Diversity for an Innovative Future: Women in STEM
It doesn't take more than simple observation to note there is a large gender-gap within STEM fields. To quantify that observation, women hold less than a quarter of the jobs in science and technology. These are the fields innovating and progressing the world around us, yet the potential talent of half our population is not being adequately tapped into. What factors are still present perpetuating this inequality in our society? Plugging Women into STEM is an important step to increasing equality and keeping the United States competitive in the race for technological innovation. While wonderful that those before us have made it possible to pursue an education and a career as a woman, the fight for changing the status quo is far from over. Despite these fields increasing relevancy to the modern world, the gender gap in STEM still persists as an omnipresent threat with real scientific, economic, and social impacts to society.
Growing Up.
The lack of women pursuing STEM fields can’t be explained by a single defining factor, but is instead a tangled web of expectations and not-so-subtle gender bias that has been weaved into our social fabric. There are a variety of both internal and external forces which, over the course of a young woman’s life, can have an impact on her choice of career path. Some of the largest external factors in the choice of STEM lie in pre-college education, visibility, and the ability to balance career with family. These external forces driving women away from pursuing highly academic professions begin as early as birth, perhaps even while being dressed as a child.
Only a mere two years ago Gymboree was selling “Smart like Daddy” and “Pretty like Mommy” onesies. Not to mention, in the 1990’s when Mattel Toys released the first talking Barbie, her first words were, “Math class is tough.” How does this reflect the way society encourages girls in education and why does our culture continue to perpetuate this stereotype? By exposing children to these social constructs at such a young age, it can be unconsciously ingrained into their understanding of the world around them. These toys can have greater effects than re-enforcing stereotypes, they can even influence spatial learning abilities. These abilities to visualize two or three- dimensional objects goes on to indicate talent in STEM. Spatial skills begin to develop at childhood, so when boys are given Legos and science kits while girls are given dolls and play-kitchens, they have the chance to begin building the foundation for success in these fields. Do we have anyone to blame but ourselves for creating the disparity of women in science and tech?
Media.
Living in a culture inundated with media presence, children’s toys are not the only bi-product of our gender molds. What we see in the media shapes how we view the world and those beliefs in turn drive behavior. Kids and teens from 8 to 18 are spending more than seven and a half hours per day consuming media. Spending so much screen time observing and being exposed to the messages being portrayed means that the media is very influential in our behavior and beliefs. “A recent study showed that television exposure was positively correlated with self-esteem for young white boys, but negatively correlated with self-esteem for young girls and African American children.” By showing stereotypical portrayals of women, the masses that the media affects are having these beliefs reinforced. When the only images a young girl is spending seven and half hours of her day viewing are ones which place women into defined boxes or character types, the result is a limited belief on what she can become. A related study found that “viewing media images of powerful women decreased women’s negative self-perceptions and increased women’s leadership aspirations.” The current content in mainstream media is reinforcing stereotypes and causing us to continue the development of implicit bias on women in leadership and in STEM. However, this power can be used in the opposite sense for the better. Media has the influence to empower these unrepresented groups and display non-stereotypical roles, for example, showing a women scientist who is well-rounded and relatable. Research has been done that exposes students to stereotypical and non-stereotypical computer science majors of both genders and then examines the effects of how successful those students perceive that they would be in the major. While the males had little difference, the female students who interacted with the stereotypical major had a significant decrease in perception of their own success in computer science. This perception and bias can change overtime as women are exposed to more non-stereotyped people in science. Having real portrayals of women in media will bolster the general viewpoint and change the way the masses implicitly behave, including their views on participation in STEM.
Stereotypes.
Until recently, it has been noted as a possible belief that biological gender differences were correlated with success in mathematics and science. Looking at the current gap data in the US, one may jump to such conclusion, but on a macro level, one would have fewer grounds to make such hypothesis. PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), a test which gauges 15-year-olds, found that “In science, the biggest gaps favoring boys were in the United States and Denmark. Girls outscored boys in Finland, Greece, Poland, Slovenia, and Turkey.” Other global assessments also show girls having an edge in math and science subjects, except in the United States. International data proves that these differences are heavily weighted on society and culture vs. some innate biological difference. Sheryl Sandberg elaborates on allowing gender stereotypes to become self-fulfilling prophecies in her recent book Lean In.
