My introduction to the amazing world of papermaking began in 1990. That was the very first class my freshman year of college in Paper Science & Engineering. Of the 60 or so freshman also in that class, there were like 6 females in a sea of males. I think that kind of scene played out in many universities offering STEM fields of study in those days. Interestingly, the freshman class dwindled to about 40 by the time we reached graduation several years later. It was a difficult curriculum after all. That kind of turn-over was not unusual. ALL of the women from freshman year made it to graduation and landed a permanent position somewhere in the field of papermaking.
Upon graduation, I went out into the working world of paper manufacturing to begin my career journey. Oh...I also married one of those women from the Paper Science program too, so that will play out in this narrative. As I began to see many operations in a sales support role, I was noticing some interesting patterns in the mills. From company to company, management layers fit the female/male ratio I first observed in school. Engineering, technical depts, testing, planning depts too. Administration, HR, purchasing, and quality skewed heavily to a much higher female ratio. Operations, security, warehouse, IT, and maintenance were nearly all men. There was only 1 female mill manager of the 40 mills in my territory. Remember, this was 30 years ago.
My soon-to-be wife chose a sales-track role too in a chemical supplier, so she was subjected to the same travel and variety that I was experiencing. We could, and did, share notes. Not just the mill gossip and personality/IQ assessments of those working there, but the experiences and feelings associated with what we were doing. I must say, our disclosures didn't align most of the time. She described how supportive and cooperative everyone was that she worked with that day. She complained about how far she had to walk to go to the bathroom. She bemoaned the slightly offensive times she was addressed as "sweetie" or "honey" or "darling" or "beautiful". She recounted being hit on while eating at the hotel bar the previous night. One of the craziest stories was her company car breaking down on a remote, southern county road. She hitchhiked in a big rig to get help - no cell phones yet.
I did not see or experience anything like the things she described week after week. I did much of the same work covering the same ground as she did, but I had no such experiences. It was different for me. I don't know if you call it better, just different. To get support and cooperation from mills, I had to spend much more time establishing alignment and mutual benefits. I was never addressed as anything, just goaded like guys do to each other at work. Never hit on. Never felt in danger. These are just a few examples I could recall from those honest conversations in the early years.
What I finally started to understand at this point was what Ginger Rogers once said about dancing with the great Fred Astaire, "I did everything he did, only backwards and in high heels." I could see the obstacles, and opportunities, for women that I did not see until this point. Women had a different experience than I in the paper industry. In my opinion, most of that difference could be explained by attributes estrogen provides the human body and brain versus testosterone. Perhaps the roles society has built around gender play a part too. Either way, change was coming.
Societal shifts will rarely happen overnight. It took many years to see things change where women would have a bigger role in capital-intensive industries like paper manufacturing - I'll leave it up to each reader to conclude if our assets operate better, worse, or unchanged.
For each ensuing year, I attended my university's annual Paper Foundation Scholarship banquets to honor the students and professors who made it happen. I could see the numbers of women moving through the degree program. The ratio of women to men steadily grew. In April of this year more than 50% women were graduating with a BS in ChemE concentrating in paper - which used to be called Paper Science degrees. I doubt it is that high across all STEM degrees and universities. Grok confirmed my suspicions by quoting 35% is the percentage of women graduating in STEM, up from 10% a couple decades ago. That obstacle in male-dominated industry became the opportunity.
The results of all this societal evolution has been a noticeable difference that I see now when I am in the mills. I encounter female engineers and managers several times a day. The female to male ratio in the credentialed roles has tripled and will most likely maintain that growth trend. The experienced/skilled crowd has changed too with many more women in the traditionally male roles - still a very small number though percentage-wise. Time will tell how this impacts the key drivers of business metrics, if at all. If the job gets done, it shouldn't make a difference what sex the person is. Just as long as performance standards or pay scales are not changed based on sex. Or violate the 1964 Civil Rights Act by introducing race or gender into hiring decisions.
I've since worked for several Fortune 500 companies, interacting with both males and females. Women have become a force in most of them - despite their unique challenges that differ from males. It's impressive to see, really. So what happened to those 6 women from my freshman class? As of a few months ago when I learned Kelly left her role in paper chemicals, I don't think a single one of them still works in the industry. So what happened to my wife? She chose to stay home to raise our kids and did not return to the industry when the kids were grown. And we were eventually divorced.
Time will tell what these krafty women will do for our industry. When my own daughter was thinking about college choices, I was shouting from the mountain tops that the paper industry offers great opportunities for women. All I got back from her was...it stinks.
Steve Sena (stevesena@me.com) is a Cincinnati native. He obtained degrees in Paper Science & Engineering from Miami University in Oxford, OH and an MBA concentrating in Economics from Xavier University. He's worked for a broad array of leading producers, suppliers, and converters of pulp and paper grades.
