The word "engineer" is derived from two Latin terms meaning "to devise" and "cleverness." Contrary to popular perception, successful "engineering" has always required creativity and lots of out-of-the-box thinking. Thomas Edison may have had a lot of right-brain success, but it took him a whole lot of left-brain ideas to get there.
This is broadly true of all STEM fields, and also a key reason why diversity in STEM professions is important. We always need people who, in the words of Steve Jobs, "think different."
STEM careers have been traditionally male-dominated, with a number of barriers—some cultural, some more overt—that have impeded the retention and advancement of women in STEM fields. But empirical evidence tells us that companies with higher levels of gender diversity perform better than their competitors.
My friend and author, Vivek Wadwha, recently released a book focused on women in technology, Innovating Women, in which he crowd sourced more than 300 stories of successful women entrepreneurs in tech to provide an inside look at, among other issues, the challenges women face in the workplace. At an event I hosted in San Francisco earlier this year on this topic, he asked, “don't corporations have a fiduciary duty to maximize investor value? And if women add value, isn't it poor leadership to ignore the fiscal upside to diversity?" Ignoring half of your potential talent pool is never a good idea. Smart companies know this and work to overcome barriers to diversity. Not-so-smart companies lose over the long term.
One clear barrier is the simple fact that women are often the minority within STEM workplace. For anyone, feeling like an outsider relative to their coworkers affects access to development opportunities, sponsorship, and ultimately their aspirations to advance to the top. Studies have shown that this sense of isolation has a detrimental impact on performance. Smart companies work to overcome this not only by hiring healthy cohorts of women, but also by offering them ample opportunities to connect with each other. Active mentorship and sponsorship by women AND men in the workplace is also key. In short, the future of technology depends on the full and active participation of women and men working together.
More broadly, smart businesses create a corporate culture from the top down that paves the road for more women in STEM at all levels. Diversity in hiring—and thinking—has to first and foremost be championed by the board and the CEO. Then they, in turn, have to work to root out unseen and misunderstood biases throughout the organization and, very importantly, hold people accountable. Again, this isn't just a social good or a "nice thing to do." It is a business imperative for companies that are in a war for talent. As my friend and colleague Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education and former President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Foundation, warned, “if we do not dare to be bolder in STEM education, we risk losing even more ground globally."
But this is not enough; we all have to do our part to make sure unseen and misunderstood biases in the home and school are rooted out, and that all young women with an interest in and talent for STEM fields have a chance to learn and succeed. We can't just complain. We need to buy more GoldieBlox for the young girls in our lives!
One thing is certain. More public and private initiatives are needed to encourage women and girls to not only enter but stay in STEM fields. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Center for Women and Business is currently conducting a study on the representation of women in STEM education and occupations that includes the perspectives of business leaders and academics on the future of women in these fields. The findings will be released on March 19, 2015, at their annual summit in Washington, DC.
David Chavern is executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and president of the Center for Advanced Technology & Innovation (CATI).
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's January/February 2015 print edition.
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The Next Generation of Women in STEM
February 12, 2015
The word "engineer" is derived from two Latin terms meaning "to devise" and "cleverness." Contrary to popular perception, successful "engineering" has always required creativity and lots of out-of-the-box thinking. Thomas Edison may have had a lot of right-brain success, but it took him a whole lot of left-brain ideas to get there.
This is broadly true of all STEM fields, and also a key reason why diversity in STEM professions is important. We always need people who, in the words of Steve Jobs, "think different."
STEM careers have been traditionally male-dominated, with a number of barriers—some cultural, some more overt—that have impeded the retention and advancement of women in STEM fields. But empirical evidence tells us that companies with higher levels of gender diversity perform better than their competitors.
My friend and author, Vivek Wadwha, recently released a book focused on women in technology, Innovating Women, in which he crowd sourced more than 300 stories of successful women entrepreneurs in tech to provide an inside look at, among other issues, the challenges women face in the workplace. At an event I hosted in San Francisco earlier this year on this topic, he asked, “don't corporations have a fiduciary duty to maximize investor value? And if women add value, isn't it poor leadership to ignore the fiscal upside to diversity?" Ignoring half of your potential talent pool is never a good idea. Smart companies know this and work to overcome barriers to diversity. Not-so-smart companies lose over the long term.
One clear barrier is the simple fact that women are often the minority within STEM workplace. For anyone, feeling like an outsider relative to their coworkers affects access to development opportunities, sponsorship, and ultimately their aspirations to advance to the top. Studies have shown that this sense of isolation has a detrimental impact on performance. Smart companies work to overcome this not only by hiring healthy cohorts of women, but also by offering them ample opportunities to connect with each other. Active mentorship and sponsorship by women AND men in the workplace is also key. In short, the future of technology depends on the full and active participation of women and men working together.
More broadly, smart businesses create a corporate culture from the top down that paves the road for more women in STEM at all levels. Diversity in hiring—and thinking—has to first and foremost be championed by the board and the CEO. Then they, in turn, have to work to root out unseen and misunderstood biases throughout the organization and, very importantly, hold people accountable. Again, this isn't just a social good or a "nice thing to do." It is a business imperative for companies that are in a war for talent. As my friend and colleague Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education and former President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Foundation, warned, “if we do not dare to be bolder in STEM education, we risk losing even more ground globally."
But this is not enough; we all have to do our part to make sure unseen and misunderstood biases in the home and school are rooted out, and that all young women with an interest in and talent for STEM fields have a chance to learn and succeed. We can't just complain. We need to buy more GoldieBlox for the young girls in our lives!
One thing is certain. More public and private initiatives are needed to encourage women and girls to not only enter but stay in STEM fields. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Center for Women and Business is currently conducting a study on the representation of women in STEM education and occupations that includes the perspectives of business leaders and academics on the future of women in these fields. The findings will be released on March 19, 2015, at their annual summit in Washington, DC.
David Chavern is executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and president of the Center for Advanced Technology & Innovation (CATI).
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's January/February 2015 print edition.
