Thank you for your interest in being a participant in this article. This is clearly a topic which has meaning to you. Please share a bit about your background with emphasis on how and why you became interested in a career in a STEM focused field. Also share some of the insight you have gained working in a STEM field as it related to underrepresented groups such as young women.
Background : I attended a all girls elementary & high school in Singapore so I did not experience the gender biases towards STEM. The culture in Singapore at that time was biased towards male gender when it came to “management” roles but not towards STEM roles… so my experience will be different from those growing up in America.
I have a Bachelors of Science degree with double major in Management Information Systems and Finance and a minor in Computer Science. Not PURE STEM but a nice combo of science & business.
My interest in a MIS degree came about from my work at HP while I was figuring out what degree to pursue after high school. It took 2 years of working lots of temp jobs in different industries (law firm, oil refinery, manufacturing) before I decided to convert from Temp to Permanent Role at Hewlett Packard in Singapore.
Having the opportunity to work with their machines in the early 80’s, helped me decide that the IT industry was the future. There were many females in HP’s technical department then & it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t belong.
After graduation, I worked in a large IT distribution company’s training division, providing software training to customers. I was fortunate that there was equal # of females in the dept & the company was well represented by females. I am lucky I never felt unwelcome in the IT industry as I shifted from technical to sales/marketing. I’ve been in several management teams where women made up the majority.
I feel that it depends on the companies you work for. Some companies might lean towards hiring more males if their management team is made up mostly of males. People tend to hire others that are similar to them. So, the leadership in the company makes a big difference.
Another difference is culture. In some societies, women are generally not given any important roles so the STEM field would not be a popular one for young women to want to pursue as the barrier of entry is too high. I was fortunate that in Singapore, there isn’t as much of a barrier for women in STEM fields.
“Go Science Girls” quotes the following statistics, “…in the United States, women make up only ¼ of the entire STEM workforce. Contrarily, women dominate men when it comes a STEM degree. Further statistics show that women constitute 15% of the engineering force and 25% of the computer and mathematical sciences. In Australia, women made up 27% of the STEM workforce in 2016. There are various reasons for such a meager constitution of women in STEM. The prime reason is the lack of practical experiences. Women have been quoted saying that they love STEM activities, but the lack of practical exercises discouraged them from building a career in the field.”
These are not new facts and figures but rather ones that have been heard time and again. What do you feel can be done to decrease the implication that women are not well suited to these careers while increasing the number of young women pursuing a career in these fields?
I strongly believe that giving young girls the exposure & experience early in life will help them gain confidence & set them up for success in pursuing STEM education & career. Encouraging them to break gender career stereotypes while they are young will go a long way.
I also feel that because of the keen competition, a career in the STEM field might be more difficult for women wanting to strike a balance with kids & career. So that might lead to women leaving the STEM field earlier or decide not to pursue that field at all.
As much as I am good with multi-tasking, I found it impossible to balance the demands of a career & being there for my kids – at least not in the way I wanted to. Long working days mean I couldn’t be home with the kids or I’d be too exhausted after work to spend quality time with them. So it’ll depend on personal/family goals. Some women might love a STEM career but their priority to spend more time with their kids might trump that. But with having stay at home dads being a trend these days, we might see more females pursuing more demanding STEM careers.
This is an issue. I think offering part-time/flexible STEM roles to women who wish to focus on their family but still want to contribute their passion/expertise in the STEM field will provide expanded resources for organizations.
Many of us have worked for companies that require, value, and reward critical thinking, problem solving and collaborations. These skills, along with other skills, are key elements to all aspects of living and is especially required in areas such as technology, science, medicine to name a few areas. What are the positive ways to engage underrepresented groups in acquiring these skills?
Provide sponsorships/scholarships for internships in companies where they can get job rotations across diff. departments to get exposure in various areas of the business. Opportunities to work outside one’s comfort zone are important – to experience decision making outside one’s comfort zone. Provide part-time special project gigs to give this group opportunity to learn hands on experience.
Finding a good mentor in a career is one key element to success. Each of you have been both mentee and mentor. As a mentee what was the most valuable advice or experience you have had thus far in your career? How can underrepresented individuals become adept at seeking mentorship? As successful individuals, how can we ensure we look to be more inclusive in tossing out our ‘mentorship net’?
