Women constitute manufacturing’s largest pool of untapped talent in the United States, comprising 27 percent of manufacturing employees, even though women make up 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force.
Manufacturing in the United States experienced a substantial decline in employment for the first decade of this century, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, hiring in the manufacturing industry is on the upswing, and companies are seeking employees with skills to operate in highly automated environments.
This sets the stage for more women to enter work arenas traditionally filled by men, particularly manufacturing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women made up about 47 percent of the American workforce, with 30 percent working in manufacturing, and one out of every four management positions were held by women. Women in manufacturing earned, on average, 16 percent more than the national median annual income for women who are employed. Though men still hold most U.S. manufacturing jobs at almost 68 percent, from 2010 until the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, the share of women in manufacturing jobs rose in every working-age category until 2020.
According to Deloitte, women constitute manufacturing’s largest pool of untapped talent in the United States, comprising 27 percent of manufacturing employees, even though women make up 47 percent of the total U.S. labor force and hold more than half of all U.S. managerial and professional positions.
Rosie the Riveter, Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting, symbolized American women filling the employment holes in this country when men left to fight in World War II. The image may have secured the way for more women to consider and pursue careers in male-dominated industries, but today, American women are seeking, securing and succeeding in careers they could have only dreamed about a decade ago. These jobs, particularly in Arkansas, allow women the opportunity to use their problem-solving skills while creating a solid foundation for themselves and their families.
Take, for instance, Holly Crank. A 29-year-old single mother of two who lives in Jonesboro, Crank is a controls engineering technician at Majestic Steel in Blytheville who has been in maintenance and manufacturing roles since 2017.
“I was in the Navy for a little while, not very long,” Crank said. “I did some electrical work there, and when I got out, I pursued it more. My ex-husband was an electrician, and it didn’t look that hard, and he was making good money, so, I got my foot in the door and started doing that myself.”
Crank, who is originally from St. Louis, said she was not mechanically inclined as a child, but seeing others working in trades led her to consider attending Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville. She earned her technical degree in steel technologies and eventually began instructing in motor controls at ANC. She has since secured a job at Majestic Steel, where her day-to-day consists of supporting production through troubleshooting, preventative maintenance and maintenance planning on a program level.
Majestic Steel USA, founded in 1979 and headquartered in Cleveland, is a privately held and family-owned distributor and processor of flat-rolled steel. Majestic serves its customers in manufacturing, construction and distribution from its network of locations throughout North America, including Majestic Steel Hickman in Blytheville. Crank said what she likes most about her job is its technical aspect. She continually learns and problem solves so she can make processes more efficiently and effective. Her challenges, however, are balancing her commitment to her family while fulfilling her mission at work.
“Childcare is always an issue,” she said, “especially when you have a spouse who is working shift work. I can’t always be on site for the downtime calls or emergencies because I’m the only one who can be with my kids. You have to build a support system. That’s the single hardest thing about working and family — balancing when you can be where. The rest of it is nothing compared to that.”
Crank said Majestic Steel is “pretty lenient” when it comes to its teams’ family needs. “As long as you come in and do what you need to get done, it’s fine,” she said. “They have a good work-life balance. If you are looking for a solid job, I’d definitely recommend working in manufacturing, but be prepared. It can be one of the hardest things you ever do, but if you come out on the other side, you’re not going to regret it.”
Women should understand they may not find a role in manufacturing where they are able to come and go as they may need, Crank added.
“You’re going to find somebody that wants you there either on rotating shifts or overnights and days, and they’re going to want you there at 5 a.m., so if you don’t have family to help, you’re going to pay a lot for babysitters or you’re going to miss a lot of work. The consensus of the trade groups I’m in agree you have to have a good support system and a really thick skin. If you keep your nose down and learn your trade, no one can take away your skills. Don’t worry about anything besides that.”
Crank’s goals for her career include completing her electrical engineering degree while raising her 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son. “It’s hard,” she said, “but it’s worth it.”
Although Crank may not have been mechanically inclined as a child, Amanda Lewis was taking apart her toys and figuring out how to put them back together while playing with her brother and male cousins. Originally from Poyen, Lewis is a process engineer with Trex Co. in Little Rock. Trex is a manufacturer of wood-alternative composite decking, railing and other outdoor items made from recycled materials. Headquartered in Winchester, Va., Trex is the world’s largest manufacturer of wood-alternative decking and railing, and its composite products are made of 95 percent recycled materials such as plastic shopping bags.
“Trex takes the plastic sacks you see at Walmart and recycles those into pellets,” Lewis said. “We call that reprocessing or poly operations. We mix that flexible film pellet with reclaimed wood, and we manufacture composite deck boards from that. It’s a super cool process, and sustainable, which is one of the things that drew me to Trex.”
Lewis said there are two processes involved in creating this composite deck board, and she works with the recycling portion of the poly operation.
“I oversee the efficiencies of the manufacturing process, which includes improving safety, reducing waste, increasing uptime through process improvements, stabilizing quality of the product and troubleshooting problems found in the process,” she said.
