10 challenges facing women in STEM
Michelle Unger is based in the UK and has been following the progress of WISE as we have grown and gained momentum. Michelle has a strong history within the industry and is responsible for the curriculum for MSc in Subsea Engineering and Management for Newcastle University. She is currently the Head of the Group Business Line 'Education Systems and Services' for the ROSEN Group.
As a way of showing her support and contributing to the WISE Network, Michelle has authored the below discussion-piece identifying the top 10 challenges facing women in Science and Engineering.
Whenever you see this type of article, written by a woman, you expect to read about the difficulties a woman has developing a career (and there are still difficulties), the delays in career progression caused by child birth (and there are delays), etc., but I want to start by saying the world has now changed for women. We see this in politics and international affairs. We all know about Angela Merkel in Germany, and in the UK (where I live), the UK prime minister is Theresa May, and the first minister in Scotland is Nicola Sturgeon. Women dominate political leadership in the UK, with women leading many of the political parties (e.g., Green Party, Plaid Cymru (Wales), and the Democratic Unionist Party), and the UK parliament has 208 female MPs (32% of total). We (women) need to ensure other professions feel a similar impact.
My Background
I am from Bogota, in Colombia, and studied Civil Engineering at Los Andes University in Colombia in the early 1990s. I was one of 15 girls in a cohort of 110 students: this (14%) is a very high percentage for a South American country. I always thought this percentage would increase with time; however, it has decreased considerably over the last couple of decades. Now, it is less than 10% in most countries in Latin America.
I now work in the UK, for a German company, and it is the same story here. 51% of the UK population are female, but only one in six (17%) of engineering undergraduates in the UK are women. This percentage drops dramatically after graduation: only 8% of professional engineers are female, and when we recruit female engineers we discover that four in ten leave the profession.
Are these low figures due to: actual interest in science and engineering careers; the remuneration; the male-dominated environment; or, the fact that we do not see many women in senior posts in engineering?
Let me give you my personal view on the reasons for these low figures, and I will group them into ‘challenges’, which can be addressed.
Challenge 1
Being a woman means that we are faced with the traditional barriers to career progression, and the biological barrier of having children, but both of these barriers can be managed.
Engineering is a male-dominated profession: in the USA, women make up only 13% of the engineering workforce[1]. The UK has similar statistics[2]. Engineering is mainly men; but, that is fine. Medicine was originally 100% men. Now, in the UK, 45% of doctors are female[3]. Let’s keep decreasing these gaps.
In my personal experience, I have not seen any bias in terms of female achievement compared to our male colleagues. I have worked with successful women, who are fairly paid, and have been promoted on merit. But the sample is small – you do not see many of them.
There are also certain jobs that female workers would prefer not to take. A female colleague once said she was excited before her first ‘Offshore Survey’ assignment on a ship in the UK North Sea – it was a great opportunity to gain experience, and it was seen as ‘we can [as girls] do it too’ attitude. I also remember when she came back from the assignment, and said: ‘it was the worst 2 weeks of my life’– and although she was very well-remunerated, she added ‘I would never do it again. It is not for us’. It is not easy for a woman to fit into a traditionally male-dominated environment and facilities, but I know of many men who do not like this type of work, and ‘is not for them’. That should not stop women changing this tradition.
Challenge 2
We need to actively encourage girls to enter engineering. We know women find engineering rewarding: 98% of women in engineering consider it a rewarding career[4]. We need to send this message out to other women, but we do not do a good job. Let me illustrate this point…
When I asked my daughter if she would consider engineering (both her parents are engineers) she emphatically said: ‘No thanks. I want to do medicine’. Not surprisingly, she did not want to go away to a ‘Careers Day’ at the local university her school offered in ‘Women in Engineering’ – in fact, they had 5 places on offer, but only 2 applications. For the Careers Day in the Medical School, they had 10 places on offer, and 30 applicants, and these applicants had to apply in writing justifying why they were interested….
So how does a girl decide to embark on an engineering career when most role models for engineers are male? Are they aware of what it really is about? The problem-solving element? The creativity? Do family members who are engineers inspire them (certainly not in our case!)? Will good school teachers inspire them?
Let’s keep encouraging both boys and girls to do engineering, but for the right reasons; i.e., it involves problem-solving, imagination, creativity, innovation – those are the skills you need and what it is interesting about engineering. Finally, let us also remind everybody that engineering is a ‘portable’ qualification - an engineer can work in almost any country without having to go through painful re-accreditation.
Challenge 3. We need to urgently change the image of women in engineering. The image I had when I was a young student (early 90s) was a woman in a hard hat ‘dressed up as a man’ working in a muddy environment, in a ‘high-vis’ jacket – not quite what somebody would associate with a female career success. Marketing materials, trying to encourage women into engineering still show this strange image. This is not always the case, but when you are 17, you believe that this is an engineer’s life. I now know that this image of an engineer is both incorrect and – frankly – what probably discourages teenage school girls. I do not wear a hard hat, or work in a muddy field. Very few of us will ever do that. Let’s drop this image.
Challenge 4
The general public do not know the breadth and depth of engineering work; therefore, engineers need to be ready to explain what an engineer does.
I started working in the oil and gas industry, combined with education in this sector. While I was doing my degree in Education (this was a multi-disciplinary group: medics, architects, scientists, etc., and me) we had to do a presentation to our cohort on our industry. When I presented my topic in the oil and gas industry, a nurse asked after the presentation: ‘It amazes me why any woman would ever be interested in that topic at all’. OK, the oil and gas industry has a poor image due to its effect on the climate, and the profits made by the oil and gas majors, but we rely on it to provide the world with most of its energy needs. My nursing colleague’s comment was: sexist (why would a woman not have broad interests?); and, naïve (she probably drives a car, has central heating in her house, and uses airplanes to go on holidays). The world would stop without engineers in all engineering sectors.
