Supply chain jobs for women: Exploring gender disparity and diversity
13 Mar 20235 min read
Summary
- Gender disparity remains a significant issue in supply‑chain roles across Asia, with women frequently concentrated in lower‑paid, lower‑skilled positions and underrepresented in senior or technical roles.
- Despite greater involvement of women in the broader workforce of value chains, they continue to face structural barriers such as limited access to leadership, inadequate skills training, and systemic bias in job progression.
- For companies seeking supply‑chain resilience and competitive advantage addressing these disparities is critical: investing in female talent, opening career‑pathing and ensuring inclusive culture are strategic imperatives for sustainable growth.
In a sit-down interview, Nicole Tretwer, Swarovski’s former Head of Logistics Services in Asia- Pacific (APAC), shared with podcast host Amos Tay the importance of addressing gender disparity and increasing the visibility of women to usher diversity in supply chain jobs. She tackled omnichannel marketing and e-commerce logistics based on her experiences as well.
Tretwer has been working in the industry for decades. She is now the Vice President of Business Development Integrated Logistics at Kuehne+Nagel which is a global transport and logistics company.
The need to redesign hiring processes
For Tretwer, there is a need to dissolve inherent biases that downplay women in leadership roles. Another roadblock was the exhaustive job qualifications that discourages aspiring female applicants. Her solution? Make the hiring process multigender and multinational.
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“It is very challenging, and it takes courage to stand out there, be loud, noisy, and to have an opinion.”
She suggests increasing visibility on LinkedIn, the largest professional network on the internet. This way, opportunities for meaningful discourse on supply chain occurs. According to Tretwer, beyond being afraid, one should be proactive.
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“I think it’s very, very important that women in supply chain start to stand out more. We have a few very prominent women in the network globally, which is fantastic.”
Another is Ong Siew-Wei, who got a remarkable appointment at DB Schenker, a supply chain management and logistics solutions provider. She is now the CEO and President of Schenker-Seino Co. in Japan and also CEO of DB Schenker’s Northeast Asia Cluster.
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“There’s lots of things we can do, and we should do, right? And I think these two nominations are, of course, a step in the right direction. And I hope it exposes many more women that are working in supply chain.”
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