The complexity and challenges of manufacturing are what drew Lewis to become an engineer.
“It’s always piqued my interest to learn how things are made and how they work,” she said. “The first step in my career was focused on closed-loop plastic recycling, and it opened my eyes to how much plastic is utilized in the world. There are companies out here taking, basically, trash and producing it into a usable product.”
Lewis said her first boss encouraged her to discover her potential as an engineer.
“I started my college career as a studio art major. After a year of art classes, it seemed like a tough career to make successful. I had some encouragement from people like my first boss, who said, ‘You’re good at math and science and art, so you should try out engineering.’ I looked into it and went into [the University of Arkansas at Little Rock].”
When asked what challenges she has faced in a predominantly male field, Lewis said she hasn’t had too many.
“I grew up as a tomboy, and I’m always going to be a tomboy, so I kind of fit in as one of the boys,” she said. “I could see if you’re maybe a little more feminine, you might get some awkward judgment, and I have had some challenges with some individuals. I would go out on the production floor and start turning wrenches and help run the line, learning what they do in their day-to-day operations. That helped the guys come to respect me. You have to be confident, especially in engineering. Engineering is very fact-based, so if I’ve done the research and I show you the process and prove it works, it gives the team on the line a level of comfort.”
Lewis has already made an impact on how Trex can save time, money and other resources while it establishes its Little Rock locations.
“We convey pellets in aluminum pipe. Whenever you convey pellets, you want to have the fewest 90-degree bends in the line,” she said. “If you have too many 90-degree bends in the line, the pellets will deform a little bit. I was going through the drawings and noticed how many bends we had, and I worked to reroute it. It increases speed as well as efficiency because you’re not destroying the pellets you’ve already made. You’re not having to do triple the work to get the same amount of pellets. That’s been exciting to be a part of this, and our project engineers have done a great job with the initial layouts.”
This is her third manufacturing job, and she has been with Trex for a little more than a year. Lewis said she has learned that confidence in herself and her team is what counts most when pursuing her career.
“You have to know yourself and your self-worth,” she said. “I know a lot of women struggle with how others may view them, but you have to love yourself and be confident in what you’re doing. You have to work hard to deserve the advances in your career, and you can’t expect anything to be handed to you. I really love Trex. They’re really doing the right things as far as showing people respect and making their voices heard. They have the right type of leadership and care about people, which motivates people the team. Here, it is OK to be yourself. I think it is important to go for what you’re passionate about. It’s OK to be different, be who you are and not let anybody talk you out of who you are.”
Believing in yourself is vital, but sometimes it takes someone from the outside looking in to guide a person toward his or her destiny. This is true for Ashley Kroll, the environmental coordinator and management system representative for Nucor Steel in Blytheville. She was introduced to Nucor during high school physics class in Manila.
Ashley Kroll is the environmental coordinator and management system representative for Nucor Steel in Blytheville. (Photos provided)
“A Nucor analyst spoke to our class about a STEM project she was doing,” Kroll said. “Afterward, she talked about what Nucor did and that they were recruiting. I had a wonderful counselor at the time, and she really encouraged me to consider working there. She said, ‘Hey, this is a great job. I don’t know if you know much about Nucor, but it’s a great paying job, and you would love it up there,’ so she kind of put me in that direction.”
Kroll signed up for a two-year steel industry technology internship with Arkansas Northeastern and earned her associate’s degree while working part-time for Nucor.
“That’s what got my foot in the door,” she said.
Nucor is the largest steel producer in the U.S., as well as the largest recycler of any type of material in North America, recycling more than 20 million tons of ferrous scrap annually to produce new steel that is 100 percent recyclable. In Arkansas, it has provided 2,300 jobs that have a median annual pay of $125,000 or more for all Nucor teammates nationwide over the last three years, excluding executives. Every Nucor teammate and their dependents are eligible to receive a $4,000-per-year scholarship to college or vocational school, and more than $115 million has been awarded to almost 25,000 children nationwide since the program’s inception in 1974.
Kroll, who has been with Nucor for more than 12 years, maintains the company’s International Organization for Standardization 14001 certification by grading and reporting documents. She also teaches new hires and current employees about how their jobs impact the environment and all the ways Nucor works to mitigate those impacts. She said that during her internship with the company, she was able to work in production on different crews, which afforded her the possibility of moving around the country to work for Nucor.
“One of the supervisors offered me a full-time job,” she said. “I soon found myself moving every two years, changing jobs within our company. I was able to relocate to Texas for a little while working on a corporate IT project, and then I came back, and I got into purchasing doing contracts and insurance right before this environmental position came open. When I first started out here 12 years ago, I was one of the only females in the production environment. You had probably two other women — a crane operator and an inspector. Other than that, you really didn’t see any, but I can tell you now that it’s a lot different. We are gearing towards attracting more women to the manufacturing world and explaining to them that they can succeed in this environment. There are opportunities out here for women and with Nucor’s culture, they embrace that.”
