives are becoming more fluid, simplifying work-life integration. Read more here: “We always seek individual solutions”.

In recent years, the percentage of women in the wienerberger workforce has risen steadily: In 2022 approximately half the employees working in administration at the company were female. Nevertheless, as is the case throughout Europe, there is still a great deal of potential to improve the gender balance, especially in production. The pioneer in the Group is Pipelife Sweden, where approximately 66 percent of jobs in quality control and some 46 percent of those in injection molding are held by women.

“Be it as managers or skilled workers or for fresh innovative perspectives: We need to get more women into industry. One way is to get girls excited about technology while they are still young,” says Gülnaz Atila, COO Region Central at wienerberger. “We can introduce them to different professions, for example, with internships and taster days.” Role models like Anette Johansson, Solveig Menard-Galli, Ulrike Baumgartner-Foisner and Gülnaz Atila are leading the way and showing the kind of jobs and development opportunities that are available in the building materials and infrastructure industry.