Women are less likely to pursue STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers than men, owing to factors such as the need to upskill constantly and deal with a male-dominated work environment, reveals a survey by Mastercard and research house Incite.
According to the ‘Revisiting Women In STEM’ survey, carried out on 136 female respondents working in both STEM and non-STEM jobs, 45% of those working in STEM jobs were dissatisfied with their current career choice. They also don’t expect to continue in STEM jobs for their entire career.
On the factors that discourage them to continue in the job, 46% cited the need to upskill constantly. As much as 39% was daunted by the long hours, while 36% pointed to the male-dominated office environment. Almost 36% also said the society and media generally did not encourage women to join STEM, and 24% felt women were less likely to be paid as much as men.
Measures taken during college education would help prepare young women better to go the distance in STEM careers, showed the survey. Respondents, who could make multiple choices, felt that career/recruitment fairs (48%), internships (45%), networking opportunities (42%), talks given by STEM professionals (37%) and mentorship programmes (29%) would be helpful towards this purpose.
This is more important considering the increasing role of women in India’s society, said HR experts.
India will have the world’s youngest population by 2022 and the women of the country will play a definitive role in devising the country’s future, said Priti Singh, HR head of South Asia at Mastercard.
The onus is on organisations to make a tangible difference, said Harini Muralidharan, senior director of HR at Juniper Networks’ India Excellence Centre, which provides R&D support to the Sunnyvale, California-headquartered company.
“Companies can invest in building female technology talent in a multitude of ways, some of which include providing more internship opportunities for women, giving STEM scholarships to meritorious yet economically backward girls, and focusing on retaining woman employees in the workforce to maintain better gender ratios,” she said.
Perceptions about working in STEM fields are built much earlier on, according to the “Girls In Tech: The Path Of Young Women To A Career In STEM’ survey by Mastercard and Incite, carried out on 310 female respondents aged 12-19 years.
A gender gap starts in school itself, with 38% of girls surveyed believing they would be less likely than boys to pursue the STEM field, despite being motivated to join such careers by teachers and counsellors, and the lure of better pay.
But an overwhelming majority of younger girls, in the age range of 12-14, pointed to STEMrelated fields when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up: 40% said they aspired to be engineers, 29% said they wanted to be software engineers, 29% said they wanted to be doctors/physicians, and 28% aspired towards being computer programmers.
Despite this, 41% of the girls surveyed said they may change their minds along the way. As much as 30% felt they may not be qualified enough for the role, while 22% feared a lack of job openings, and 18% felt they did not have the right connections or background, pointing to factors why they would possibly not end up with STEM jobs.