The urgent need to STEMpower women

By Carissa Wong, PhD Cancer Immunology

International Women's Day (March 8th) is a great opportunity to reflect on the achievements of women in STEM, as well as the challenges that remain.

STEM fields include the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. While graduates in health-related sciences such as biology are fairly gender-balanced, there are many less women than men among graduates in core-STEM subjects, which include the areas such as physics, maths, computer science, engineering, technology and architecture.

While there are one million women in core-STEM roles as of 2019, women make up just 24% of core-STEM roles in the UK and so represent the largest untapped talent pool. There is a need to understand and improve the gender balance of people pursuing STEM for the sake of improved productivity, fresh perspectives and better social cohesion within these fields.

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The lack of young women enrolling in core-STEM subjects in higher education is strongly linked to stereotypical beliefs about STEM formed during childhood. Many studies have described the way maths and science are viewed by students as male domains.

Both quantitative and qualitative tests have been used to assess the gender stereotypes of maths and science including the Draw-A-Scientist Test and word-association tests. In the Draw-A-Scientist-Test, children consistently draw scientists as middle-aged men with dishevelled hair, with a minority of children, mainly girls, drawing women scientists.

Stereotypic beliefs that STEM subjects are more suitable for boys than girls have been shown to be more strongly endorsed by boys and men. Meanwhile, boys highly interested in STEM and girls most uninterested in STEM subjects made the strongest associations between STEM and being male, indicating a link between STEM-gender stereotypes and subsequent interest in pursuing studies in that area.

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In studies on semantics, words such as soft, playful, frail and flexible are used to describe women. Trait descriptors like hard, serious, strict, robust were associated with the subjects of maths and physics. Interestingly, chemistry was not associated strongly in these tests with men or women and was shown to then be taken nearly equally by boys and girls as subjects later in school. The strongest association was of maths, then physics, with the male gender and these subjects had a much more male-dominated cohort later in school.

It has also been shown that male students who do not associate themselves with stereotypically masculine traits are also less likely to pursue STEM careers, suggesting that they are can be put off from pursuing STEM for similar reasons as young women. Additionally, men in non-STEM careers seemed to form stronger associations of maths with stereotypically masculine traits, than men in STEM fields. Clearly, it is for the benefit of all genders, not just women, that we remove the cultural stereotypes of different genders and their suitability for different career paths.

Increased gender diversity has been shown to improve workplaces, making them more productive, adaptable and responsive to customer needs. Employers lose out on talent when they leave women scientists, engineers and technologists out of the picture. Just over 60% of STEM graduates who are women - 17,500 annually - do not then use their skills in STEM work.

Some employers are still reluctant to employ women, because they question their commitment to work if they have children or other family obligations. However, it has been shown in a study involving over 200 organisations that women do not leave companies at higher rates than men, and only a small number of women would leave the workforce for family roles.

So, how can we move forwards? Firstly, senior management must set an example by bringing diversity and inclusivity into the core values of the workplace. Workplaces with a more inclusive culture recruit women more easily. Managers have the power to initiate change and should develop programmes where female voices and perspectives can be heard by male managers.

Second, recruiters should be careful in how they advertise roles and ensure that they do not use language that can deter women from the role - actively saying that they are welcoming to all genders can help women to feel more comfortable in applying. By actively avoiding all-male shortlists, recruiters can give more women opportunities to prove their capabilities.

Finally, misogynistic comments and behaviour must be treated with zero-tolerance; everyone should also understand and feel comfortable to use a system for reporting such incidents. Moreover, flexible working hours help more people to be included by, for example, enabling workers to work and carry out carer roles more easily.

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If you identify as a woman or as nonbinary and are interested in developing your tech skills, ‘Code First: Girls’ is a wonderful not-for profit social enterprise helping women to develop coding, programming skills and personal skills. They offer free part time coding courses for university students or those who have recently graduated.

In line with their goal to empower women in tech, Code First: Girls also work with companies to improve their female recruitment and help like-minded women to find and support each other. Organisations such as these are helping women to reach the critical mass of 30% of roles in core-STEM areas, a point at which it’s thought that women can have a real impact on changing organisations and their policies to reap the rewards of gender-balanced communities.

Featured image: Flickr / NASA Marshall Flight Plan, Seattle Municipal Archives, NIH Image Gallery, WOCinTech Chat

How are you celebrating International Women's Day? Let us know!