It was fantastic to read recently that 1 million women now work in STEM careers.
As a child, I was aware girls were steered toward office or caring roles whilst the boys toward trades or engineering. I was told that jobs ‘on the tools’ were for boys and not for me – leading me to start my career in food retail. Whilst this turned out to be a great choice – fun & fast-paced with great career progression opportunities, I often wondered where my career could have taken me, had the world of STEM been more accessible then.
Anyway, fortunately some 25 + years on, that’s why it was so great to see the world has woken up.
So, is this a career equality issue or is it about fairness in the world? I feel it’s both – gender should not influence your access to a STEM career. It’s fantastic to see businesses encouraging both genders equally now. It is only by doing this that we will see women represented throughout STEM businesses up to Board level.
You might ask yourself why diversity on the board is important?
The best companies and boards are truly diverse teams. From my experience, if STEM businesses have diverse boards, it is often only because of their female Finance or HR Directors, rather than in STEM specific roles. It’s not surprising though, as there is only a small talent pool of female STEM directors. It can be a challenge to attract female applicants, let alone hire one. I’m sure those with great women in senior positions will ensure they keep them!
To increase women at board levels, we must attract and recruit women at all levels and so our focus on this needs to continue.
So, is this just about women’s rights or is diversity on boards important in other ways?
From my experience, a diverse board brings the benefit of diversity of thoughts, approaches & ideas. In responding to changes in the world, if we only look through one lens, how many possibilities might we miss? A broad range of options from multiple perspectives will surely help us to decide upon the strategies we will adopt in a world of rapid change.
As we experience rapid change, it has become clearer than ever, that there is an increasing need for emotional intelligence from leaders. It’s interesting to read the research around this. The Hay Group report that women more effectively employ the emotional and social competencies required of leaders. These are the competencies that support networking, collaboration, communication and so on. Emotional intelligence is thought to be one of the most sought-after skills needed to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution, so science supports the benefit of continuing to promote women into senior leadership roles.
In every economic crisis you need innovation. As we exit this current crisis (I say with hope!) our STEM businesses become more important than ever. It seems that diverse teams are likely to fare the best. Let’s continue to embrace gender diversity and encourage both genders into STEM professions!
To finish on a personal note, it seems for me destiny took me towards this and my career moved into this space. So, I now enjoy Coaching and Consulting in many STEM businesses, supporting MDs, Business Owners and their teams!