“Compounding the problem is a social-psychological phenomenon called “stereotype threat”. Social scientists have observed that when members of a group are made aware of a negative stereotype, they are more likely to perform according to that stereotype. For example, stereotypically, boys are better at math and science than girls. When girls are reminded of their gender before a math or science test, even by something as simple as checking off an M or F box at the top of a test, they perform worse. Stereotype threat discourages girls and women from entering technical fields and is one of the key reasons that so few study computer science.”
Studies with stereotype threat demonstrate that social factors play a much bigger role in performance and outcome than we tend to believe. One particularly interesting study was on Asian-American women before taking a math test. “When reminded of being Asian (which invokes stereotypes of high math ability) they scored higher than the control group (which was not reminded of their race or gender) on a math test. However, when Asian-American women were reminded of being female (which invokes stereotypes of poor math performance), they scored lower on the math test than the control group.” Stereotype threat can have long-term effects, causing effected parties to disengage from the threatening situation, self-handicap, perceive themselves as failures, or even dis-identify with the original group. This long-term damage can be appropriated for lowering girls’ goals of science and engineering careers over time. This issue needs attention and mitigation if we are going to make progress towards a more diverse STEM population.
Education.
To combat the drop off of women pursuing STEM, we need to start at the beginning by strengthening pre-college education. Only 0.4% of all female college freshman report that they plan to major in Computer Science. Classrooms today are still based on the traditional learning styles of the factory age. In a job market that values innovative minds; encouraging open-ended problem solving, hands-on learning, and creativity, would vastly improve current methods of delivering curriculum. Along with re-vamping how our curriculum is taught, it is important to have qualified teachers delivering these messages as well. It is becoming increasingly vital to encourage qualified professionals to teach in K-12 classrooms, which will also simultaneously increase mentorship for pre-college students to stay engaged. The National Center for Education Statistics survey “found over a quarter of STEM teachers are not certified to teach in the subjects that they teach”. Organizations such as 100Kin10 and Teach for America recognize this issue and are working to get qualified STEM professionals in the classroom. There is a known lack of positive encouragements for girls to go on to harder math and science courses in comparison to their male counterparts, and unfortunate reality that has yet to be changed. However, with the right pre-college education, mentorship, and inspiration that a passionate teacher can provide, women will understand how STEM is producing tangible contributions to society every day. Through positive reinforcement and inclusion, the statistics can be changed. The Labor Department has estimated there will be 1.4 million job openings for computer-related occupations this decade. By adding digital literacy to K-12 education, all students will be better prepared for this shift in career openings and will have hands-on experience before choosing a college major. Self-empowered with the knowledge that there is potential to make a difference in the world with the fundamentals from their pre-college education, women will be more likely to pursue their interest in STEM.
In Industry.
What impact do these internal biases, from media stereotyping or otherwise, have on women already in the fields of STEM? Between both hiring and earning gaps, there is still inequality once a women has already chosen to pursue STEM, creating even more hurdles to be crossed. A simple study done at Yale, distributed two identical resumes out to professors for a paid lab position, the only difference being whether there was a boy’s or girl’s name on the top. The results not only showed the professors were significantly more likely to hire the male, but also to start his salary much higher than the identical female counterpart. When the decision-makers have implicit biases, despite identical skills between men and women, less women are being hired and retained in science fields. It is much harder to follow a career path when there are few mentors or inspirational figures to guide you. The lack of visibility of women in STEM influences both those trying to get into the field and fails to challenge the internal bias of many decision-makers, most who are acting so subconsciously. Although the earning gap for STEM fields is smaller than the average for most jobs in the US, it is still present. “A STEM-employed woman makes 86 cents for every dollar that her average STEM-employed male colleague earns.” Progress in education has been made, with women earning the majority of all degrees, however somehow progress in earnings haven’t kept up to par. For example, women software developers only earn 80% of what their men counterparts do. The pay gap widens further after a woman returns to the workforce from motherhood. It is hard to move forward to close the gender gap in STEM when even the women already in the field aren’t receiving equal treatment.
Leaders.
If women are having harder times rising up the ranks, we won’t be able to see them in leadership positions either. “Women account for just 6 percent of the chief executives of the top 100 tech companies.” Executives of these companies are the faces of innovation and STEM, and at a measly six percent, women are not inadequately being represented at an executive level as well. This is damaging for more than the social implication of visibility, it is damaging for business too. Innovation is extremely important in the high-tech world, yet without gender diversity, ample creativity and ideas are being passed up. Without visible women leaders, who are students supposed to look up to? Even when these leaders are present, they fail to receive the media attention they should. It is a compounding problem. Women leaders could fix these issues, but there aren't enough women leaders because there aren't enough women leaders. How can we breakthrough this vicious cycle?
