With women under-represented in STEM and a huge skills shortage across tech and engineering, organizations must do more to help – we highlight some who are
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that women and girls who seek to advance their STEM education have long faced huge challenges in a field traditionally dominated by men.
And while the past few decades have seen the global community make increased effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science, and women have themselves made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they remain under-represented – but even more so in the workplace.
Women are under-represented in STEM, but especially in the workplace
While women make up 47% of the total workforce, they are statistically under-represented in STEM, with less than 30% of the world’s researchers being women, while the share of women CEOs in tech companies is just 10%.
According to the UN, in cutting-edge fields such as Artificial Intelligence, just one in five professionals (22%) is a woman; while women account for just 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics.
This number is higher in some countries, like India, where 43% of the total graduates in STEM are women, but then the figure drops drastically with just 14% becoming scientists, engineers, and technologists.
This is an issue worldwide, with much fewer women working in the field than have graduated, proving that support for women in the STEM workplace simply isn’t working.
Hardly surprising when you consider that female researchers tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers and are often passed over for promotion, reports the UN. Or that, when it comes to working in engineering and tech, fields that offer the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs, an entry-level salary for a man is more than US$4,000 higher than what is paid to a woman with comparable credentials, the US Bureau of Labor Statistic finds.
Continue reading: https://businesschief.com/sustainability/women-in-stem-close-the-gender-gap-bridge-skills-shortage
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that women and girls who seek to advance their STEM education have long faced huge challenges in a field traditionally dominated by men.
And while the past few decades have seen the global community make increased effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science, and women have themselves made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they remain under-represented – but even more so in the workplace.
Women are under-represented in STEM, but especially in the workplace
While women make up 47% of the total workforce, they are statistically under-represented in STEM, with less than 30% of the world’s researchers being women, while the share of women CEOs in tech companies is just 10%.
According to the UN, in cutting-edge fields such as Artificial Intelligence, just one in five professionals (22%) is a woman; while women account for just 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics.
This number is higher in some countries, like India, where 43% of the total graduates in STEM are women, but then the figure drops drastically with just 14% becoming scientists, engineers, and technologists.
This is an issue worldwide, with much fewer women working in the field than have graduated, proving that support for women in the STEM workplace simply isn’t working.
Hardly surprising when you consider that female researchers tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers and are often passed over for promotion, reports the UN. Or that, when it comes to working in engineering and tech, fields that offer the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs, an entry-level salary for a man is more than US$4,000 higher than what is paid to a woman with comparable credentials, the US Bureau of Labor Statistic finds.
Continue reading: https://businesschief.com/sustainability/women-in-stem-close-the-gender-gap-bridge-skills-shortage
