Quebecois group tackles female representation in the chemical sector

New guide aims to improve hiring and integration of women in the industry

Quebecois group tackles female representation in the chemical sector
This new guide is part of broader efforts of the committee to promote the inclusion of women in the industry.

CoeffiScience, the Quebecois sectoral workforce committee dedicated to the chemical, petrochemical, refining and gas sector released a guide to best practices last week, which aims to tackle female representation in the sector.

The committee reports that women make up on 30 per cent of the chemical sector. Through this new guide, the committee wants to facilitate the hiring and integration of women in companies in these industries. It should provide a number of tools which will help with the onboarding process.

“Following the February 2019 publication of the report on the role of women in the industry and the findings that emerged from it, we committed to rolling out a number of initiatives to improve the situation, one of which was to demystify certain things about careers in our industry. The guide we are launching today will give the 600 companies in the chemical sector across Québec tools for better overcoming obstacles to improving the representation of women in the workforce.” Said Guillaume Legendre, general manager of CoeffiScience.

This new guide is part of broader efforts of the committee to promote the inclusion of women in the industry.

The guide is available in French here.

Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

Following Trudeau’s Speech from the Throne on Sep 23, the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) organization called for more details on how the federal government aims to provide relief for the manufacturing industry.

CME’s statement covered various topics raised during the Speech, notably touching on the wage subsidy program which will be extended through to next summer. CME also said that they welcome the federal government’s commitment to support women in the workforce. CME president and CEO Dennis Darby said:

“Also important is the government's commitment to provide the supports necessary for women - who have been particularly affected by the pandemic – to rejoin the work force. In addition to helping with a more inclusive economic recovery, this will certainly be welcomed by a manufacturing sector that desperately needs more skilled workers.”

Manufacturing is not the only sector which is focusing on supports for female workers, a recent study by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) found that COVID-19 has increased gender inequalities in the media industry.

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