V i s i t S G I A a t S G I A . o r g / G a r m e n t S G I A J o u r n a l ■ F a l l 2 0 1 7 | 3 5

By Olga Dorokhina, Research Coordinator, SGIA

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SGIA launched the Women in Print Survey in June 2017 to gather insights regarding women in the printing community.

In 2017, SGIA launched the Women in Print Alliance with three main goals: to attract, retain and advance women in the industry through mentoring, education and personal and professional development. It quickly became apparent that data was needed to establish a benchmark for our work. To that end, SGIA launched the Women in Print Survey in June 2017 to gather insights regarding women in the printing community. The total number of responses was 373. The summary data presented here is based on the responses of women from garment decoration companies operating in the US and Canada (12.8% of all survey respondents).

Who Responded to Our Survey?The vast majority of our respondents (93.8%) came from printing production companies (Table 1). In terms of company size, the median is 7.1 employees, with three out of every four companies (75.1%) having less than 20 people (Table 2). The

median sales revenue is $750,000, with those making less than $250,000 and those making between $250,000 and $1,499,999 being equally represented by 35.7% each (Table 3).

We asked survey participants about the departments that they had in their companies (Graph 1) and which department they themselves represented (Graph 2). Although our participants come from a wide variety of departments, the most highly represented departments almost mirror the top most frequently mentioned industry departments.

In terms of types of jobs represented, more than two-thirds are coming from the management side: senior management (41.7%), production management (18.8%) and business management (12.5%) (Graph 3). Respondents were asked to evaluate female representation in various departments. As shown by Graph 4, IT departments tend to have the lowest percentage of female representation.

2017 Women in Print Report: Garment Decorators

Editorial credit: / Shutterstock.com

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Industry Involvement

Printing/imaging technologies are used to produce a product or contribute to a finished product

93.8%

Educational institution 2.1%

Independent consultant 4.2%

Number of Employees

1–4 43.8%

5–9 14.6%

10–19 16.7%

20–49 10.4%

50–99 8.3%

100–499 6.3%

Sales Revenue

$0 to $249,999 35.7%

$250,000 to $1,499,999 35.7%

$1,500,000 to $4,999,999 11.9%

$5,000,000 to $9,999,999 4.8%

$10,000,000 to $19,999,999 4.8%

$20,000,000 to $34,999,999 4.8%

$500,000,000 or more 2.4%

Departments Represented by Survey Participants

Department Types in Garment Decoration Industry

Table 1 Table 2 Table 3

Graph 1

Graph 2

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Types of Jobs Performed

Rating of Female Representation in Various Departments

Graph 3

Graph 4

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More than half of our respondents are business owners to a certain extent: 39.6% started the business themselves, and 16.7% are part of their family businesses. 20.8% came to the industry due to random circumstances, and only 8.3% due to their education (Graph 5). As demonstrated by the data, women who came to the industry came to stay as more than half of our respondents have been with the industry for more than 10 years (58.4%), with 25% having more than 20 years of industry experience and about one-third (33.4%) serving the industry between 11 and 20 years (Graph 6). 44.8% stayed with the same company for more than 10 years (Graph 7). Women are

loyal not only to the industry, but also to their companies. The garment decoration community seems to have the highest level of job satisfaction among other printing communities (100%) (Graph 8). Where does this satisfaction come from? All of our respondents feel that their job is rewarding, and 93.6% consider their job to be exciting. The other two factors that contribute to happiness are: clear communication between the company and its employees (80.9%) and professional growth opportunities (61.7%) (Graph 9). The job stress level (57.4%) and the amount of overtime work (44.7%) tend to be on the lower end compared to other printing industry segments (Graph 10).

Attracting and Retaining

Path to the Industry

Number of Years in the Industry Number of Years in the Company

Graph 5

Graph 6 Graph 7

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Job Satisfaction by Industry

“Happy” Job Factors

“Unhappy” Job Factors

Graph 8

Graph 9

Graph 10

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Are there opportunities for career growth in the garment decoration industry? More than two-thirds of our respondents came from the management side (73.0%). Almost half of those in the managerial roles (42.1%) indicated that they got there by promotion (Graph 11), and for almost every three out of four of them it took less than five years (Graph 12). The industry welcomes new business owners, as 89.5% of women that started their own businesses didn’t have any prior industry experience (Graph 13), only their talent and desire to succeed.

For every one business owner having the related education prior to starting her company (31.6%) there were about two whose educational background wasn’t even related to the business that they started (57.9%). However, according to our results, women-business owners in the industry are well-educated, even if this education is not related to their current job, as slightly more than half them have a bachelor’s degree (52.6%) and 15.8% have an associate’s degree.

Retaining and Advancing

The garment decoration industry continues to offer opportunities for women in the workforce. From the potential of owning their own business to obtaining creative, challenging and rewarding jobs. Taking the information from this survey and turning it into actionable, thoughtful programs that do provide mentoring and education support for both personal and professional development is our challenge.

And, we want to hear from you — both men and women. The prosperity of your business brings success to the entire industry. How can we help? Please email us at sgia@sgia.org or call 703.358.1335.

Olga Dorokhina, Research Coordinator at SGIA, has extensive experience in research in Canada and the United States. Being involved in all stages of research, from survey design to data analysis and reports’ presentation, Olga strongly believes that numbers could tell us interesting stories. We just need to listen to them while making our everyday business decisions. Her goal is to understand where the companies are located on the industry map compared to other players and provide them with the tools to achieve their potential.

Attracting, Retaining, Advancing

Length of Path Into Managerial RolePath into Managerial Role

Number of Years of Industry Experience Prior to Starting a Company

Graph 11 Graph 12

Graph 13