CAREER CORNER: Focus on Women in STEM
Women in STEM fields STEM careers offer a lot of opportunity, and growth within different fields. These opportunities and possibilities are sometimes not shared equally between all people. STEM careers are generally male dominant fields. Are women inadequate of performing these tasks? Are STEM careers an inclusive privilege to men only? How can we change the stigma about women working alongside men within these highly important and societally beneficial career fields? Women work just as hard as men, if not harder, and deserve to be paid, respected, and appreciated according to their work. Diversity in the workplace supplies society with innovation, new ideas, and different perspectives, we should all work to create workplaces where all humans can flourish or prosper.
Women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Even in college men vastly outnumber women in most STEM fields. These gender gaps are particularly high in faster growing fields or higher paying jobs of the future such as computer science and engineering. Some of the key factors suggesting the gender STEM gaps include gender stereotypes, male dominated cultures, fewer role models, and math anxiety. Another significant area that contributes to a gender gap is confidence. Many girls lose confidence in math by third grade. On average around 30%, of the world’s researchers are women. The UN has called on the global community to hold an International Day of Women in Science to help accomplish this goal.
There are more women researchers than men in countries like Azerbaijan, Thailand, and Georgia. The average rates for North America, Western Europe and sub-Saharan Africa have around 30%. Around the world only 3% of students pursuing Information Technology degrees are women. Some of the forces driving girls and women away from stem career fields are the entrenched gender stereotypes and gender bias. Gender inequalities are sometimes reinforced by movies, television, and the media. On screen, engineers, scientists, and mathematicians are largely played by men, with seven times more male STEM roles in movies than female roles. Only 12% of characters with identifiable STEM jobs onscreen were women, this scenario moves off the screen to influence everyday perceptions. Continuing studies need to be administered to understand the dynamics that shape women’s decisions to seek careers in STEM fields. The areas that need to be researched include showing the extent to which family decisions, financial considerations, workplace culture and discrimination can shape female career choices and progression.
Three groups of women in STEM jobs stand out as more likely to see workplace inequalities. These are groups where men outnumber women, women working in computer related positions, and women in STEM who hold postgraduate degrees. Compared to women in non-STEM jobs (41%), women in STEM positions (50%) are more likely to say they have experienced discrimination by 9%. The types of discrimination experienced in STEM positions in general, includes earning less than a woman/man doing the same job, were treated as if they were not competent, experiences repeated small slights at work, received less support from senior leaders than a woman/man doing the same job, felt isolated in their workplace, been passed over for most important assignments, been turned down for a job, and have been denied a promotion. Women working in male dominated workplaces have experienced discrimination within the following areas, such as experienced gender related discrimination at work, have experienced sexual harassment at work, their gender has made it harder to succeed in their job, they felt the need to prove themselves at work all/some of the time, their workplace pays too little attention to increasing gender diversity, and sexual harassment is a problem in their workplace. Women with post graduate degrees who work in STEM jobs are more likely to than other women in STEM fields to have experienced gender discrimination at work at 62% compared to 41% of women with some college or less education.
Globally men continue to dominate the STEM workforce in many countries. In 2016 women accounted for less than a third (29.3%) of those employed in scientific research and development (R&D) across the world. In the United States woman of color earn the smallest share of STEM degrees at 14.1%. In 2016 Japan took a proactive approach and established targets for women researchers in the natural sciences to reach 30%, as of 2019 only 16.6% of Japan’s researchers in R&D roles were women.
The amount of women workers in S&E (Science and Engineering), occupations increased from 23 – 28% from 1993 – 2010. Psychology is the only large S&E occupation with substantially more women than men. Growth within the biological and related sciences has been the strongest amongst women with the number doubling from 1993-2010.
The amount of women workers also doubled in the computer science/mathematical fields, although the data will show otherwise due to the higher growth of male workers during the same time period of 1993-2010. Currently women in STEM and women being discriminated within STEM fields has become a hot topic, but women have been making huge contributions to STEM fields throughout history. Some of these contributions are only now being recognized.
Ada Lovelace was an early computer scientist who is credited with the creation of the first computer program when she developed an algorithm for Charles Babbage’s analytical engine that would output Bernoulli numbers.
Marie Curie was the first person to win the Nobel Prize twice. Curie’s work dealt mainly with radioactivity, discovering several radioactive elements, the element curium was named in her honor in 1944 after her death.
Katherine Johnson is an African American mathematician who worked for NASA during the space race, she was referred to as “computer” by her co-workers and the calculations she made were critical to putting Americans in orbit as well as landing on the moon.
Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist whose work lead the foundation of our understanding of the workings of things like DNA, RNA and viruses.
Sally Ride was an astronaut, engineer, and physicist. She became the first female astronaut and the third woman to travel into space. Science functions best when it considers a wide range of diverse perspectives. Research has shown that diverse workplaces are happier and more productive.
Solutions for employers to keep their best talent and provide a quality environment for all women workers includes commitment to pay equity, providing connections with female or minority consumers, and supporting innovative side projects. Commitment to pay equity should appeal to employers if they want to increase the number of STEM women they retain and advance. When STEM women are connected to female or minority consumers they get a satisfaction of seeing firsthand the impact of their work, this is where providing connections with female or minority consumers comes to play. Supporting innovative side projects benefits women in STEM because, STEM women are risk averse since they pay a larger penalty for failure. Side projects are lower stakes and give women the freedom to experiment innovate and shine. Successful STEM women are more likely to exhibit showing confidence, making sure their ideas get heard, and to be authentic.
Like all things the issue with women being less involved within STEM careers has challenges and solutions. One of the most important challenges is that there is a shortage of mentors for women in STEM fields. For a woman in a STEM field, if you cannot find a mentor in your organization, join a professional association. Another challenge involves lack of acceptance from co-workers and supervisors, the solution to this from an employee’s standpoint would be to work for a company with female friendly policies and programs. A third challenge involves coping with gender differences in the workplace, the solution to this would be to educate yourself on the gender differences in communication. One thing to remember for women in STEM and prospective female STEM students is that not all STEM fields are dominated by men. Currently 38% of database administrators, 48% of biological scientists, 61% of accountants and auditors, 75% of clinical laboratory technologists and technicians, and 88% of registered nurses are women.
Thebestschools.org provides a guide for STEM Careers for Women here.
In conclusion the numbers show that there is an actually disparity between men and women within STEM careers. There is also common evidence that discrimination against women happens within these fields or careers, careers which require a highly intelligent individual to be qualified to work at. It is possible that this evident lack of respect to educated female STEM workers comes from a deep-rooted belief or stereotype that women are not qualified to be in these fields regardless of their intelligence. These beliefs may have started within cultures and have been broadcasted through modern entertainment as mentioned earlier. As we all know this is purely illogical and untrue. As we move forward as a society, acknowledging these inconveniences is the first step. There are many simple ways to fix the problem or be part of the solution. The most important one being not to judge a book by it’s cover. Becoming an inclusive workplace to all people only increases diversity, perspective, and ideas, which could possibly lead to the next breakthrough in modern science/technology regardless of gender.
Resources:
The STEM Gap: Women and Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
Three Things to Know about Women in STEM
Women and Men in STEM Often at Odds Over Workplace Equity
Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Quick Take
Has Employment of Women and Minorities in S&E Jobs Increased?
Women in STEM: A Guide to Bridging the Gender Gap
The Good News about Women and STEM
Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
Additional Resources:
ASU Alumna Featured in short film series on the experiences of women in STEM
Women and Men in STEM Occupations by State
Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation