Closing the STEM Gap and improving Women in leadership

The global COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the undeniable and critical role of women in society. Apart from women making up the greater percentage of frontline workers worldwide; women researchers have led many crucial breakthroughs in the fight against the pandemic – from understanding the virus and controlling its spread, to developing diagnostic tests and vaccines.

Today there is more acceptance than ever before that women bring different experiences, perspectives and skills to the table, and make irreplaceable contributions to decisions, policies and laws that work better for all, yet this recognition has not led to the required increased participation of women in crucial career fields.

On 22 December 2015, the United Nations General Assembly decided to establish an annual International Day to recognise the critical role women and girls play in science and technology. This day is commemorated on the 11^th of February, annually. This recognition was achieved through a Resolution that recognised among others that:

• full and equal access to and participation in science, technology and innovation for women and girls of all ages is imperative for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;
• gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will make a crucial contribution to progress across all the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
• women, although representing half of the world’s population, continue to be excluded from participating fully in the economy;
• women and girls play a critical role in science and technology communities and that their participation should be strengthened.

This resolution recognises the role of women and girls in science, not only as beneficiaries, but also as agents of change in a variety of crucial matters such as the acceleration of progress towards the achievement of Clean Water and Sanitation (United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6). It is for this reason that the theme for International Day of Women and Girls in Science for 2022 is ‘Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Water Unites Us‘.

This resolution also recognised that full and equal access to and participation in science, technology and innovation for women and girls of all ages is imperative for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

Despite this recognition, women still continue to face many barriers, challenges and stereotypes at home, work and public life. In addition to challenges that some girls face in accessing education, once they have gained access to education, they also face another challenge of being excluded from certain career or study fields. Sadly, this exclusion does not take into account their capabilities or competence, but rather based exclusively on their gender.

Key factors perpetuating gender STEM gaps are:

• Gender Stereotypes: STEM fields are often viewed as masculine, and teachers and parents often underestimate girls’ math abilities starting as early as preschool.
• Male-Dominated Cultures: Because fewer women study and work in STEM, these fields tend to perpetuate inflexible, exclusionary, male-dominated cultures that are not supportive of or attractive to women and minorities.
• Fewer Role Models: Girls have fewer role models to inspire their interest in these fields, seeing limited examples of female scientists and engineers in books, media and popular culture. There are even fewer black women role models in math and science.
• Math Anxiety: Some teachers often have math anxiety, which they pass onto girls, and they often grade girls harder for the same work assuming girls need to work harder to achieve the same level as boys.

With this lack of equality, it is no wonder that this has resulted in a significant gender gap persisting throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. Even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in these fields.

These gender-based inequalities continue to prevent many girls and women from taking up and remaining in certain careers and leadership roles across the world. As if it is not enough that women and girls face barriers when it comes to entering the STEM disciplines, once they have entered, they continue to experience discrimination. Statistics reveal that:

• Women are typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and while they represent between 28% – 33.3% of all researchers, only 12% of members of national science academies are women.
• In cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals (22%) is a woman.
• Despite a shortage of skills in most of the technological fields, driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics.
• Female researchers tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers. Their work is underrepresented in high-profile journals and they are often passed over for promotion.

The exclusion or marginalisation of women and girls within the STEM disciplines has resulted in the Commission on the Status of Women of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, adopting a report with agreed conclusions on access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, and for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work.

We too can work toward closing the STEM Gap by giving girls and women the skills and confidence to succeed in math and science. This can be done through:

• Raising awareness that girls and women are as capable as boys.
• Giving girls equitable encouragement and educational opportunities.
• Promoting public awareness to parents about how they can encourage daughters as much as sons in math and science — supporting learning opportunities and positive messages about their abilities.
• Teaching girls, teachers and parents that math skills are learned and change over time — promoting a growth mind-set that empowers girls to embrace challenges.
• Emphasising strong and visible role models of women and women of colour in math and science fields.

Universities and colleges also have a significant role to play in attracting, recruiting and retaining women into STEM majors and educational fields. This includes amongst others:

• Designing courses and changing environments and practices in STEM studies to be more welcoming for women.
• Prioritising diverse, inclusive and respectful environments and strong, diverse leadership.
• Diffusing hierarchical and dependent relationships between trainees and faculty, changing power dynamics.
• Make the entire academic community responsible for reducing and preventing sexual harassment, ensuring transparency, accountability and supporting targets of sexual harassment.
• Promoting mentorship, sponsorship networking and incorporate male ally programs.

Employers need to pull their weight by:

• Improving job hiring, retention and promotion pathways and intentionally inclusive cultures.
• Recruiting more women and work to retain and promote women throughout their careers with strong advancement pipelines and continued professional development and leadership training.
• Promoting welcoming work environments, including providing pay equity; flexibility; strong family and medical leave policies; inclusion and anti-bias training; mentorship, networking and ally-ship opportunities; along with strong anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies.

It is without a doubt that upholding women’s rights and fully leveraging the potential of women’s leadership, as well as the perspectives of women and girls in all of their diversity, need to be integrated in the design and implementation of policies and programmes in all spheres of education and work environments.

All of us have a role to play in this important campaign. Join us as we continue to stand together, support, encourage and celebrate women of all ages. Let us all advance women in leadership and work towards the achievement of an equal and progressive future for all, more especially within the retail motor industry.

MISA is deeply invested in the establishment and promotion of workplaces that are rooted on equality and diversity. Through the Industry Equality and Diversity Forum we aim to, amongst others:

• Shape the future of the retail motor industry in order for young workers to have long term career paths.
• Assisting companies to ensure gender equality, eradicate discrimination and violence at work, towards a diverse culture.

If you are interested in participating in this Forum in order to make a difference in our industry and be part of the change, please contact Thandeka.Phiri@ms.org.za

MISA does not only talk the talk, but we also have put in place tangible mechanisms to increase the participation of women and girls through a variety of career fields. To this end MISA provides funding for the tertiary studies of children of MISA members through a Bursary, subject to specified criteria. The 2022 Bursary application period is currently open until the 17 March 2022, if you are interested or require further information on this benefit, please contact Training@ms.org.za

“We must put the principle of equality into action so that science works for women, because it works against them all too often – for example, when algorithms perpetuate the biases of their programmers.” – Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO and Ms. Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women.

References:

https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Women_and_Girls_in_Science

https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/womenandgirlinscienceday

https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/the-stem-gap/