Maggie Philbin backs WM's Females in factories campaign

The presenter of BBC science programme Bang Goes the Theory said: "Manufacturing, engineering and technology can offer vibrant, dynamic and exciting opportunities to women, but they need to be influenced early – at school. "One of the central aims of Works Management's Females in Factories campaign is to recruit female manufacturing champions to inspire school pupils. That's why I believe it is a great initiative that will make a massive contribution to encouraging more women into factories." She added that too many women misunderstood the sector and that was why they failed to get involved in it: "People who think in terms of old-fashioned production lines are not really understanding the breadth of manufacturing industry and the huge number of jobs within it. It's not about oil and grease and dirty rags because that perception still persists. "They have also missed the fact that the nature of manufacturing has changed so much in terms of what we produce in the UK. We are at the forefront of the advanced manufacturing revolution." Philbin said the sector had been poor at conveying a positive image of itself: "As a result, I think many women are voting with their feet and are then lost to manufacturing, engineering and technology companies." She told the story of a company she had visited that had made a promotional film. "I sat watching this seven minute production expecting, at any minute, to see at least one woman. I got to the end of it and didn't see any people represented, but white middle-aged men. "Afterwards, I said to the managing director, 'well, it was rather lacking the W factor'. He said 'yes, it didn't really have the wow factor'. When I explained the W stood for 'women', not 'wow', both he and the head of HR were deeply shocked because they realised that not only had they not addressed the issue, but that it also hadn't even occurred to them." This, said Philbin, was ironic "since one of the key reasons I was working with them was because they wanted to encourage more females to apply for jobs and yet they hadn't spotted that". She added: "Companies are not doing this deliberately; it is just part of a hidden, ingrained culture." She believed that, by taking little account of women in their recruitment decisions, engineering and manufacturing were missing out on a vast pool of talent: "I think that this is a major problem. It's not just about saying we need to have more opportunities for women, but we also need to make manufacturing and engineering and technology in the UK the best it possibly can be. "We are a tiny country and if we want to carry on punching above our weight we have to be cleverer and draw on all the talent that we've got. Of course, that includes women." Works Management's Females in Factories campaign aims to recruit 25 female manufacturing champions to inspire school pupils and provide inspirational case studies of female manufacturing managers throughout 2014.