Earlier this year my 7-year old daughter came home from school to announce that she was no good at maths. Boys, she stated, were better at maths.*
I couldn’t understand where this came from. I enjoyed maths at school and we always encouraged her progress with maths at home.
Female participation in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) suffers directly from the kind of thinking that my daughter demonstrated. Girls start orientating away from STEM subjects at a very early age and it has a demonstrable impact on female participation in the workforce.
Engineering, for example, really struggles to reach gender equity because of the problems of a limited pipeline of supply: There simply aren’t enough women studying engineering to provide enough that would result in balanced numbers of men and women in the workforce. Women account for about 14 per cent of enrolments in engineering degrees, and the numbers drop further when it comes to women actually working in engineering, where they only make up around 10 per cent of the engineering labour force.
Part of the solution lies in increasing the pipeline, and there is some good work being done here by organisations such as Robogals, which aims to increase female participation in STEM.
However, organisations wanting to increase their number of female engineers have to look at the return-to-work market. According to the last census there were 32,814 women with engineering qualifications but 8,385 were not in the labour force.
Employers are responding. This week the global engineering firm Arcadis released several jobs onto the market, and I have it on good authority that, for the right female candidate, the firm will work hard to accommodate flexible working opportunities. It has roles in Sydney for a business leader of its building structures business, in Melbourne for signalling engineers and in Brisbane for a senior building services engineer.
Other good flexible roles this week include a flexible business services role with an accountant in Melbourne. The role is very flexible in that it can be part-time or full-time, with a base requirement of a minimum of 20 hours a week. It’s a role that could fit around the school drop-off and pick-up, which is something that I really like. I often think that what a lot of women want is just the ability to drop their kids off at school in the morning as it’s generally where I have some of the best and most insightful conversations with my daughters.
I also saw this great role on Seek for a part-time senior manager business services in Melbourne. The hours are flexible but make up a 3-day week. I like it because it sounds like it’s replete with opportunity for progress (the right candidate could be in line for partnership according to the advert) whereas, sadly, many part-time roles are holding stations. Happy job hunting!
*We have worked hard to get her confidence up in maths and I can now report that she’s flying.