Mr Kwaku Akoi Tete, Production Manager for Infant Cereals at Nestle Ghana, has urged leadership of firms especially those in the industrial sector to take necessary steps to harness the diverse potential of women to improved productivity.

He said such bold steps would help bridge gender disparities and stereotypes in the industrial world of work and spur growth.

"Females have so much potentials and can do more if you give them the opportunity. When females work in such industrial environment, it does not bring down productivity, but in most cases, it actually improves the productivity of the Organization."

Mr Tete indicated that gender balance was also vital in the achievements of Organization's goals and productivity, adding that there was no work that had been tagged male and female.

Speaking at a brief event to mark this year's International World Women Day, he said Nestle Ghana had always made it a core aspect of its business to ensure that females were always given equal opportunities just as men.

To ensure gender parity, he said the Organization had a balance of male and female officers from the top to the bottom level, created an all-women production line, established a breastfeeding room for

mothers, and offers 17 weeks of maternity leave for women and paternity for fathers.

Mr Tete stated that a number of women in the Organization had been given the opportunity to work in every aspect of the operations, which had resulted in enhanced productivity due to gender parity.

"Over the last decade, all you would find if you went into the factory was seeing only men working, but now you would see a very good number of females in every aspect of our operations whether it is core production or quality assurance," he said.

"Supporting men and women is the culture at Nestle. We see men and women as different side of the same coin with the operation of our business," he said.

Madam Ivy Rockson, the Human Resource Manager at Nestle Ghana, said it was important for everyone to notice that industrial sector work should be an equal playing field for both genders because it helped to enrich every facets of lives of both genders.

She said male counterparts were equally supportive of female counterparts to fully explore their potentials in the Organization.

This, she said, was to ensure that there was equal number of seats on the table in the Organization to bridge the gap of gender disparity in the organization.

Madam Rockson encouraged all women to "choose to challenge" the status quo as the theme of this year's International Women's Day indicated.