EU Employment Hits 20-Year High, But Gender Gap in Manufacturing Persists

Image Courtesy: Public Domain ; 10 Women shaping the future of robotics in 2025

Employment across all sectors in the European Union hit the highest level in twenty years: The employment rate for people aged 15-64 reached 71.7%. At the same time, the employment gap between men and women has narrowed. Since 2005, it has declined from almost 15% to 10% today. However, EU manufacturing is lagging behind.

"The latest EU data from Eurostat shows that gender equality in overall employment has improved," says Dr. Susanne Bieller, General Secretary of the International Federation of Robotics. "However, in manufacturing, the proportion of female engineers and scientists remains rather low. In the key industry for the global automation race, only 22.4% of engineers and scientists employed are women – this is less than half compared to services related jobs with 45.6%.”

The European Commission's new Competitiveness Compass highlights the integration of robotics as a key technology to boost innovation. Inspiring women to take up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects (STEM) and explore career options is important: Diverse teams push innovation, and the robotics industry offers great economic opportunities for high-quality jobs.

This is demonstrated by the success stories of IFR's 10 Women Shaping the Future of Robotics in 2025. This year's awardees are:

• Albane Dersy, Co-Founder and COO of Inbolt, France
• Ashlie Taivalkoski, Director of Sales at SCHUNK, USA
• Dr. Caren Dripke, Head of Development Robotics at Lorch Schweißtechnik, Germany
• Julia Astrid Riemenschneider, CEO of Rethink Robotics, USA
• Kari DeSantis, General Manager, Corporate Marketing at FANUC America, USA
• Feng (Kate) Xu, Head of China R&D at ABB Robotics, China
• Kateryna Portmann, Senior Product Manager at ANYbotics, Switzerland
• Susanne Nördinger, UR+ Ecosystem Manager for EMEA and Head of Ecosystem Success at Universal Robots, Germany
• Yumie Kubota, Executive Officer and Department Manager, AI Robotics dept. at YASKAWA Electric Corporation/  President of AI Cube, Japan
• Yunzhi (Amber) Qi, Co-founder & General Manager of Overseas Business Division at YOUIBOT Robotics, China

We will introduce each woman one after the other on our website with a detailed profile, introducing her career path, explaining what made her decide for a career in robotics and her motivation to engage in STEM and robotics to inspire other young women to follow her way.

You can find more details on the selection criteria at https://ifr.org/ifr-press-rele...