Should we create roles for women in STEM?
HSBC and Computing event Stem at the Source brought together a range of speakers from different specialisations including engineering, recruitment and entrepreneurship, to discuss the tangible measures that technology leaders can take to diversify what remains an industry predominantly run by men.
The session which most engaged the audience was an interactive thinktank on the many aspects of creating roles for women in STEM. The session provided an opportunity for the airing of some diverse views on whether roles could - or should - be created specifically for women.
The panel for the thinktank comprised Jen Goodison, CTO Engineering Platforms, HSBC, Joseph Castle, CEO of IT Solutions Partner Tecnologika and Lisa Holmes, Director at specialist tech recruiter Uniting Ambition . All expressed doubts about creating roles specifically for women, certainly within their own organisations.
Joseph Castle was keen to emphasise the importance of merit, and recruiting the right person for any given role.
I feel uncomfortable trying to find someone from a certain demographic because my whole career I've been about attaining a certain position or goal by merit - having the right attitude and the skills to do it."
He continued: "Having said that, we're not in a fair world, and I'd be lying to you if I said, I do not want to hire more women in our organisation. What we have realised is that the way we've been communicating our vision to the world has been male centric, and because of that we were getting a certain type of people applying for roles.
"When we recruited for some senior commercial positions the benefits communicated were high salary, Amex card for expenses, company trips etc. We looked at how we communicate and now we talk more about health insurance, holidays and other benefits in a more universal tone and we are seeing the type of people that apply change. As long as our tone of voice is right we can still ensure people are recruited on merit. "
Jen Goodison agreed:
If you go down the route of creating roles for women that that way madness lies. I think the right way to do it as look at the roles that your business really does need. Otherwise people will just say ‘diversity hire.'"
Lisa Holmes added her recruiters perspective:
"I've been told by companies many times that they ned a woman in a certain role but they don't give me any reasons why. What is it they're trying to change? Do they want to change the culture? It then comes off that they're just trying to tick a box which I really disagree with."
New role, old stereotype
Having expressed a collective unease at the idea of creating roles specifically for women, the panel acknowledged in response to some audience questions that increasing the proportion of women in leadership positions was unlikely to happen by itself.
Jen Goodison brought the discussion back to the evergreen talking point of the difficulty in retaining and promoting women.
"You can start with the women that you have. Getting them into the organisation is one thing but how can organisations make sure that brilliant women can move through the organisation? What space needs to be made for them? Is it space? Or is it somebody grabbing them by the collar and yanking them into a bigger role? We have to be serious about it and actually make some changes."
The panel discussed countries such as India and Portugal who are leading the way when it comes to recruiting women into STEM roles, partly by means of cultural change but also by specific programmes implemented by businesses, sometimes in partnership with government.
One member of the audience asked whether the panel had spoken to women working for their organisations and asked them what they wanted, in an attempt to establish what some of the big barriers to the advancement of women are.
In reply, Jen Goodison acknowledged that employers such as hers can be guilty of making assumptions about what women want. She cited her own experience as needing a degree of flexibility in her working day but equally not wanting others to assume that just because she happens to be a mother she would only be interested in part time opportunities.
The panel took questions on the importance of employers looking outside of the graduate pool and of the growing quantity of roles that are, due to digitisation, both semi-technical but also very creative. However, Goodison raised the possibility that this could just be a new way of applying some very old stereotypes.
"I think we've got to be careful not to put the women in the ‘allied to technology but not technology' roles. Every role that we have women are equally as good as men are and vice versa. I sit in a room with twenty other CTOs as a lone female voice and sometimes I just want another voice in the room that is stopping the melee. And you're not going to get that if the room of programme directors is full of women and the room of Product Managers is full of women but the room of CTOs is not. I think we do have to be a bit more ambitious."
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