Graphic Arts Magazine December 2017 / January 2018 | Page 31
Column
Robeznieks thinks a sixty-forty split would be pretty good for
a mature industry steeped in what was a male dominated
culture with inflexible institutional structures.
The bottom line for Ricoh is acquiring the best talent for its
customer base. “The print industry is becoming more and more
about how to help a client manage print and print can be any-
thing. This philosophy will continue to make graphic
communication an extremely interesting place to be in and that
will be the attractor for everyone.”
Deanna Sinclair of Cambridge Labels says, “I was not particu-
larly shocked by the picture. Quite often you do tend to see a
lot of males on panels. I got immune to it.” Sinclair believes
the industry is evolving. Cambridge Labels services a lot of
female customers who own their own shops. Beside the many
female corporate executives in the print industry the entrepre-
neurial independent vendors and printers are not captured in
that picture. Behind that row of four men in blue suits is a cadre
of women and people of diversity pushing and pulling print
and graphic communication.
About a year ago Sinclair attended a Label Expo gathering in
Chicago where the six panelists were all female. Curious, she
contacted the panel organizer and learned the panel design
was deliberate. “The organizer personally found females are
not asked as much or known so she purposely designed the
panel to be all females.”
A lot of powerful women are making their mark in the entre-
preneurial aspects of print. They are successfully running and
owning shops and moving into leadership positions. And for
Sinclair, “that’s really inspiring.”
Sinclair believes that no particular sex is a better manager,
leader, or businessperson than the other. “The biggest chal-
lenge [for new print industry entrants] is gaining the technical
knowledge that is required to successfully run a printing
business.”
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Marg Macleod, Associate Manager Digital Imaging Association
clarifies the focus of the Digital Imaging Association as being
on technical education and not on the concept of isolating
women or for that matter anyone else in print. “If you work hard
and do a good job, then it doesn’t’ matter whether you are pink
or purple or male or female or whatever ethnicity. It’s your ability
to do a job that counts.” Barriers are self-made. The industry
in general does not do anything to actively set up barriers.
And so we circle back to where we started with four men in
blue suits sitting in a row. Fagan, Robeznieks , Sinclair and
Macleod agree that the industry has evolved and with the
retirement of a dynasty of print titans the playing field will
become wide open for women.
Caterina Valentino, PhD, is an Instructor at the Ted Rogers School
of Management at Ryerson University and the Faculty of Health
Disciplines, Athabasca University. She can be reached at
[email protected].
@graphicarts
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GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE | December 2017 / January 2018 | 31