Share this article on...
Contact Us
- Report errors or inaccuracies topmba@qsnetwork.com
- Contribute articles contribute@qsnetwork.com
- Advertise advertise@qsnetwork.com
Brain drain: women power or lack of it?
Women are fleeing the male dominated STEM industry (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). QS topgradschool investigates why so many graduates are choosing an alternative career path.
Sushmita Roy is a software engineer in Symbian, London and has worked in the company for over two years. Although she was the only female studying math and science in her class during high school, that did not deter her from pursuing her dreams. She graduated from King’s College, London in 2005 in a class where 80% of her cohort were male. Sushmita was the exception.
In reality, a decreasing number of women are entering the realm of science, engineering and technology (STEM) and an increasing number of women are quitting this field of work.
In the UK alone more than 225,000 STEM graduates are not working in the respective industries for which they are qualified.
In the UK alone more than 225,000 STEM graduates are not working in the respective industries for which they are qualified. Of these graduates, 50,000 are not working at all, wrote Steven Swinford in the article, ‘Sexist culture drives women out of science’. The European Commission has forecast that Europe will suffer from a shortfall of 20 million skilled workers in science and technology by 2030. The fate is similar in the US where the country’s ‘shortage of scientists, engineers, and technologists’ has been one of the biggest constraints on growth.
Women scientists, engineers and technologists, though existing in large numbers, are giving up their chosen professions, confirms the Centre for Work-Life Policy in New York which recently examined this hidden ‘brain drain’ phenomenon. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist at the Centre and the lead author of the study reveals that the world is ‘seemingly stuck in the 1970s’ whereby, ‘a talented pool of women…have left the industry.’ The report states that a ‘sexist culture’ persists despite the decreasing number of female graduates in STEM.
The recent study, published in Harvard Business Review found that while women constituted 41% of newly qualified technical staff, more than half of them quit by the time they reached their late 30s. The study further states that women ‘opt out’ of full-time work at a higher rate than men do.
The question is why aren’t women taking up STEM graduate studies, and of those that do, why are they leaving in herds? Annie K., who did not wish to use her full name, is pursuing a masters degree in Operations Research in the US, candidly confesses, “Careers in science tend to be very demanding in terms of both academic and working years, as opposed to most other studies. Answering to the question as to why there are lesser women in STEM related professions, she explains, “It’s still a male dominated field, and one can dole out awards to leading women, but the fact remains that out of the top five to 10 names of techies that come to my mind, none of them are women.”
What is also interesting is a comment from Cambridge writer Elaine McArdle, “Men, relative to women, prefer to work with inorganic materials; women, in general, prefer to work with organic or living things. This gender disparity was apparent very early in life’ and apparently it continues to hold steady over the course of one’s careers. So you do find a significant number of women studying bio-sciences and medicine but not physics or mathematics.”
Moreover, a woman may feel dispirited studying such subjects, owing to the isolation when in a STEM graduate class.The ratio of women to men is usually 1:8 and Sushmita believes that STEM is often viewed as a man’s subject. “It’s true that women actually get discouraged, whether directly or indirectly, to pursue these fields of study.” Though her company is an equal opportunities employer, she does admit to the “high stress” levels at work which might not be in synchrony with a lot of women.