Kroll said she would absolutely recommend manufacturing to women as a career, particularly within Nucor.
“I have two little girls myself,” she said. “I like to think about if I would allow them to work in this type of environment. I am not familiar with other steel companies, and I would probably be scared to let them work in that environment, but knowing Nucor’s culture and how we are safety oriented and how I have experience with a team looking out for me as I kind of grew up within Nucor, I definitely would recommend them getting jobs out here. The pay is great. The culture is awesome, and I know that they’re going to look out for their safety.”
Like Crank, Kroll said her employer has a solid work-life balance.
“Nucor is very family oriented,” she said. “Our leadership knows we need to be involved in our community, so there’s a lot of teammates you’ll find who are also soccer coaches, or they’re part of their church’s activities, so, Nucor absolutely understands that, and they encourage it. Our in-office culture has changed too. Before, we’ve never worked from home, but now they’re offering working from home situations where if somebody needs to work from home, they’re allowing it.”
Kroll said she sees herself staying with Nucor because they have unlimited opportunities for her career.
The share of women in manufacturing jobs rose in every working-age category until 2020.
“I have been fortunate enough to have experience in different departments and different locations, and the great thing about Nucor is the sky’s the limit. If you are willing to work and move, they are willing to work with you. We have engineering positions open right now as well as supervisory ones. There are environmental manager positions open. It might be at Nucor Steel in Florida or Memphis, but if there’s a need to relocate or if I’m open to a position somewhere else, I know that opportunity’s there.”
Kroll said women considering manufacturing or other career in traditionally male-dominated industries should remain open minded, maintain a positive attitude and move with integrity.
“Truly, the sky is the limit if you do that,” she said. “I was once given feedback after an interview that I was too aggressive, and I had to reflect on that because I never saw myself like that. I always saw myself as getting things done. After talking to teammates and realizing their perception of me and how I could see that within myself, I learned how to tailor that back some in conversations and in navigating people. However, I know when to use that as my strength to get stuff done for projects. I’ve heard other women say the same thing, but I think we were very passionate and have to learn how to use that when and where it’s needed.”
Shelley Gager has been in male-dominated careers since her first job as an underground coal miner in western Pennsylvania.
“I went to school at West Virginia University, where I studied mining engineering,” she said. “I got my bachelor’s degree in mining, and I love the industry, the hands-on aspect of it, the concept of using the engineering methodical brain for solving problems.”
Gager’s introduction to manufacturing came through an unlikely path — sales. She became a sales engineer for Rockwell Automation, which was acquired by Fort Smith’s Baldor, now ABB. She spent 13 years in field sales, helping her clients solve problems, then moved to product management in 2014.
“The real focus around manufacturing for me was understanding the pain point of end customers, the people having to utilize the equipment and just realizing there’s a way to solve their pain points,” she said, “and I felt like both my personality and my desire to help people really fit well into staying in this industry. Currently, I’m the director of the integrated motor drive team, which is a newly created team to again help take those fundamental components that ABB is well known for motors and drives and combine them into one common solution.”
This new department Gager leads has six team members, and she said she is looking to grow it to about 20 people by mid-2024.
“When you look at our new business team, ABB is investing to solve a problem in an industry that is having a really mega shift. We are really focusing on people, time and money because if you don’t do all three, you’re missing part of the goal to get to where you really need to be,” she said. “Our department will clear roadblocks and invest capital into partnerships as well as internal manufacturing. Our intention here is to look at a global solution in our market.”
Gager said both she and her husband are engineers, and while the personality of engineers is generally one of introversion, she sees herself as more of an ambivert, having traits of both extroverts and introverts. This quality helped her as one of only a handful of women in her mining engineering classes and when she became a sales leader.
“I had great mentors in every aspect of my career,” she said. “I never felt like some crazy unicorn working in the coal mine. Every single person there looked at me as someone they could train and teach. Many of them referred to me as their daughter or their granddaughter, and they pulled me along with them. It was pretty fun.”
Gager said people she knows outside of the manufacturing industry look at her and say, “Don’t you feel like you’re being the token female here?” She said she never feels that way.
“After moving and changing positions within the company 11 different times, I always felt I walked that fine line between what’s right for the company, what’s right for the customer and what is right for my family,” she said. “Being able to create the business team is by far my biggest success. I think we have big challenges ahead of us, and building a team from scratch is something that is has been very exciting. It’s a very high risk, high reward job, and we go after it.
“One of the questions I always get is, ‘What does it feel like to be a female in this industry?’ and I challenge that it doesn’t feel any different. We’re all people,” she added. “I would love to encourage the next generation to challenge themselves to think outside the box and do things differently. It may be that some people don’t value it, but there are a whole lot of people who value it more than you think. I’ve run into people in the past who have said I’m too aggressive, I’m too loud, I’m too funny, and I can’t let that bring me down. I mean, this is who I am, and this is what you’ve got signing up for. I’m signing up to make a difference.”
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