WOMEN IN JEWELLERY

Meet four inspiring women who are constantly striving for gender equality in the jewellery industry

Representation of women in the gems and jewellery industry has advanced in recent years, but there is still a long way to go. Like many other spheres, this industry has largely been seen as a “man’s world” where women have had to overcome significant barriers in working in the sector.

There has been, admittedly, some progress with books and exhibitions about past and present women jewellery designers. Yet the focus is primarily on the downstream retail and design sector and representation of women is almost entirely absent in the upstream supply chain — the mining, sourcing, manufacturing to gem cutting, and gemological research.

According to most estimates, women drive demand for more than 90 percent of the world’s jewellery. Their tastes and preferences shape the market and influence decisions at every step of the supply chain. Despite being primary wearers of jewellery, we might ask ourselves, why it has taken so long for the women working in the industry to receive recognition?

In recent years, there has been a renewed focus on the challenges to women’s wellbeing and empowerment, driven by recent cultural change that has spurred the world into reevaluating society’s views on equality and inclusivity. We caught up with four female role models leading this agenda, to understand whether things are changing and how jewellery businesses and institutions can strive to make it better.