It's not exactly breaking news to note than the plastics industry is more dominated by men, although women have always played a part, and are continuing to move up the ladder in engineering, sales and executive positions. Witness the range of women who were honored in the Class of 2019 at Plastics News' annual Women Breaking the Mold forum in Nashville Nov. 11.
Now our sister publication, Crain's Cleveland Business has a report on a new survey by Key Bank of 250 women who own businesses. The 2019 Financial Confidence Survey Report found that 71 percent are "highly optimistic" they will achieve their business goals in the next 12 months, an increase of 5 percentage points from the 2018 survey. About nine in 10 respondents said they plan to expand their business in the next two years.
A majority of the women, 54 percent, said they believe the number of businesses owned by women and men will be on par in the next five years.
But at the same time, 21 percent said "gender bias" made it harder to access capital and 58 percent they experienced barriers to success due to their gender. How did they respond? Working harder (57 percent), joining local business organizations (49 percent), calling out bias (41 percent) and, at the top of the list, networking with other women in business (66 percent).
