Our View: Women make progress in rubber sector, but still long way to go

As rubber industry journalists, our job is to reflect the stories of the industry—even those that aren't often told. And our inaugural class of Women Breaking the Mold is proof of just how encouraging and inspiring those untold stories can be.

Among the honorees are veterans with 45 or more years in the rubber industry, along with others still in the infancy of their careers. The individuals bring their unique perspective on how they see our business, why they chose it as a career and what they see in their future.

The stories truly are inspiring. There are company owners and CEOs, plant managers and operation executives, along with marketing and sales officials.

One bought a company when she was 21 after working there just a year. The business had three employees at the time, and now boasts around 50.

Another owns a firm in the "macho society" of Medellin, Columbia, after pulling the company back from the brink of bankruptcy due to embezzlement and internal theft.

And still another grew up in the former Soviet Union and was made to study elastomer science. But because of excellent teachers and mentors, she fell in love with rubber, moved to the U.S. with her family and is more than a half-century into her rubber industry career.

But while there are examples of glass ceilings being shattered, there is evidence that progress has been slower than hoped for. For every conference where there are growing numbers of women on hand, there are others where among 150 attendees, you can count the female attendees on one hand.

Even more telling is that pay data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics illustrates some distressing trends. The salary gap among workers in the U.S.—the statistics aren't exclusive to rubber—actually grows the older people get. Women are closest to wage parity between the ages of 25 and 34, when most are just beginning their careers. At this time, they make 90.6 percent of what men in the U.S. earn overall.

But as workers age, the BLS statistics grow more grim. For workers ages 45 and older, females make roughly 77-78 percent of what males bring home. That is a clear indication that men are advancing further up the corporate ladder, gaining the lion's share of the promotions in the managerial tiers, and still dominate the C-suite positions that bring the big salaries.

Even with these statistics, however, it's hard not to have hope for progress when listening to this class of honorees.

Their advice? Question the status quo. Be persistent, and let those in charge know where you want to go in your career. If you feel you or your ideas aren't being respected, have evidence ready to back up what you are proposing and, if that doesn't work, recruit others to help you make your case.

It's encouraging that many of them pledge to "pay it forward" by advocating for the advancement of women. Others are helping to recruit more women into STEM careers by sharing their stories and proving why the tire and rubber industry is a good place to build a satisfying career.

With standard bearers like this group, even the biggest pessimists have to see better days ahead.