Most efforts to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields focus on hiring. But women also quit STEM jobs at higher rates than men, an exodus that only intensified as millions of women left the labor market at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If we keep letting women leave, we’re not going to end up with more gender diversity,” says Shelley Correll, a sociology professor at Stanford University and a professor of organizational behavior, by courtesy, at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “We could start by stopping the bleeding.”
Correll and sociology PhD student Julia Melinopen in new window found one way to do just that — through an online program that offered support for women starting off in STEM. In March 2020, a group of early-career women at a North American biotechnology firm began meeting with coaches and peers through a virtual platform. The six-month intervention focused on developing soft skills — interpersonal abilities such as negotiation, influencing coworkers, and strategic networking.
The study began just before COVID-related lockdowns went into effect. “Because of the widely known challenges with work during the pandemic, we were expecting a big decline [in soft skills] for people who weren’t in the program and stability for those in the program. Instead, we saw improvement for women in the program, and the amount of improvement for a short program like this was surprising to us.”
Continue reading: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/teaching-soft-skills-can-help-women-stay-science-tech-jobs
“If we keep letting women leave, we’re not going to end up with more gender diversity,” says Shelley Correll, a sociology professor at Stanford University and a professor of organizational behavior, by courtesy, at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “We could start by stopping the bleeding.”
Correll and sociology PhD student Julia Melinopen in new window found one way to do just that — through an online program that offered support for women starting off in STEM. In March 2020, a group of early-career women at a North American biotechnology firm began meeting with coaches and peers through a virtual platform. The six-month intervention focused on developing soft skills — interpersonal abilities such as negotiation, influencing coworkers, and strategic networking.
The study began just before COVID-related lockdowns went into effect. “Because of the widely known challenges with work during the pandemic, we were expecting a big decline [in soft skills] for people who weren’t in the program and stability for those in the program. Instead, we saw improvement for women in the program, and the amount of improvement for a short program like this was surprising to us.”
Continue reading: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/teaching-soft-skills-can-help-women-stay-science-tech-jobs
