AISTech Women in Steel Roundtables

AISTech 2024 Women in Steel Roundtable

The Association for Iron & Steel Technology’s (AIST) mission is to advance the technical development, production, processing and application of iron and steel. Since 2018, AIST has been assessing barriers to entry for women in steel and has held a Women in Steel Roundtable at AISTech to learn more about the perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of women employed in the steel industry.

At the AISTech 2024 Women in Steel Roundtable, it was proudly announced that due to the success of previous Women in Steel programs, the AIST Board of Directors approved a Women in Steel Standing Committee this past fall. This provides a formal home for the development of our Women in Steel programming within AIST’s structure.

There was a brief overview of the programs that laid the groundwork for the creation of the membership committee, such as past Women in Steel Panels, a quarterly Women in Steel Column in the Iron & Steel Technology publication and the inaugural, sold-out Women in Steel Conference that was held in Pittsburgh, Pa., USA, in September 2023. All of these programs have led to an overall increase of female membership within AIST by 96%.

With the insights and ideas of past Women in Steel Roundtables creating the foundation for the new membership committee, this year focused on ways AIST can support expanding the number of women in the steel industry and encouraging this audience to join the association and bolster the newly formed committee. The groups took a more in-depth examination of areas of growth for future programs and helped brainstorm the next steps to help further the mission of the committee. Topics of discussion included Gender Diversity and Inclusion, Professional Development and Mentorship, Recruitment and Retention, and Overcoming Challenges and Changing Perceptions.

Plans are already in motion for the 2nd Women in Steel Conference that will be held 16–18 September 2024 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, Pa., USA, with an expected crowd of over 500 attendees. AIST is looking forward to all the exciting opportunities the Women in Steel Membership Committee will be able to incorporate as they continue to further pave the way in their inaugural year.

AISTech 2023 Women in Steel Roundtable

Since the AISTech 2022 Women in Steel Roundtable, AIST has been working with a small group of women representing producer and supplier companies to plan its inaugural Women in Steel Conference slated for September 2023. AIST’s general manager — sales & marketing, Stacy Varmecky, provided attendees with a detailed synopsis and generated excitement of what can be expected at this event.

AIST’s Women in Steel Initiative has gained quite a bit of traction since the first focus group in 2018. So much so that the AISTech 2023 attendees broke into groups to consider mission and vision statements for a formal Women in Steel Membership Committee.

These groups also examined events that this committee could potentially implement – social events, educational workshops, and webinars were amongst the discussions.

AIST is looking forward to September and further assessing this new Committee.

AISTech 2022 Women in Steel Roundtable

At the AISTech 2022 Women in Steel Roundtable, each attendee was given a copy of Karin J. Lund’s, newly published book, Women in Steel, Women of Steel — Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, Vol. I. Lund, a 30-year veteran of the steel industry, shared with attendees the importance of this piece and collected feedback on how it can be positioned amongst libraries, educators, schools, and women’s groups.

The attendees then broke out into eight groups and discussed female recruitment and retention strategies, as well as what future Women in Steel-centric programming could look like. Hosting an event for International Women’s Day in March 2023 was particularly emphasized.

Brainstorming amongst the groups generated numerous ideas for the association to consider. To better define these ideas, each attendee was given a chance to designate four important items that they wish to see implemented.

AISTech 2021 Women in Steel Roundtable

Since 2018, AIST has been assessing barriers to entry for women in steel, and has held a Women in Steel Roundtable at AISTech to learn more about the perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes of women employed in the steel industry.

 At the conclusion of the AISTech 2019 Women in Steel Roundtable, Karin Lund, G-Power Global Enterprises, approached AIST with an idea to collect and share stories of various female experiences in the steel industry over a 50-year period.

At the AISTech 2021 Women in Steel Roundtable, Karin gave an update on her progress in writing, Women in Steel, Women of Steel: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. She explained the scope of the non-fiction book, updated attendees on her interview process and shared observable themes that have been developing through the interview process. The most discernable theme being mentorship.

 The group broke out into seven groups and discussed how to be a mentor and show support to women in industry during different stages of a woman’s career:

  • First year in the industry
  • Five+ years in
  • Working toward promotions
  • How to show support to women in the workplace
  • How to encourage the next generation

The brainstorming amongst the groups led to numerous ideas for the association to consider. In addition, these discussions gave concrete examples for men and women to utilize and take back to their own places of work to continue to promote a diversified industry.

AISTech 2019 Women in Steel Roundtable

The first Women in Steel Roundtable brought together 33 men and women from the steel industry to determine AIST’s role in support of further expanding the number of women in steel and in encouraging this segmented audience to join the Association.

Stacy Varmecky, General Manager — Sales & Marketing, AIST, gave a presentation of AIST’s efforts thus far in advancing Women in Steel.

Then, the group broke out into 5 tables and discussed possible future program planning based on five common points of interest:

  1. Building credibility with coworkers.
  2. Navigating work/life balance in a mill environment.
  3. Addressing and overcoming gender stereotypes in the workplace.
  4.  Encouraging the next generation to consider the steel industry as a viable career opportunity.
  5. Showing gender diversity in awards and promotions.

At the conclusion of the group report-outs, it was determined that the below were identified as the “most important” to Roundtable attendees:

  • Creating an education series to bring awareness to the younger generation
  • Bringing in more female speakers and panelists
  • Benchmarking to other male-dominated industries
  • Addressing and establishing compassionate workforces.

AISTech 2018 Women in Steel Focus Group

A small group of 19 women from the iron and steel industry met to discuss how AIST can support the demographic.

A number of proposed growth methods were mentioned, particularly regarding engaging Material Advantage members at Chapter events, outreach from the Technology Committee level, adding a more substantial Roundtable at future events, and producing an industry survey.