Gender Pay Gap in Tech Closing
News regarding gender pay gaps are rarely good news events. Last week for instance the Chartered Management Institute, a management training company, released news that management pay will not equal out for another 98 years!
Sadly, such figures are not consigned to the boardroom. Women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fair little better, making just 86 cents on the male dollar. That is according to new research by the ESA.
Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. This has been the case throughout the past decade, even as college-educated women have increased their share of the overall workforce.
Women with STEM jobs do however earn more than women in other, non-STEM, jobs. Figures show that they earn 33% more than other professions, a premium that is considerably higher than that for men.
Despite this strong performance however, women are disproportionally represented in STEM jobs, and indeed on STEM undergraduate courses. Those that do graduate are less likely to work in STEM occupations, with many migrating to educational or healthcare related professions.
STEM needs far more women in it ranks. Only one out of every seven engineers is female and only 24 percent of those who work in all STEM fields are women.
A recent report from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee called, "Stemming the Tide: Why Women Leave Engineering reveals that women are increasingly likely to depart the profession. Many women included in the report felt that it was difficult for a female friendly workplace to exist if those in charge didn't empathise with the life of women.
Women who left engineering reported a lack of training opportunities, being passed over for challenging assignments or struggling with ambiguous roles that left no clear path to advancement.
If greater equality is to be had in the workplace then more needs to be done to provide a work environment that is fit for all employees, regardless of their gender.
Follow Technorati