Forbes collaborated with German market and consumer data specialist Statista to determine the companies best supporting women inside and outside their workforces. The annual ranking of America’s Best Employers For Women surveyed 50,000 Americans—30,000 women and 20,000 men—working for businesses with at least 1,000 employees. The list includes window film industry companies 3M, Saint-Gobain (Solar Gard is a division of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics) and Avery Dennison.

Women in Window Film
3M, Avery Dennison and Saint-Gobain landed on the 400-company list, a testament to industry inclusion efforts.
Company             Rank         Employees       Year Founded
3M                          174             38,000                1902
Avery Dennison    304             35,000                1990
Saint-Gobain         331             167,816                1665

Respondents rated their organizations on criteria like “working conditions, diversity and how likely they’d be to recommend their employer to others. These responses were reviewed for potential gender gaps. Statista then asked female respondents to rate their employers on factors such as parental leave, discrimination and pay equity, and to nominate organizations in industries outside their own. Representation at the executive and board levels were also factored into the final score,” according to Forbes.

3M’s chief diversity officer Marina Pariseau spoke at length about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in a July interview with The HR Digest: “For many D&I practitioners, doing the work we do comes from a very personal place, and I am no exception. I was raised by a single mother and lived below the poverty level for much of my upbringing. My mom struggled to grow her career due to the many barriers she faced and the stigma associated with being a single mom. Forced to work two jobs, my mom left us in the care of my grandmother. I learned a lot from these two strong women, and they both have shaped how I view and practice D&I.”

The Avery Dennison Foundation invested in women’s empowerment through The Resilience Fund for Women in Global Value Chains in March 2022: “Women in the corporate value chain often have fragile livelihoods, as well as care burdens, threats of violence and little social support,” says Avery Dennison Foundation president Alicia Procello. “Funding women-led organizations is critical to solving these challenges, because those organizations are closest and most responsive to marginalized women.”

A push for diversity and inclusion can also be observed at a dealer level. Several prominent female film stars kicked off the new year by launching a calendar titled the Women of Automotive Film. Ten women comprise the calendar’s pages.

“I want to bring light to [the fact] that there are females in this male-dominated industry,” says Liz Lasa of Artistic Window Tinting in Yuba City, Calif., who is also known as ‘Window Tinting Queen.’ “Hopefully, it brings light to other females that want to get into our industry—to promote that it’s open to males and females.”
Cheyanne Kahele, owner of Kaloko Tinting in Kona, Hawaii, collaborated on the calendar to smash stereotypes.

“I do all of the automotive film where I work,” Kahele says. “I’m sweating and in T-shirts and shoes all day. I was looking forward to taking nice pictures, getting pretty, getting all glammed up and feeling good about myself. Because I don’t get to do that—I’ve got three kids, have my own business and [I’m] trying to build a house.”

During a recent visit to San Antonio’s Tint World, Window Film magazine spoke to sales manager Brittany Hemby on the importance of female representation in the film industry.

“If you’re a young girl or a grown woman, don’t give up on your dreams,” Hemby says. “I love the car industry and enjoy all years, makes and models of vehicles.”