Workforce Innovations: Feature

Feature

Bridging the Gender Gap:
Women in Science and Technology

In a recent story from USNews.com, it was reported that engineers at a California communications firm created an emergency messaging device utilizing voice recognition software for use in medical facilities. Despite extensive testing, however, the device stopped working once installed in its hospital setting. After much trouble-shooting, the cause of the failure became clear: the software failed because the voice-recognition tests were conducted by the firm's male engineers, while the hospital staff–the end users of this emergency communication tool–was predominantly female. In this particular example, the lack of a gender-diverse workforce resulted in a significant loss of time and money, but the situation could have had far more serious consequences had the equipment failed in a real medical emergency.

Starting Early

One fundamental step to creating a gender-diverse workforce is to promote technology and the sciences early and often. Some Silicon Valley schools and community organizations are now promoting high-tech careers specifically to girls and are working to counter the notion of gender-specific careers. Local educators like Carmen Belleza of Oak Grove High School in San Jose, California, are learning better methods for effectively engaging girls in class and instructing students in a more inclusive manner. NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View sponsors a "Women of NASA" Web site, allowing the public to "meet and interact with the women at NASA who are enjoying successful careers in math, science, engineering, and technology." Professional groups such as the Alliance of Technology and Women (ATW) – Silicon Valley are also reaching out to girls to foster and support interest in science and technology careers.

Despite these efforts, however, the ratio of girls engaged in scientific/technological pursuits remains low as compared to boys. As Kim Polese, CEO of SpikeSource recently stated, "This is something I'm concerned about: the lack of women who are pursuing science and engineering, who suddenly just get turned off by it, ...because other girls aren't doing it, or that there aren't role models, or it seems like it's just for boys and it's geeky, or that in order to be popular, they have to act dumb."

This trend is also evident in higher education. Despite the fact that there has been a 38 percent increase in the number of women obtaining graduate degrees in engineering between 1994 and 2001, the number of women with science or technology degrees who are employed in a related field remains abysmal. In 2001, less than eight percent of women holding doctorate degrees were employed as engineering faculty at universities and four-year academic institutions in the United States, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Female scientists and technology workers also tend to be outnumbered by their male peers in the private sector. According to the NSF, "Females were less likely than males to be engineers or physical scientists, occupations that tend to be employed in business or industry." Hypotheses as to why there are fewer women choosing these careers abound, including the stereotypical male-oriented business environment, a university tenure system that makes it difficult for women of child-bearing years to pursue tenure-track opportunities, and a lack of female mentors within the field able to lend moral support to the next generation of workers. Regardless, the number of factors that contribute to encouraging women away from these fields and onto alternative career paths are considerable, and the challenge to lead them back to these careers quite substantial.

Bottom-Line Benefits

Despite numerous reports about the scarcity of women in science and technology, Silicon Valley businesses and institutions are hopeful that their efforts to continuously identify iniquities and remove barriers will lead to a better balance of men and women in this sector. A recent study conducted by Catalyst, a nonprofit group studying women in business, found that companies with the greatest number of women in senior management had a 35 percent higher return on equity than those with the fewest, and that those companies paid their shareholders 34 percent more than companies with the fewest women in top management. As Telle Whitney, CEO of the nonprofit Anita Borg Institute, stated, "I think almost without question that all of the companies we work with know they are able to offer better technology if they have a more diverse group of people."

As diversity does increase, perhaps stories like the "voice recognition" blunder will be replaced in the business section of the newspaper with stories of innovative tools and technologies created by the skilled, supported, and gender-integrated Silicon Valley workforce.

Feature

Starting Early

Bottom-Line Benefits

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