What’s Really Stifling Women’s Rise to STEM? It’s Not Biology; it’s Bias
Yes, I know what you’re thinking: Here’s yet another piece on the diversity bomb dropped by former Google employee James Damore earlier this week. And while it may appear that everything that can be said has been said, I am taking the opportunity to place Damore’s gender-based myths within a historical perspective.
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has worked to dispel gender-based myths since the time of its inception, starting with the 1885 research study, Health Statistics of Women College Graduates. The study contradicted Harvard-educated physician, Edward H. Clarke, M.D., who supported the commonly held belief that a college education would harm a woman’s health and result in infertility. That’s right: It was widely believed that higher education would render women infertile.
More than 130 years later sex- and gender-based myths persist. Damore’s viral memo posed a remarkably familiar assertion that “biological” differences between men and women — women’s supposedly lower tolerance for emotional stress, for example — explain the lack of gender equity in engineering and leadership roles at Google. Damore also argued that initiatives toward gender equity are “unfair, divisive, and bad for business.”
We at AAUW know that this is simply not true. What is really stifling women’s rise to STEM and leadership positions isn’t biology; it’s bias.
Since our first report was published more than 130 years ago we have issued numerous other reports aimed at dispelling these myths while exploring the real reasons why women are underrepresented in science, technology, and leadership. For example:
Why So Few?
Our 2010 report, Why So Few, presents research findings positing evidence that social and environmental factors contribute to the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. On the other hand, biological gender differences are yet to be well understood. Even widely held cognitive gender differences — a male advantage when it comes to spatial skills, for example — can be easily overcome with short-term training. This demonstrates that women and girls are not given the opportunity to develop these cognitive skills, not that they are biologically inferior to men and boys.
Solving the Equation
AAUW’s 2015 report, Solving the Equation, continues this line of research, concluding that such factors as stereotypes and biases, college curriculum, and workplace environments discourage women and girls from entering STEM fields.
Barriers and Bias
The gender leadership gap — the gap between men’s and women’s representation in leadership roles in business, politics, and education — is persistent and systemic. Our 2016 report, Barriers and Bias, identifies such limitations as persistent sex discrimination, inflexible paid leave policies, a lack of networks and mentors, and stereotypes and biases as factors that deny women leadership positions.
Gender equity is essential for women, men, families, and our nation. When everyone is afforded the same incentives and opportunities, we all benefit from increased diversity, greater creativity and innovation from a larger talent pool, increased financial stability for families, and a stronger economy.
There are many steps we can take as individuals, employers, and policy makers to effect significant change. Next month AAUW will unveil its Gender Equity in Tech playbook with Dell — a compilation of strategies and actions that organizational leaders can undertake to measurably increase the number of women in tech. By assessing ourselves and enacting research-backed strategies, we can work together to accelerate the rate of change and topple barriers for women in the workplace.
Ready to do more? So are we.