Challenge 5
A challenge for both men and women is being educated in engineering. When I was about 15, and did my first high school exams, I had a very good result in mathematics; a teacher said: ‘you are good at maths, you should do engineering…’. Is this right? Is this what it is about? When you are 15 and have no life experience, how do you judge? Well, this ‘pressure’ is not only placed on girls: we now know that both men and women had similar reasons for enrolling in engineering: being good at maths and science in high school and wanting an interesting, well-paid professional job1.
Challenge 6
The first ‘big’ change/challenge for a woman comes when your family arrives - up to that point there was not any real difference between being a man or woman in engineering. The development of my career was delayed due to two children appearing, as I then decided to work part-time for several years. This is a problem, and will delay your career.
I worked part-time when I had my first child, and a friend said: ‘the problem with part-time working is that you are assigned low-interest work, with little responsibility. I don’t like it, and I wouldn’t do it, because it means you are a part-time mum, and a part-time worker, and you do 50% of each job – not very well….’. Well, I don’t think you can be a part time mum… but my friend’s comments were partly true.
In my personal experience, my career did slow down while I was working part-time. Combining being a mother and a professional engineer is hard work. You are not always available for business travel, meetings outside your working hours, etc.. You always feel ‘embarrassed’ every time there is a meeting outside your normal working hours, and cannot make it. You are constantly looking at your watch in the middle of a meeting, as the children’s pick-up time, hoping it finishes on time. You rush to work in the morning, you rush in the afternoon, you finish ‘work’, and then you start ‘work’ at home, and then you finish off work you didn’t do in the office ‘after hours’. Not easy.
Challenge 7
Women need flexible working more than men when they are having their families. That is obvious, but not all companies have that flexibility. I learnt that flexible working also means that while your company is flexible, you have to be flexible: I used to finish my work when the kids were in bed. I am very pleased with the way it worked – I have been lucky with my employers who have been flexible, and allowed me to progress my career at the pace I chose.
It can be challenging even when you have a very supporting partner or a very helpful boss: in the early days, my husband did the school run in the morning, so that I could start work at 7 am, and finish by 1pm. Everybody knew Michelle had to leave at a certain time for school pick up - some my colleagues ended up looking at the clock for me, and reminding me I need to go! We all adapted.
But are other professions more flexible when it comes to looking after a young family? I do know there are some ‘mum dominated jobs now’. A good example is medicine: many general practitioners are able to tailor their hours to fit in with the home life. School teachers are also fortunate to have hours of work that match child care needs. But, in my personal experience, engineering has also been a great choice for a ‘working mum’.
Challenge 8
We all need some help in our careers, and this means help at home and help at work: in the early days my boss did many trips on my behalf as he knew I could not travel very often. Colleagues are important.
Challenge 9
A very big challenge is moving into management, where some of the 'flexibility' you have as a more junior engineer is lost. I moved into management, and experienced management issues, which means dealing with technical issues and staff issues. Both are time-consuming, but as a manager you are always ‘on call’. This is not easy: I have seen that women (particularly those with young families) being very cautious about managerial jobs, as it means longer hours in the office, more travelling and time away from their kids – many concerts and little performances missed.
Challenge 10
An even bigger challenge is moving into a more executive level, with the additional responsibility of leadership, and business pressures replace technical pressures. Additionally, you have a lot of travelling to manage. This is time-consuming and disruptive to your family life. This will be the same for both men and women, but when you care about family life you need to be aware that management and executive positions will affect this, and you will need to manage your home life just as much as your working life. Not easy….
In summary...
The 'glass ceiling' (an invisible barrier that prevents women rising up the grades to the top) still exists, and, yes, inequalities exist, but I think that the 'old' barriers stopping woman progressing are disappearing. Women are still under-represented in engineering, and any change will be slow.
I think good engineering companies, like those I have been lucky enough to have worked for, encourage and support female engineers to reach their full potential. In those companies I have worked for, we have had a very flexible working week, flexi-time schemes, supportive management, etc.. I have not seen any difference in terms of opportunities: for me, it has been a matter of choice, and I have been allowed to balance my work and family life.
I enjoy being an engineer, and I want more women to share this enjoyment.
About the Author
Michelle Unger, MEng. MSc. CertHE. FHEA.
Michelle is the Head of the Group Business Line 'Education Systems and Services' for the ROSEN Group, and is based in the UK.
She has over 20 years’ experience: her early career involved pipeline integrity consultancy, but her more recent experience is in technical training, learning, education, and competence development.
Michelle is a Visiting Lecturer at Newcastle University in the UK, and was a member of the development team of the MSc in Subsea Engineering and Management at Newcastle University. She was also the Program Director of the Distance Learning MSc in Pipeline Integrity Management at Northumbria University in the UK, which was awarded the ASME Global Pipeline Award in 2014.
Michelle is a Civil Engineer with a Masters in Pipeline Hydraulics. She has a PgC in Academic Practice from Newcastle University, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
[1] S S Silbey, ‘Why Do So Many Women Who Study Engineering Leave the Field?’. Harvard Business Review’. August 23, 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engineering-leave-the-field
[2] http://www.wes.org.uk/content/useful-statistics
[3] http://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/about-us/facts-figures
[4] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/11692958/Women-in-engineering-female-progress-is-not-set-in-stone.html
