NEW YORK, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Female scientists, engineers and product developers still face barriers in climbing the career ladder due to a lack of role models, mentors and access to networks, according to a new study.
Even though there has been some progress since the beginning of the decade, nonprofit research group Catalyst said certain issues remain problematic for women in the high-tech workforce.
It found that two areas in particular were critical -- the interaction with their supervisors and the lack of opportunities to voice their opinions in the decision-making process.
"I think that there are unique challenges that technical women face, because it is such an incredibly male dominated sphere," said Heather Foust-Cummings, who headed the research group.
Women engineers and product developers were satisfied with their jobs, but were less pleased when it came to any measure relating to supervisors than technical men and non-technical men and women.
Although demand for employees with technical skills has jumped in the 21st century, the overall percentage of jobs held by women in technical fields has declined in recent years, according to the study.
Catalyst warned that the concerns raised by the women in the study represent substantial obstacles in the increasingly competitive battle for talent in the industry.
"People join companies, but leave supervisors," said Debbie Soon, a vice president at Catalyst.
"In high-tech organizations people who have great technical skill often advance into managerial roles, and while these folks may be stellar technicians, they are often not given the support and training to enable them to be equally good managers," she said.
The main complaint of women about their supervisors was that they weren't available when needed, didn't give regular feedback and weren't responsive to suggestions.
The study included employee-satisfaction surveys from 21 global high-tech companies and an online study of almost 500 respondents.
Catalyst said companies should focus on more face-to-face training for managers, as well as programs that address different leadership styles.
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I came across this article in Scientific American and thought it was very relevant to the points made in class over the past few weeks. Despite more doors being opened to women in the work place, the glass ceiling is still an evident barrier, particularly in the sciences. Rather than accepting high tech positions, as we have discussed, women often opt for more "family friendly" roles behind the scenes.
I was wondering what everyone's thoughts are on the causes of this - is it simply a result of social structure (gender roles, familal organization, etc.) or are there greater factors at work here (within the scientific institution/process itself)?
Thursday, February 14, 2008
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2 comments:
I think it is a combiniation of the wider social structure (family, etc) and the social structure within the scientific institution (the fact that the field is male-dominated and the interaction styles, etc...). I do not think the scarcity of women in technical fields has to do with the scientific process itself. To say so, I believe, would imply that women's minds and the scientific process are at odds, in which case, the lack of women in technical fields should be a relief and not a problem.
Study after study has shown that there is no gender difference in mathematical ability. There is, however, a gender difference in the number of men and women in upper level science and math classes. The lack of women in technical fields, (in addition to the obstaccles posed by the jobs perhaps not being conducive to family and the self-reenforcing cause of the fields being dominated by men so there are few role models and mentors available for women),could be a residual effect of fewer girls/women taking the most advanced science and math classes at the secondary and university levels. This has been shown to have more to do with girls/women responding to the stereotype that 'girls are bad at math', than with any actual lack of ability.
Interestingly, this article begins by discussing the issue of the declining number of women in the field of science, engineering. and product development. However, by the end of the article, the issue of poor management has become the focus. I understand that that is been described as the reason why women seem to have a problem climbing the carrer ladder. However, what I don't seem to understand is the connection between what the head of the research group says, that technical women face unique challenges because it is a male dominated sphere, and what the vice president of Catalyst says, that people with the best technical skills advance into managerial positions and these people have not had enough training to enable them to be good managers. The two don't match up for me in that I don't understand why, if those people that get promoted to these managerial positions are so talented, why aren't more women technicians being promoted. If that was the case, then it would seem like women wouldn't have these issues with their management. Or maybe they would, but then it wouldn't be an issue of the field being dominated by men at all. So the question is, is the issue that men are promoted over women and therefore causing these managerial issues to occur, or is the inability of women to move up the career ladder due to bad management in general? And if women aren't being promoted as often as men, then is it an issue of sexism or are women not the "stellar technicians" that men are, which seems to be the sole requirement for managerial promotion?
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