Bridging The STEM Gender Gap In Utah
With tech raging, startups abounding, low unemployment, and a burgeoning economy generally, Utah has become a mecca for brisk business, with one caveat: the good news excludes women in high-tech and other STEM-related sectors. Why does or should this matter to Utah businesses and how do we begin to fix it?
What we’ve been doing: We talk about the lack of women; we look at how to hire women; we look at how to retain women and how to interact with women; and we target young women. But, in all of this, we are often still trying to fit many women into jobs in a way that all women may not want to fit into jobs. The professional positions are almost always full-time and this may be one of the barriers to both retention and entry in STEM fields.
Like it or not, the Utah woman’s story is sometimes this: A young women (intelligent, hard-working, capable and having all of the keys that make her fabulous) gets an education, gets a great job, marries, begins having children, leaves her job, slowly or quickly becomes obsolete professionally, finishes kid-raising, or gets divorced, or her husband dies or becomes ill, or, or, or, and then she wants to re-enter the workforce.
So, how might this play out instead? If a woman starts a family and if she begins to consider quitting her job, companies need to explore how they might accommodate her in an untraditional way, a creative way because the investment that’s been made in her makes it worth trying to retain her and keep her relevant. Finding excellent talent is competitive. So, to keep her, companies need to think outside the box. One way of doing this is by offering her part-time work. The word part-time conjures up thoughts of low-paying, and possibly less-than professional work. So, instead, call it shared-time. Change her (professional) headcount to two half-heads if you will, and presto she’s still viable. Change the culture of what it means to not work full-time. Make it positive and ok. Indeed, implementing this kind of initiative may take some creative effort, but in the end, companies and women benefit.
Consider the alternative: if a woman chooses to leave the workplace to raise children, she often loses her place in line. Years later, she will likely come back to work with a bit less chutzpah, less responsibility, a huge gap in skills and pay, and she may be relegated to positions that don’t tap into her capabilities, and at this point, she will likely have reduced opportunities for leadership.
When women are kept in the line, companies continue to foster the culture of diversity which will “propel creativity, innovation and initiative.” Forbes, Is Diversity Good for Business?
Hmmm — Not a bad reason to care to find ways to include women. Beyond that, “companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians,” according to findings from research conducted by McKinsey & Company. Add ethnically diverse populations, and it climbs to 35% (for another writing session). Employing women meaningfully improves the robustness of the business environment around us. Ideas for business swirl in different ways. Women add a perspective that a bunch of dudes (and in Utah, dudes means white guys named something Biblical) may not dream up or bring to the table. It may not be in their brains or available to them. And, this can be true for women on the other side of that equation. We fill some gaps for each other. When we combine our mutual sets of experiences, backgrounds and perspectives, the landscape becomes richer, more vibrant and more imaginative. The culture begins to be more comfortable to all parties and (different) great things begin to happen.
To keep Utah women throughout the span of their working years professionally agile, connected, relevant and contributing, we must look at different ways to retain and attract them from the get-go, or we lose the opportunity to do so altogether. Richard Nelson, Utah Technology Council President and CEO said, “Demand for software developers and engineers far outstrips the ability of our colleges, universities and applied technology colleges to produce those graduates and skilled talent.” And, he continues, “When a company can’t find enough talent in a hot market like Utah, it has to open offices elsewhere. The result is lost economic opportunity.” And, when those jobs leave our state, we also lose the opportunity to employ our own. Let’s look more creatively at how shared professional positions can help increase and keep the pool of skilled STEM women as a resource for Utah’s positive economic growth now and for years to come.
