House Democrat Asks if Women Are Discouraged from Going Into Manufacturing Because the Name ‘Sounds Like a Guy’

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade, asked a witness if women were discouraged from going into manufacturing because the name “sounds like a guy” at a hearing on Tuesday.

“Yesterday I met with a manufacturing company, but they also are engaged in getting young people more engaged in manufacturing,” began Schakowsky. “So I asked them: ‘So how many of those students that are signing up and want to do this, how many are women?’ And they said, ‘Well, there, I know there’s at least 13%’ or something. It was a low number. And you had mentioned trying to engage more women in manufacturing. I’m just wondering if just the name manufacturing sounds like a guy? And how can we get more — certainly there’s a lot of room for women — what are you doing to make that happen.”

The witness in question, MIT professor Elisabeth B. Reynolds, did not address the part about whether the issue stemmed back to the word “manufacturing,” but argued that the lack of women in manufacturing was a particularly important given the “shortage of workers” in the industry.

She did, however, argue that leaders should stress that manufacturing is a much different sector than it once was.

“Historically, we think of it [manufacturing] as dirty, dull, physically laborious — that’s completely gone now in the 21st century,” submitted Reynolds. “And I think that will be helpful in terms of attracting the next generation into manufacturing.”

Reynolds went on to observe that while women in manufacturing make 16% more than the media woman makes in the United States, it may be less attractive to women because there’s less “flexibility” when it comes to their schedules.