Firms urged to do gender survey
Global research aims to find out place of women in sector
Meat businesses in New Zealand are being asked to contribute to a global study that will create robust data on women in the industry for the first time.
The planned study will identify strategies for making the sector more inclusive.
Meat Business Women, the global networking group, has launched a survey seeking data on the number of women employed at different organisational levels and their level of pay, as well as barriers to career progression.
The findings will be published in a major new report on gender representation in the meat industry, to be unveiled at World Meat Congress on June 12.
Meat businesses from the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and the US will be contributing to the report.
Laura Ryan, chairwoman of Meat Business Women, said the report was the first of its kind to measure gender diversity and career opportunities for women working in meat.
“We have long been frustrated by the lack of reliable data on women in the meat industry,” she said.
“By taking part in our survey, businesses will help create much-needed clarity on the contribution women make across the supply chain — and, importantly, where action is needed to improve representation.
“We are calling on everyone in the meat industry to get involved and contribute to this important piece of work, to help make our sector more sustainable and profitable,” Laura Ryan said.
The survey will run to April 3 and is open to companies from across the
supply chain (see ‘About the survey’, above).
“For the meat industry to remain successful in a tough market, it needs to attract the best talent and make the most of existing talent within its organisations,” said Ryan.
“By submitting data for our stateof-the-nation report, businesses can play a vital role in identifying ‘glass ceilings’ and ‘broken rungs’, so we can remove barriers to gender equality together and set the meat industry up for long-term success.” ■