It’s full of technical people, with disciplines that women aren’t good at and jobs that require strong muscles.
Now that has your attention, doesn’t it? These are the stereotypes that I believe act as barriers to making progress in a critical area. That is NOT making progress for women as an end in itself, although it would be a worthy calling. It is making progress in either restoring America’s competitiveness in critical fields. As well as starting the process of establishing it from a currently untenable position. The data regarding the scholastic achievement of other nations, particularly in Science and Math, is scary.
Let’s attack another myth. There are not enough STEM graduates to fill the available vacancies. The New York Academy of Sciences in 2012 said technical roles were remaining unfilled. They believed technical staff lacked the non-technical, soft skills. Therefore unable to effectively perform in what is an increasingly team-oriented and collaborative world. Emotional Intelligence, the ability to function collaboratively AND competitively, the desire to take account of the feelings of others – the sorts of skills that make them so capable of filling in gaps that many men have emotionally and temperamentally.
Again citing the NYAS “Although women make up half of the U.S. workforce, they account for only one-fourth of STEM workers, according to the most recent data from the Census Bureau. Even within the STEM occupations, women gravitate toward the social and life sciences, such as psychology and biology, where they account for 70 and 47 percent, respectively, of the workforce, and away from engineering and software development, where women account for just 13 and 22 percent of the workforce, respectively.”
Men - have you ever gone into a football game with 22% less capable players on your team and said “that’s OK.” players than you? Do you play a round of golf with only 11 clubs instead of 14 against a scratch golfer and said “who needs a putter, driver and a sand iron anyway?
Women – do you ever go into an interview with 78% of your make up done, or even 78% of your clothes on?
The oil industry is facing the irreversible exit of the Baby Boomers. It is not IF we will see the shortage of qualified AND experienced engineers, scientists, geologists, it is WHEN and I believe WHEN is right around the corner. And we most certainly cannot sit around and say – that’s ok, we can tackle this with 22% less of the available talent. No we cannot!