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Wanted: Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET)

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Did you know that 41% of highly qualified scientists, engineers and technologists on the lower rungs of the corporate career ladders are female? It’s true, and over time more than half of them quit their jobs. These are some of the key findings of the The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology, the first study to ‘map’ the career trajectories of women with SET credentials working in the private sector. It seeks to better understand the scope and shape of the female talent.

The study also found 5 powerful “antigens” or barriers in SET corporate cultures that help explain the female brain drain:

• Women in SET are marginalized by hostile macho cultures.
• Being the sole woman on a team or at a site can create isolation.
• Many women report mysterious career paths: fully 40% feel stalled.
• Systems of risk and reward in SET cultures can disadvantage women, who tend to be risk averse.
• Finally, SET jobs include extreme work pressures: they are unusually time intensive.

[source: Center for Work-Life Policy]

The study also features 13 company initiatives to keep women in SET careers, such as those designed to break down female isolation and on-ramps for women who want to return to work.

I’ve been in SET corporate culture and have been frustrated with the 3rd case in point. I wanted to do more but I couldn’t see it happening in such a setting so I left and ventured out on my own and haven’t been back since. I know this isn’t a path that everybody wants to take, but I do understand the feeling of being stalled and really not knowing what’s going to happen next because you’re bound by the corporation, and quite frankly, with the macho culture in an all-boys club where the preference to get higher up the corporate ladder is given to them.

When it comes being the only female on a team or on a site, for me it helped that I have been “one of the boys” since my teenage years. I think one of the main thing is to not be intimidated by it, and instead treat it as an advantageous position to take initiative and the lead.

For you women out there: Have you experienced any of these barriers?

Men, do you see this happening?

[~ found via Women on Business]

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