In this technology-driven era, science and technology have long been embedded in every aspect of our lives. However, behind this seemingly glamorous hotbed of innovation lies a long-neglected problem: women are grossly underrepresented in STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) professions, especially in the information technology (IT) field.
In the UK, figure from King’s College London shows that women make up only 30% of the STEM workforce, and in some areas, such as computer science (23%) and engineering and technology (21%), the figures are even more alarming. Behind these cold statistics are systemic and structural injustices.
Root cause #1: The toxic “geek culture”
‘Geek culture is deeply entrenched in the IT industry, and what was once the self-labelling of the technical elite has now become an invisible barrier to exclusion. This culture is highly masculine and excludes women, making many women feel like ‘outsiders’ in the workforce, and they have to spend more time defending their abilities and achievements, and over time, they choose to leave.
Root Cause #2: Ceiling effect in women’s career paths
women are repeatedly blocked from their career paths. At Microsoft’s UK, women make up only 24.5 per cent of the leadership; at Google, the proportion is 32.6 per cent. One of the key issues is that workplace networks are built differently: men tend to build up a network of friends through socialising in their leisure time, thereby gaining access to more networking resources, while women tend to take a more formal approach during office hours. This socialising strategy for female employees tends to be less extensive and effective than for men. This structural difference directly limits women’s opportunities for advancement to management.
Root Cause #3: Educational barriers.
According to research, whether or not a woman chooses to pursue a STEM-related career is influenced in parental and school education. Girls are always subliminally told at different stages of their education that ‘technology is for boys.’ And this mindset makes it easier for women to lack the confidence to advance in the industry compared to men, thus making women choose to withdraw from the IT industry at different stages.
Suggestions
Firstly, the enterprises should regularly update their unconscious bias training to cover not only gender, but also the hidden mechanisms of exclusion brought about by ‘geek culture’. Training should not stop at theory, but should incorporate real-life examples and provide actionable methods to guide employees to reflect on their own behaviour.
Secondly, developing women’s self-confidence from the educational stage. Enterprises should actively enter primary and secondary schools to carry out programming camps, technology open classes, sharing sessions with female engineers and other activities, so that girls can establish the concept of ‘technology is genderless’ from childhood, and ‘dare to learn’ ‘dare to try’ ‘dare to be’ in their mindset. ‘Dare to be’.
Thirdly, establishment of a support mechanism for female mentors and peers. Enterprises can set up ‘female engineers’ mutual support programmes’, regular mentor-mentee matching and technology sharing sessions, etc., so as to build an intergenerational female network support system. At the same time, a ‘sponsor’ mechanism can be set up, whereby senior management provides development resources and recommendation opportunities for potential female employees.
Conclusion
The absence of women in STEM is not because they are ‘not good enough’, but because a system that is not inclusive enough is silently pushing them away. What we need is not superficial slogans about diversity, but substantive cultural change and institutional innovation.
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