Why people's perceptions need to change within medical plastics

Medical Plastics News editor Laura Hughes talks about the importance of changing people's perceptions within the medical plastics field. 

Women have been fighting to achieve equality status with the male gender since the 1900s when they fought for the right to vote. This sense of inequality was until recently, something I had been fortunate enough to never directly experience. I had heard stories in the media from women who had experienced inferior or inappropriate treatment simply because of their gender, but it had always felt like something that was far removed from me and my life.

So recently when I attended a site visit, I was shocked at the treatment I experienced. Certain comments made me feel uncomfortable and left me questioning how I could be made to feel so singled out simply because of my gender. As someone who is fairly new to the world of medical plastics, I am told that this is an experience other woman have had within the industry too. But why should this be an ordinary occurrence?

During this year’s Med Tech Innovation Expo, I was fortunate enough to attend the women in plastics panel which featured Artemis Stamboulis, Helena Flowers and Rebecca Smith who are a senior lecturer in biomaterials and nanomaterials, owner and managing director and a national territories manager respectively.

During the discussion Stamboulis discussed the sense of injustice she felt, and how despite obtaining a degree in polymer science and engineering specifically for a role within her family’s company, she had found that once she began working within the family business the men had some sort of priority. Whereas Smith highlighted the advantages of diversity within a workplace, and how she believes that the more diverse an organisation is, the better it is. Therefore, in manufacturing where women only made up 29% of the workforce in the US in 2016, could more be done to increase this percentage?

Well this year, for the first time in history, more female students took science A levels compared to male students. This statistic highlights the impact events such as international women in engineering day has had on the sector. The aim of this day is to inspire other women to become the engineers of the future and the figures would suggest it is proving to be effective. However, it is important that the women choosing to study science A levels also choose to work within fields such as manufacturing and engineering where there are currently fewer women.

I believe if women are not made to feel welcomed within these previously male dominated environments, or if organisations are not willing to adapt to accommodate responsibilities such as childcare that many women juggle with their careers every single day, then industries such as engineering and plastics may stay heavily male dominated.