Recently, Monique Morrow told Women’s Agenda we must not make ‘women the victim’ when looking at a lack of females across STEM.
Guess what? Women are just as capable and talented as men in STEM fields! That’s despite less than one in four IT grads and one in 10 engineering grads being female, and a significant lack of women in leadership across such industries.
The problem is that a persistent pay gap, a long with workplace discrimination and an engrained cultural believe that STEM professions are ‘male’ roles, are affecting women’s desire to get in and stay involved.
That’s according to a new paper released by the Office of the Chief Scientist, which highlights and dispels four key myths facing women across the sector, written by Roslyn Prinsley, Amber S. Beavis and Nicholas Clifford-Hordacre
The four myths noted include:
Girls are bad at maths. Not true say the authors, who highlights stats showing there is no gender difference in mathematics ability, but different societal gender-based expecations can result in vastly different learning experiences. The authors say we need to adopt education practices that ensure girls feel more comfortable and confident with maths.
Women are not interested in engineering, physics and ICT-related careers. Actually, in countries that have more inclusive cultural environments across such professions, women’s participation improves. The authors highlight China as an example, where women account for 40% of engineers, compared with 14% of engineers here in Australia. The authors suggest we look to promote more female role models and advertising that shows everyone has the potential to succeed in such fields
The gender pay gap doesn’t exist. Nope, not true again. The authors find women in STEM earn 23.5% less than men across the ‘Professional, Scientific and Technical Services’ sector, compared with the 16.2% national gender pay gap. Meanwhile, 32% of male STEM graduates earn above $104,000, compared with just 12% of women. And it’s not just a matter of women having children, with just 18.6% of women over 30 without children in the top income bracket, compared with 11.6% of women with children. So what do we do? The authors say we need to better address why pay inequality exists (eg, don’t assume it’s about women leaving to have kids), and encourage all STEM employers to comply with best practices and ensure transparent remuneration policies.
The battle against sexism in science has been won. Sadly, while there have been some improvements, the authors note the treatment of women in STEM still has a long way to go, with sexual harassment and discrimination still present. The authors say leaders and employers should do more to tackle conscious and unconscious bias, and have better reporting mechanisms for sexual harassment.
