(Deborah Gillis) It’s no secret that women in tech roles in STEM—the science, technology, engineering and math industries—face significant challenges. Catalyst’s groundbreaking new global report, High Potentials in Tech-Intensive Industries: The Gender Divide in Business Roles, shows that those on the business side are impacted too, and it reveals a culture that is particularly unwelcoming to women, no matter what the job.
This research is the first to study men and women in business roles in technology-intensive industries such as high tech and telecommunications, oil and gas, and automotive manufacturing. It shines a light on the male-dominated culture of STEM companies as a whole and provides specific steps organizations can take to better attract and retain talented women across both its tech and business sectors.
“STEM companies face a serious talent drain as women take their skills elsewhere, but these organizations also have a remarkable opportunity to turn things around by focusing on how they can make all their talent—men and women alike—feel equally valued,” says Deborah Gillis, President and CEO, Catalyst .
Key Findings:
Women are less likely to enter tech-intensive industries and more likely to leave once they join.
*Only 18% of women opted for a business role in a tech-intensive industry immediately following their MBA, compared to 24% of men.
*53% of women who started out in a business role in a tech-intensive industry post-MBA left to take a position in another industry, compared to 31% of men.
Women are outsiders and on unequal footing from day one.
*Despite having the same education as their male counterparts, women in business roles in tech-intensive industries were more likely than men to start in entry-level positions (women, 55%; men, 39%) and to be paid less.
*Of those who took their first post-MBA job in a business role in a tech-intensive industry, men were more than three times as likely (83%) as women (27%) to say they felt similar to most people at work.
*High potentials who took their first post-MBA job in a business role in a tech-intensive industry were significantly more likely to work on a team with 10% or few women than those in other industries (tech-intensive industries, 21%; other industries, 16%).
Barriers include lack of role models and vague evaluation criteria, so it’s not surprising that women in business roles in tech-intensive industries have lower aspirations.
*High potentials were significantly less likely to have a female supervisor than those working in other industries (tech-intensive industries, 15%; other industries, 21%).
*Women in tech-intensive industries were significantly less likely than women in other industries to say that their supervisors clearly showed them how their work would be evaluated (tech-intensive industries, 42%; other industries, 55%).
*Women in their first post-MBA job were less likely than men to aspire to the senior executive/CEO levels (women, 84%; men, 97%).
