It’s a sad but slightly depressing truth that, even in these supposedly enlightened times, we still seem to have a massive mental block when it comes to gender diversity in the STEM (that’s science, technology, engineering and maths FYI) careers. If asked to picture a scientist in your mind, we’d hazard a guess that the vast majority of us would probably conjure up someone wearing a lab coat, and that someone would probably be a man. (Side note: can you name a famous female scientist? We struggled.)
A similar covert-sexism applys to engineering and coding, where women are still not as prevelent as they should be. As Emma Winston, who codes for female-run digital agency Digital Fairy, told us when we spoke to her about the issue of gender imbalance in technology last month: 'I have occasionally found that male developers automatically assume I'm just a designer and that I won't know how to implement stuff in the front-end of a site. That can be frustrating.'
But this is an inbalance that the Government are now taking serious steps to change, because today Women and Equalities Minister, Jenny Willott MP launched pilot project Opening Doors to ‘stamp out gender bias in school’ and ensure that ‘no student should feel restricted by their gender’. The project, follows a report from the Institute of Physics(IoP) last December which suggested almost half of state schools are ‘reinforcing gender stereotypes’ in terms of the subjects students study at A-level, which has meant that girls are giving up STEM subjects at the earliest possible opportunity. What that’s then meant is that very few women study STEM subjects at higher education, which immediately closes them off to some very rewarding and (let’s be honest, very well paid) careers later down the line.
For Willott, the programme can’t come soon enough. ‘If we don’t do something about this soon, then we risk missing out on the talent of half the population, which has serious implications for this country’s growth,’ she told The Debrief. ‘For Britain to be competitive and for our economy to grow, we need more people going in to high-skilled jobs in STEM subjects. The businesses that work in these areas are telling us that they are desperately short of skills in those particular areas, but there simply aren’t enough women taking on those subjects at the moment. There are no reasons why these subjects are more for boys than for girls, they’re not, and we need keen and enthusiastic girls to be going in a studying in those areas as well.’
We are constantly bombarded with news about graduate unemployment being at record high levels, and yet there are members of multi-national corporations telling the Government that there is a skill shortage and roles that need to be filled. Why isn’t the message getting across to young women? Abie Uwaifo is 15 and doing triple award science for her GCSEs at Highams Park School, where the Opening Doors programme is being piloted. Two of the men in her family are engineers and she’s always loved science, but she finds the more ‘masculine’ sciences hard to get excited about. ‘I’ve always loved science, but it’s biology rather than physics that’s my favourite and I’d much rather get into medicine than a career in physics,’ she told The Debrief. ‘I still think there’s a stereotype that science is just a male thing and that’s off putting because women don’t want to be the only one in a crowd of men and they just want to fit in to what other girls are doing.’ Glenda Guspardi, 15, agrees. ‘If I thought more women were in the industry, I’d probably be more encouraged to pursue that kind of a career. It would prove that I could do the same thing as well.’
‘Part of the problem is an engrained stereotypes that a lot of us don’t realise that we have,’ Jenny Willot agrees. ‘Parents often enforce a stereotype that STEM subjects are hard and not very enjoyable, at the same time that society enforces stereotypes that scientists are predominantly men. This is attitude we’re trying to challenge by introducing women working in STEM industries to school-age girls to show how diverse and exciting these professions can be.’
It’s certainly resonated with 14 year-old student Robyn King. '‘Before today, I never thought of taking science as an A-Level,’ she explained. ‘Seeing the people that came in today and the students and women in jobs has completely changed my mind.’
But the fact is that there are women training in these professions but, despite the fact businesses maintain that there are positions that need filling, women are still woefully underrepresented in these careers. What’s causing the block? ‘I actually don’t think that recruitment is too bad,’ Dr. Frances Saunders, President of the Institute of Physics, explains. ‘The figures show that around 50% of the entry level jobs taken up by graduates are women – the problem is hanging on to them. By the time women reach their late 20s and 30s and perhaps go and have a family, women tend to drop off and leave the workplace. This is absolutely fine – and many men leave to nurture children as well – the problem is that when women return they often don’t return at a high enough level. I think there is a bit of a presenteeism culture. I’ve had many conversations throughout my career with people who say things like “she’s working part time therefore she can’t be as important to the organisations somebody else’” and that’s wrong. My attitude is that you’ve invested 10 years into training this person, they’ve got the talent and we want to make sure they’re still with us. How do we make sure they stick with and we can continue to support their talents – this isn’t about altruism, when you’re running a business it just makes financial sense.’
According to Jenny Willot MP, the government has plans to tackle this issue as well. ‘Flexible working is part of the answer I think we are starting to see some real progress there,’ she explains. ‘From the end of this month, everyone will have the right to request flexible working regardless of whether they’re male, female, young, old, with children or not. Hopefully, we’ll begin to break down some of the stigma that some women feel when they ask for time off or to work from home for childcare. Hopefully it will become much more normal for everyone to work flexibly, which might help not only encourage women to get into STEM professions, but possibly keep them there as well.’
Here’s hoping, then, that we’ll soon be able to name famous women science and technology. Without having to phone a friend.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophieculliane
Picture: Rex
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.