By Stephanie Slocum
I wasn’t the only woman engineer in my college graduating class in 2002. Gender rarely crossed my mind until my first job, where I was one of only two women engineers. I never imagined that twenty years later, I’d still see so few women in leadership positions that I’d write She Engineers and launch my own company with the mission of normalizing women as STEM leaders.
Between 2009 and 2019, Bachelor’s degrees awarded to women in engineering and computer science increased by 65%. That has not translated into a similar increase in our women managers and leaders.
Possible reasons abound. Seventy-eight percent of STEM women reported experiencing gender discrimination in primarily male workplaces (1). One study found women had to be 2.5 times more productive than their male peers to be rated technically competent by senior reviewers (2). In performance reviews, women are 1.4 times more likely to receive critical subjective feedback, while men receive critical constructive feedback (3). Women are less likely than men to receive the business acumen mentorship necessary for advancement.
Our jobs as technical professionals are to deliver outcomes. Here is a snapshot of retention outcomes for women and non-binary leaders:
- 15% globally/13% US engineers and 26% of US computer scientists are women (4)
- EE/Electronics Engineering has the lowest percentage of practicing women engineers at 9% (5)
- Tech women hold 11% of executive-level positions at Silicon Valley companies (6)
- 40% of women with engineering degrees leave or never enter the field (7)
- Without diverse leadership, women are 20% less likely than straight white men to win endorsement for their ideas; people of color are 24% less likely, and LGBTQs are 21% less likely (8)
- LGBTQ people are 17-21% less represented in STEM than expected (9)
- 1 in 4 women (compared to 1 in 10 men) in engineering leave after age 30 (10)
The kicker: Of women who left engineering, 80% currently work in another industry, 78% in management or executive positions (7).
What if each of us – no matter our level of experience or identity – showed up as a leader responsible for doing our part to solve this problem? What would you do differently at work today to contribute to the solution?Many of our women and LGBTQ future engineering leaders are exiting for other industries. Despite social awareness and money spent on JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) initiatives, outcomes for women and non-binary individuals have stalled.
Organizations struggle to gain buy-in on the problem and allocate resources to solve it. People hear the word “diversity” and start choosing sides, believing that if women and LGBTQ people advance, everyone else loses. What if, instead of choosing sides, we built a bridge using the one thing every organization desperately needs: leadership?
Leadership that:
- Binds organizations together instead of encouraging the exodus of top leadership talent
- Establishes transparent growth paths instead of creating leadership echo chambers where “leadership potential” is determined by who is most similar to current leaders
- Rewards leadership vision instead of leadership styles that match current leadership
- Recognizes hours worked are not correlated with leadership potential
What if each of us – no matter our level of experience or identity – showed up as a leader responsible for doing our part to solve this problem? What would you do differently at work today to contribute to the solution?
Digging deeper
- C. Funk & K. Parker. Women and Men in STEM Often at Odds Over Workplace Equity. 1.9.2018
- A. Coil. Why Men Don’t Believe the Data on Gender Bias in Science. 8.25.2017
- P. Cecchi-Dimeglio. How Gender Bias Corrupts Performance Reviews, and What to Do About It. 4.12.17
- Society of Women Engineers (2021). SWE Research Fast Facts Infographic. Accesses 10.1.2021.
- Fouad, Ph.D. (2014). Leaning In But Getting Pushed Back Out. American Psychological Association Annual Convention, August 7-10 2014. Washington, DC.
- M. Kosoff. Here’s Evidence That It’s Still Not A Great Time To Be A Woman In Silicon Valley. 1.2.2015
- Fouad, N. A., Singh, R., Fitzpatrick, M. E., & Liu, J. P. (2012). Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
- S. Hewlett, M. Marshall & L. Sherbin. How diversity can drive innovation. Harvard Business Review. December 2013.
- Freeman, Jon. LGBTQ scientists are still left out. A more detailed summary of that research can be found here.
- R. Adams. 40 Percent Of Female Engineers Are Leaving The Field. This Might Be Why. 8.12.2014
About the Author
Stephanie Slocum is the author of She Engineers and Founder of Engineers Rising LLC. She helps individuals and organizations normalize women and non-binary individuals in leadership. Contact her at stephanie@engineersrising.com.
