I have a Confession to Make and it’s about Gender Diversity
We’re all asked what we want to be when we grow up. From the minute I saw man land on the moon, the answer was very clear to me: Astronaut.
Now back then, not very many little girls ran around saying they wanted to be astronauts. In fact, it wasn’t till two decades later when the first American woman flew in space! This blindness to my own gender as a potential obstacle to reaching my goals, continued through the years. But that’s not my confession! Let me explain.
I went on to become an engineer, got my pilot’s license, and did as many of the astronaut things I could do, without being one (including flying on the Vomit Comet)! I reached many of my goals with lots of help from mentors, peers and supportive family members, culminating in top jobs in my line of work.
A few years ago, when I was asked to make a presentation at a Women’s group, my first reaction was to decline. Upon their insistence, I accepted and asked my staff to collect some data for the presentation. When I saw the data, I was simply astounded! I couldn’t understand how the national stats for women in STEM over the last 30 years had not only stagnated at low levels, but were even worse in growing and much needed disciplines like Computer Science!
And that is my confession — that my belief system was based on my own career and assumptions that my industry (defense) was an outlier to the generally improving trends of gender diversity in STEM. I decided then and there that I’d better inform myself and try to be part of the solution.
To that end, I’d like to ask you to reach out with your own stories and ideas about solutions. Please feel free to connect with me at sonya@propelworks.com. Also you can already take a step and help out in a big way by taking a 2 minute survey at:
http://bit.ly/STEMDiversitySurvey
Thank you in advance!