Mothers.
The United States is the only industrialized nation without a paid maternity leave policy, undoubtedly creating decisive challenges for many mothers. Because many women don’t have the option of waiting until their careers are well-established, forty three percent of women with children end up dropping out of the workforce. This leads to fewer women in senior and leadership positions as well as an overall lack of visible female leaders, creating an unfortunate perpetual cycle.
Politics.
Gender equality has also stalled because women have hit a political wall in the workplace. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research published the Statutory Routes to Workplace Flexibility in Cross-National Perspective, which clearly illustrates the United States comes dead last in a flexible work environment in comparison to twenty other highly developed countries. This inability to adapt in policy has resulted in “labor force participation for college educated women in the United States is lower than in any of the other 20 countries evaluated in this report.” Women in the workplace are no longer a special interest group, yet workplaces still have not adjusted to the needs for alternative working arrangements such as flexible working hours or public support for child care. The lack of progress with these issues creates highly adverse effects on earning, retirement, and the ability for women to maintain/ advance in their careers. The only legislation that is currently being considered is the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013. The goal of the legislation is to amend long-standing labor laws by granting the right to request an alternative work arrangement. However, it has been dubbed “The Family Unfriendly Act” by a New York Times writer because the bill is an indirect way to “impose extra work at no additional cost” and employees would only be allowed to use comp time when approved by the employer at their convenience. There needs to be real legislation drafted that specifically targets improving the work-life balance, ending the wage gap, allowing for paid maternity/sick leave, and establishing flexible working hours as a viable option.
Reforms through legislation could include to expand alternative work arrangements to care for children through gradual return to work after birth, increased autonomy over hours, and finding more solutions that are a “win-win” for the employer and employees with children. Tackling the political barrier women have now will allow for an increase in gender equality as women are able to stay in their careers and continue to progress. As women, especially in the STEM fields, continue to advance they will become more visible to the public through promotion. When more women are advancing into leadership positions in STEM, to scientific boards, as journal editors, and policy positions in science, there will cease to be a dissonance between women and STEM. With the right policies in place, women will have the opportunity to make STEM a career while having a family not only possible, but practical. This is already a reality in other highly developed countries such as Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands and it is about time to give working women in the United States those opportunities as well. STEM career paths are less accommodating to those in the workforce to raise a family, but by implementing legislation to make STEM career paths more accessible, women will no longer be discouraged from these career paths.
We All Win.
There is no question that the greatest driver of the United States economy is the pace of innovation, especially of that in the STEM fields. Technology has sparked a whole new era, similar to the impact of the agricultural revolution or industrial revolution. This new technological revolution has helped the US economy stay competitive in the global marketplace. The observation of Moore’s Law has helped society understand that the growth of tech is exponential; creating a high demand for skilled workers that can continue to push the bar further. It is imperative to the state of our current economy that the STEM workforce is increased and with the inclusion of underrepresented minority groups comes greater diversity, creative thought, and innovation. Women are already outperforming men in academia and their addition to relevant fields can help to create “the next big thing”. Due to their prevalence, STEM skills also come with an income advantage in the workforce. Without more women working in these fields, despite obtaining over half of undergraduate degrees in science, there is a risk of re-segregating women economically.
In conclusion, to encourage women in STEM, changes need to be made to education, policy, and stereotype portrayal in popular culture. On the pre-career front we need to encourage young women to consider STEM as a career option, then focus on retaining women in STEM by creating an achievable work-family balance and equal treatment (pay, hiring opportunities etc). Re-invigorating classrooms by delivering curriculum that promotes innovation through the inclusion of STEM professionals into schools and the addition of digital literacy into early education are only beginning solutions. An engaging pre-college education by a qualified STEM professional, who can also be a mentor, will help to inspire young students to pursue science. Retention efforts can be made possible through political advocacy to push legislation that establishes a paid maternity leave policy and flexible work hours. With the right policies in place, women will be able to stay in their STEM careers and become more visible to society, while the United States can continue to be a competitive industrialized nation by recognizing the importance of the potential of developed human capital in the workplace.
If we fail to take action to promote the inclusion of women in STEM by allowing outdated policies and gender bias to continue to take its toll on our workforce, the United States will lose to the countries that understand the importance and take action. Technological innovation is the greatest driver of economic growth and increased numbers of women in STEM can continue to make that a reality for our country, benefiting both women and innovation. Encouraging women to enter careers in STEM is not only achievable, but is the next critical step in what those before us have fought so hard for, equality.