A week ago we had an election, and this past Saturday we finally got a result. I can’t help but feel joy and a sigh of relief, but it’s also not lost on me that ~45% of America did not get the result that they wanted.

While I’m confident that we will all eventually move forward like we always do, I want to take a minute to celebrate that we now have a woman on deck to hold the second-highest office in the land! My hope is that no matter the party you support, we can all celebrate this momentous occasion in our history for all the little girls out there, because it has been a barrier for far too long.

I wouldn’t be who I am today and who I strive to be someday, without the women role models and leaders I’ve been fortunate to have throughout my career in the meat, animal agriculture, and now animal health industries. From Department Directors, to Presidents of Business Units, to CEO of a Fortune 500 company, to now one outside of my industry (Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris) to look up to, who said on Saturday, “and while I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last.”

This occasion in our history is made even more special by the fact that in the Senate 60 women filed for election¹ through the primaries, with 24 women eventually winning a seat (16D, 8R)². In the House, 583 females filed to run in 2020 (256 Democrats and 227 Republicans)¹, and of those 111 won a seat (87D, 24R)² from races called through Sunday. I applaud all these trailblazers and smile knowing that my daughter will have plenty of female representation in all offices and facets to look up to.

However, now is also the time to ask ourselves, what are we doing in the meat industry to further give women seats at the helm of this billion-dollar table?

I am fortunate to work for a company that has recently set a five-year goal to grow further in gender diversity by increasing the number of women represented at the director and above level, to 40% from 32%.³ When looking through the 2020 Top 100 Meat and Poultry Processors list compiled in June by the National Provisioner, I found only two woman among the CEO ranks: Laura Flanagan of No. 15 Foster Farms and Kimberly Ruiz Beck of No. 46 Ruiz Foods.

Change starts today, change starts now. So to those men, shareholders and bBoards of directors running the other top 98 companies, think about how you can take a lesson from President-Elect Joe Biden and have “the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country and select a woman.”

References

Agee, T. (2020). 2020: The Year of the Female Candidate. Voice of The Food Industry Blog.

CAWP Staff. (2020, November 4). Results: Women Candidates in the 2020 Elections. Retrieved from Center For American Women And Politics: https://cawp.rutgers.edu/election-analysis/results-women-candidates-2020-elections

Zoetis. (2020, November 9). Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Retrieved from Zoetis: https://www.zoetis.com/sustainability/care-and-collaborate/diversity-and-inclusion/index.aspx

Representation matters: Part 2

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