In Spain, the presence of women in the manufacturing industry is 29% (Source: INE, 4T2022). However, according to the Exben study carried out annually by ManageArt among production plants, the personnel working in the Spanish manufacturing plants are made up of 45% women and 55% men. However, the distribution of genders is not linear in all organizational areas of plants. If we dig deeper into this analysis, two important effects of their own become apparent.
First, analysing the profile of management positions at the plants, the female presence is lower than in other intermediate or operational management positions at the plants, but it is still very significant, reaching 30%. This participation is still far from parity, but it is significantly higher than the percentage of women in management positions in manufacturing plants in other sectors. In addition, in recent years we have seen an increase in managerial positions held by women, which we believe will allow parity to be reached in managerial positions in a few years as well.
On the other hand, female participation is very different depending on the organizational areas of the company. While the areas with the highest female participation are the Quality Control and Quality Assurance areas, followed by the Human Resources and Purchasing areas, the areas with the lowest female participation are the logistics and facility maintenance areas. This is surely due to the training profile required in each of the areas and, therefore, to the availability of profiles in the market. From our point of view, the origin must be found in the high percentage of women who study scientific careers (Pharmacy, Chemical Sciences or Biology) in relation to the low percentage in technical careers (Engineering). This same trend is observed in studies of professional training.
The pharmaceutical sector is very sensitive to the professional and personal development of its employees, and this can be seen in the profile of the employees of its manufacturing plants and in the promotion of job stability. As a result of the data obtained by Exben, we observe that 42% of the employees of the manufacturing plants have been working for the company for 10 or more years, and 29% for more than 3 years. On the other hand, only 9% have been with the company for less than a year and, if we consider that the sector is increasing its workforce at a rate of 4% on average per year, this data reinforces the stability of the jobs offered by the sector.
It is very remarkable the high training profile of the people who work in the production plants. 59% of the employees of the pharmaceutical production plants have university studies, 31% have professional training degrees and only 9% of the employees in the sector have only compulsory education.
For these reasons, manufacturing plants in the pharmaceutical sector are benchmarks in the creation of high-value, stable, and high-quality employment.