Women and science: how to achieve the right balance

Anne Miller used to have a newspaper cutting stuck on her office wall which pointed out that, while many men drift into a career in engineering, this is never ever the case for women. So far removed is the thought of engineering as a career option for most women that any who do go for it do so with unrivalled commitment and determination.

“My male colleagues –and the vast majority were male – didn’t like it. But it was, and I think still is, true,” says Miller, who is one of the world’s most successful female inventors, with 39patents to her name – including the manufacturing machine for the female condom and a blood glucose meter for diabetics.

The same could be said for careers in science and technology, with women making up just 18.7 per cent of the overall SET (science, engineering and technology) workforce. Though there are no statistics focusing on the higher echelons of organisations, most agree that the figure is probably far lower. With an estimated shortfall of 300,000 SET recruits over the next few years, it’s a problem with huge ramifications.

So what’s going on and what’s being done about it? Lorraine Cousins, MD of her own IT company, Halcyon Software, still finds herself shocked at how little has changed. “I first entered IT in 1980 and although my first job was pretty basic – computer assistant – I had three interviews for it, each with different people in the company.

Eventually I got the job. But the IT manager told me later that the financial director had come to him to say, ‘Are you sure you want a woman? Don’t they have a lot of time off?’”

By 1983, Cousins had rewritten their computer system single-handedly and was duly promoted. “But even when I reached the top, suppliers would phone in and say, ‘Hello love, can I speak to your boss?’ When I told them I was the boss, there would be stunned silence.”

While Cousins admits the gender split at lower levels of organisations is improving, she says that this hasn’t transferred to the managerial or strategic parts of the company. “If I look at all my customers now – and we deal with hundreds of them – I can think of only three women in senior IT positions. I still get letters addressed to Mr Cousins simply because there’s an assumption I must be male.”

A survey by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC) provides some awkward truths when it comes to engineering. Thirty-three per cent of engineers believe women don’t perform as well as men in all fields and at all seniorities. And 38 per cent don’t think it even matters if women are under-represented in engineering.

It’s not just a glass ceiling that prevents women from getting to the top. A lack of proactive HR policies means that although 24,000 women return to work after having a child, only 8,000 go back to their SET careers. “People who take a few years out can’t come back and hit the ground running as technology changes so quickly,” says Maggie Berry, director of the online job board Women In Technology.

“Employers need to stop seeing this as a reason not to recruit or promote women. I would like to see specific schemes for women returners, like graduate programmes, where they acknowledge their skills and experience and provide the appropriate re-training.”

Talented women would bite the hands off employers that did this and repay them with loyalty and high levels of dedication, says Rachel Tobbell, services for women manager at UKRC. “We work with a lot of returners who say they simply can’t find employers who take them seriously. But these women are out there ready and very able.”

It’s not as if industry is completely burying its head in the sand or that all employers see women as a huge cost burden, she says. “More employers are becoming interested in equal opportunities because they’re starting to realise the link between diversity and profitability. There are some very enlightened examples, although nowhere near enough.”

SueGibson, HR director of Cambridge-based DisplayLink, says her company wants to create an environment in which women feel comfortable and are able to progress. “We offer job rotations, flexible working opportunities, a focus on training and development and the opportunity to work with very senior people.”

BT is among employers that are trying to influence schools and careers advisers so that more women consider working for them in the first place. Since old stereotypes about SET die hard – with perceptions of engineers still involving men in dirty boots and hard hats “fixing” things and of IT people being nerdy geeks working in isolated backroom office jobs – this is critical, says Terry Marsh, director of WISE (Women into Science, Engineering and Construction).

“Our entire organisation focuses on under-19s because we believe this is where the damage is done,” she says. Ironically, girls perform better than boys in the relevant subjects at A-level. The problem is that, although there is a good number of girls studying GSCEs in science, far fewer of them bother to pursue it at A-level – and fewer still study relevant degrees. “Of all the youngsters who get grade A in double science or physics, about 28 per cent go on to do A-levels. For girls, that figure is seven per cent. When it comes to degrees, just 15 per cent of those studying relevant degrees are female,” says Marsh, whose organisation is attempting to look at ever new ways to communicate with girls of this age.

Attempts to tune into women generally being more interested in people issues have been particularly successful. At its most basic, the idea is to treat these industries as creative disciplines which involve people as much as technology, science and engineering, says Karen Panetta, committee chair for the Women in Engineering group. “For instance, huge numbers of people with throat cancer have their larynx removed every year and they have to wear a robotic device that gives them a robotic voice. That can be traumatising and prevent confidence building.

So we’ve come up with something that sounds far more natural. There are endless examples like that.” It is on this premise that Diana Thompson set up courses at Wolverhampton University to encourage women into computing. “If you look at where women congregate within the IT sector, it is the systems analyst side of things, where there is more interaction with people. It’s no coincidence. So one of my ways of promoting IT as a career option is to stress the people side of the job.”

The Telford e-innovation centre, which provides a focus for companies to push the boundaries of technology and innovation, is a prime example of how IT is just as much about people as technology, says Thompson, who runs the organisation.

“You have to go into talk to the company you’re working with to find out what they want to achieve before you even start on the IT part.” World issues from global warming through to fairtrade are also key concerns for people working in SET –which is another message that the industry is working hard to get across to women, says Philip Whiteman, chief executive of the sector skills council SEMTA.

“There is definitely no shortage of schools, universities, companies, professional bodies, specialist organisations and government policies attempting to attract more women into SET and enabling them to reach the top once they’re in,” he says. “But there is still a long way to go.”

Indeed, word is that we shouldn’t hold our breath. “It will take at least another generation for any significant change to take effect,” says Richard Lawrance, MD of ResourcingSolutions. “But when the change occurs, the increased diversity of women will increase the diversity of thinking. The net gain is one of enhanced creativity and greater competitiveness.”