As a management mentee, the most valuable advice I got was “Hire the right people, put them in the right jobs & they will make magic happen.” – it’s all about the people. The most valuable experience I’ve had was being given the opportunities to make my own mistakes, find my own solutions and learn from them.
This is a difficult issue to address because I believe such changes need to start at home & early in life. Having a good education system with good role models to instill confidence in girls while they are young will go a long way. Having a family (especially parents) that doesn’t coddle the girls & shape them into a “damsel in distress” mindset is very important.
Re-Education programs for parents might be a good start. Stop encouraging or rewarding mediocrity. Stop treating girls like they are fragile & need to be saved by a prince. Instead, teach parents to encourage their girls to have the courage to try new things & embrace each failure as a lesson. It needs to start early at home
I agree that we should have more female representation at the CxO table. But at the end of the day, it needs to be about competency & leadership. Organizations should hire the best person for the job regardless of gender. Female CXOs should not be hired just because their gender. I’ve seen organizations that hire a manager to fulfill affirmative action quotas & those managers are disastrous for the division/company when they are incompetent but yet cannot be fired – that only leads to resentment & becomes a handicap for the company. If I had a magic wand, I would like to see CxO’s selected by a board/panel that is equally represented by both genders.
Based on biz leadership track record & not just connection with the “boys club”
I experienced this as a regional lead overseeing Korea. It’s a patriarchal society & having a tiny female regional lead arrive in the Korean subsidiary to scrub their business plans & provide regional direction was not welcome. The team would speak in Korean in front of me – no doubt calling me names … but at the end of 2 years, the Korean team was my most devoted team in the region. They will come through for me if I needed them to pull in extra revenue for APAC. They were extremely sad when I left the role & told their GM I was the best regional lead they’ve ever had. I still consider that my biggest achievement in that role.
My response to their hostility was, instead of telling them what to do or pulling rank to demand their respect, I told them I was there to work hard for them & to make them successful. I didn’t waste energy feeling slighted or angry about how they had treated me with less respect because of gender, so I focused my energy in proving their cultural assumptions wrong. I proved to them through my actions so I battled with regional headquarters for their resources, blocked unnecessary distractions from corporate & absorbed any blow backs from any of their mistakes. I made sure they shine in their subsidiary/in the region & became their “warrior” when they need anything. I wouldn’t do anything differently today.
When you think about giving advice or providing your input on issues facing young women entering into STEM field jobs, what would your biggest piece of advice be? As you respond to this question, think about the following: Why would you give this advice? What difference could your advice make in someone’s life? Did you have a similar experience and who helped you through it?
My advice would be the same as Rene Brown’s, “Dare to do everything Greatly.” As my daughter starts high school this year, my advice for her is to pursue whichever field that you are interested in or that makes you happy – we are often our own obstacle thinking we can’t do this or do that. For young women pursuing STEM, I would say, the biggest obstacle you have in achieving what you set out to achieve is your fear of failure. So, embrace failure as opportunities to gain experience and welcome them as lessons in life. Look forward to the fears in life to overcome & don’t waste your energy being the victim. If a company doesn’t value your passion/talent & puts incompetent males into roles which should be yours, move to another team or company that will value you. Do not waste time & valuate energy complaining about being discriminated against – instead, prove to them that you know your worth then bring it to another organization that deserves you. No one and no company can tell you what you are worth. Only you can.
I’ve encountered Female entrepreneurs in other fields who start companies & hire mostly females & they create retail products that meet our needs very well & are successful companies. Females in Asia have lots of purchasing power & is a huge target market for business there – so my experience has been that lots of organizations there do have good female representation in their product development & delivery.
It does appear that the purchasing power of females in the US is lower than that in Asia – so that might be influencing how organisations staff their teams or develop their products. Ultimately, if the purchasing power of females here continue to rise, the organisations that do not shift according to the market will fail – so I think it’s a slow journey, but the shift will happen. The market will drive the change.
I am actually not concerned about this as per my answer above. If organisations are targeting the female market segment & they do not evolve on their product development strategy with that focus …. While the purchasing power of females is increasing, they will lose their market share in their segment of the market. These organizations will fall behind those that have the vision to focus their attention on that segment of the market & have the smarts to hire females for their team to help shape product development and strategy. The world is changing & those that do not change will just be left behind…. There are not that many old stuff rich white guys left for them to target