Sculpteo releases first edition of State of Women in 3D Printing report
For the 5th year running, 3D printing service bureau Sculpteo has released its State of 3D Printing report, providing insights into the industry’s users, adoption, application areas and more. This year, for the first time, the broad study is also accompanied by the first edition of The State of Women in 3D Printing report, compiled in collaboration with Women in 3D Printing.
The brief but insightful State of Women in 3D Printing report sheds more insight not only onto the additive manufacturing industry’s demographic makeup in terms of gender but also into how the women in the AM industry perceive various aspects of it.
“We know from the experience of building our Diversity for Additive Manufacturing report that it is not an easy task to track gender-related data in our industry,” said Women in 3D Printing founder Nora Toure, who had an eight year career at Sculpteo. “The State of Women in 3D Printing offers very complete and useful insights that we hope will help to shatter the gender glass ceiling many women are facing throughout their careers in Additive Manufacturing, especially in engineering-related positions.”
Clément Moreau, CEO and Co-Founder of Sculpteo, added: “It is very important for us to get a better insight on the State of Women in 3D Printing as they are a growing part of this industry. What are their main roles? How do they see their future in Additive Manufacturing? We hope Sculpteo’s annual report will highlight the most essential information and showcase the importance of Women in 3D Printing.”
State of Women in 3D Printing findings
Data from the report, which can be consulted in full here, was presumably compiled from responses to the broader State of 3D Printing report, which consulted 1,300 individuals from across the globe. The 5th annual edition of the report was reportedly the most diverse yet, with a significant representation from Asia and the highest representation of women yet (13%).
Within that 13%—a number that once again demonstrates the gender disparity in the industry—there are some valuable insights to be gained. For instance, looking at the roles that women hold in the industry, sales and marketing and research and development are the two predominant job areas, while engineering positions lag significantly behind men (at just over 10% compared to over 20%). Interestingly, over 40% of the women surveyed have an educational background in engineering.
The report also highlights perceptions women have about the additive manufacturing industry. For instance, sustainability and training/education were identified as the most important factors for growing the industry. Notably, the survey shows that women were significantly less optimistic about their career potential in the industry.
There is much more to uncover in the full report, and I’m sure future editions of the report will address even more. Like the Diversity for Additive Manufacturing reports conducted by Women in 3D Printing and Sarah Goehrke, the Sculpteo report aims to help the additive industry see and better understand its demographic makeup to enable more diversity in the future.
