Is Gender Equality Evolving for Women in the STEM Workplace?
By Charlotte Johnston
Portrait of Dr Kate Herd, Programme Leader for Product Design at Middlesex University. Shot on 13.12.2023. Photographed by Charlotte Johnston.
This is an important time for women to be at the forefront of the STEM industry, we need powerful role models and imperative figures to guide young women who want to pursue a career in a STEM discipline. There must be improvement to be pursued to advance the STEM system for women, particularly addressing employers and businesses who need to become more open-minded and support new initiatives and opportunities for women.
The challenges women are currently facing in STEM have been an ongoing issue, for example, women not being promoted into a leadership role due to their gender or lack of respect by colleagues/ in leadership. This relates to the lack of diversity amongst industries that are heavily male-dominated and can hold a stereotypical bias against hiring or promoting women.
This is why it is incredibly important to hold those accountable for the outdated, preconceived notion surrounding women in the workplace.
Only 27% of females work in STEM.
The size of the gap is closing but the evidence shown in the data still highlights the slow progress being made. According to the Imperial College of London in 2022, a study highlighted that only 27% of females work in STEM disciplines and research done by MIT a year later in 2023 said only 28% of women work in the STEM workforce.
In the space of a year, the number of women working in STEM had only increased by 1%, this is an appalling measure of the amount of progress made, although this could be related to several issues (such as the after mass of COVID-19) it is still a devastating hit to the feminist act. This data conveys the desperate need for female equality in the STEM workforce as shown by the measly 1% increase.
This highlights a clear and crucial cry for help for this issue to be addressed, as evidentially it is not progressing positively and it is not achieving the end goals intended.
One of the influential women I have met within the STEM community is Dr Kate Herd who is currently working as the Programme Leader for Product Design at Middlesex University after having a long career working in the Design industry. I discussed with Kate the issues surrounding the slow-paced incline of women working in STEM industries contradicting the high increase of young women pursuing a STEM-related discipline in higher education.
Particularly looking at the lack of women pursuing a career in the engineering industry and expressing what initiatives or schemes could be done to support women.
The Imperial College of London suggested that the percentage of female STEM employees has increased from 21% in 2016 to 24% in 2019 but engineering professionals rank lowest with only 10% female engineers in 2019, and science professionals much higher with 46%.
One of the reasons as to why this might be is due to the lack of support for working mothers in STEM. Dr Kate Herd suggests that one of the reasons behind there only being 10% of female engineers in 2019, is that it’s due to businesses not supporting female workers in a way that would suit the female life trajectory but instead only assuming the mould of a male’s life trajectory.
Due to the lack of support for working mothers in STEM.
One of the reasons as to why this might be is due to the lack of support for working mothers in STEM. Dr Kate Herd suggests that one of the reasons behind there only being 10% of female engineers in 2019, is that it’s due to businesses not supporting female workers in a way that would suit the female life trajectory but instead only assuming the mould of a male’s life trajectory.
Three women, Herman, Lewis, and Humbert wrote an academic paper in 2013 titled, ‘Women Scientists and Engineers in European Companies: Putting Motherhood under the Microscope’ which analysed how motherhood can affect female careers in STEM.
They determined that ‘for women in a male-dominated culture, such as the STEM professions, motherhood is a key turning point in their professional life. Motherhood tends to be especially incompatible with normative engineering careers’ (Herman, Lewis, and Humbert, 2013).
In response to this Dr Kate Herd said, “The studies are showing that by the time people hit around age 30. It's significantly blocked off for women in the workforce, I think this relates around issues of having children, the change in life and that seems to be the area, where industries are not supporting females right.”
This is an example of an initiative that could be a mandatory requirement for all industries let alone just STEM, to support women in pregnancy and motherhood, there could be a better system for maternity leave and childcare support.
Some industries expect women to be identical to a man’s lifespan and if industries did create supportive opportunities for women this could have a huge impact on young women interested in pursuing a career in STEM.
Dr Kate Herd discussed the ‘shrink it and pink it’ theory which relates to the thought process of ‘a world designed by men for men’. This ideology focuses on industries that reinforce men’s preferences and stigma whilst only supporting male needs rather than equally focusing on the differences between men and women.
For example, the majority of running shoes on the market today are designed with a man’s foot in mind, truly a “shrink it and pink it” solution — selling shoes for female runners that were made to fit a man’s foot. This highlights the thought process behind ‘shrink it and pink it’, the assumption that things work for women if you minimise the size of the male’s version does not work. Instead, consider the female body as a blank canvas and begin to create separate gender products to best have an inclusive system.
Social media should be used as a vehicle for change.
Social media can be a useful tool to spread awareness of the lack of opportunities in STEM industries. To change the perception of women in STEM, Dr Kate Herd has suggested that social media should be used as a vehicle for change.
Social media is capable of reaching out to people globally, and if there were more role models made aware of social media this could help inspire young women to pursue STEM.
Dr Kate Herd suggests that social media can help you “Reach out to people in Industries to people that you might have recognised, there's a number of high profile females coming through in STEM who are making themselves known on social media and then making connections and following people's stories hopefully will be inspiring…I think that social media is really encouraging the stories that people are starting to share.”
Kate emphasises the impact social media can have on young women and the inspirational role models that can create a positive lasting effect on young women interested in STEM.
Portrait of Dr Kate Herd, Programme Leader for Product Design at Middlesex University. Shot on 13.12.2023. Photographed by Charlotte Johnston.
In this new generation, social media has swiftly become one of the biggest spaces to reach out to millions of people, by using any social media platform to positively influence and highlight what STEM is to younger viewers who might not be as educated on it, is an amazing tool which should be used.
Although there are significant improvements within the rise of women in higher education according to the education hub on the government website it is reported that between 2011 and 2020 the number of women accepted onto a full-time STEM undergraduate course had increased by 50.1% in the UK.
This is a gigantic step towards equality and hopefully provides more opportunities for young women interested in pursuing a career in STEM.
Speak to teachers. Speak to schools. Speak to universities.
Finally, I asked Dr Kate Herd what advice would she give to motivate and inspire young women who are interested in pursuing a STEM career she said, “I think talk to as many people as you can and find stuff out. It's a lot easier to get information and connect with people nowadays. Speak to teachers. Speak to schools. Speak to universities.”
Kate suggests one of the best ways to encourage younger women to pursue STEM is to start sooner rather than later by reaching out to people who can provide more information. As well as encouraging educational institutions to start earlier in explaining the principles of STEM to young students.
This could make a huge impact on the future generation of STEM for young women as there is a lack of clarity on what STEM is. After speaking with Kate it was clear that schools need to be targeted to adapt their system to offer all STEM subjects to anyone who wants to pursue it as well abolish the stereotypical stigmas surrounding STEM to make a new start for the upcoming generation.
Many of these challenges that women in STEM face, unfortunately, are just a case of being overcome as many are systemic and structural failures. Some of the main systemic issues are due to the constant bias in the workplace particularly when it comes to hiring and promoting women in STEM.
This is why it is critical to capture the institutional failures and the emphasis on the need for new systems to be revolutionised. The main point that should be apparent is that gender equality is evolving, the gap is decreasing, and steps are being made to improve equality for women in STEM.
However, there is still a desperate call for systemic workplaces, institutions, and businesses, that can aid progress for the next generation of young women who have a desire to work in STEM.
