In the world of artificial intelligence and automation, long-time team leaders will tell you it also takes a group of diverse and capable people to reach business success goals. This was front and center of a session at the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) annual conference focused on the 2025 State of Women in Dairy report.
The first-ever report was released in 2024 to benchmark sentiment among women and men working in the dairy industry. This report focused on several key areas impacting gender equality: treatment, compensation, mentorship, allyship, and support; opportunities for advancement; factors in recruiting and retention; and discrimination policies and gender equality goals.
The 2025 survey was presented at the IDFA annual Dairy Forum, held in late January in San Antonio, Texas. The survey included responses from more than 600 women and men who work in roles on dairy farms, dairy processing, warehousing, laboratories, and office-based positions. An effort was made to gather responses from “frontline” roles in the most recent survey.
The report shows some key strengths of the dairy industry, including:
- Women are taking initiative to lead: More women (54%) reported asking for promotions compared to men (47%), with 62% of those women saying they received those promotions — a rate equal to men.
- Opportunities for advancement: Two-thirds of women (63%) expressed satisfaction with advancement opportunities within their organization.
- Many dairy companies are investing: Half of female respondents across generations acknowledge having access to programs that support their professional development and retention.
- Perceived imbalance in opportunity for advancement: Nearly half of women (48%) believe they have fewer advancement opportunities than men.
- Gender pay gap: Gender disparities in compensation remain a concern, with 55% of women reporting that their gender negatively impacts their pay, compared to only 5% of men.
- Experiences and retention among female “frontline” workers: Female frontline workers report higher rates of experiencing gender inequality in promotions, compensation, and opportunities compared to other groups. Three in 10 (29%) female frontline workers have left a job in dairy due to lack of opportunities and promotion, and an additional 16% tried to leave without finding other opportunities.
IDFA has identified specific recommended actions for the dairy industry, including: creating and/or improving advancement opportunities for women, developing support and benefits targeted to populations facing greater disparities, and fostering a people-first workplace culture and communication strategy.
Following the report summary presentation, a panel discussed the outcomes of the survey, talent management practices, and looking into the future. The panel included Jenene Calloway of Schreiber Foods, Mat Bartkowiak with Nelson-Jameson Inc., and Becky Rasdall Vargas, IDFA senior vice president.
Bartkowiak commented, “We can have the most wonderful policies down on paper and consider these things as a box-check exercise. At the end of the day, this won’t be successful; this is about structure and demonstration. The key term has to be authenticity. We have to be doing these things for the right reasons.
“The right reasons are not only because this is the right thing to do; this puts us in a more advantageous place in the market. If we can look inward, this can be a benefit to attracting and, probably most importantly, retaining, the best and the brightest that are out there in the market,” he continued.
Calloway said, “There is an element that in some cases, not all cases, if the environment the woman is working in is challenging, there can be a loss of interest in navigating that on a continuous basis. There has to be an internal look at the environment to see how it is set up for women to truly accomplish their goals and what is expected of them in their roles.”
Bartkowiak added, “What resonated to me is a people-first culture. Thinking above and beyond buzzwords. There is a chance for allyship and building up a universal approach. The harsh reality is that there will always be this issue. How do we enact change in meaningful ways? How can we work together across the industry and change those perceptions to make the dairy industry the most competitive it can be when it comes to building the talents that are out there?”
