Book Review: Valued at Work by Lauren Neal

A manifesto for retaining and developing women in STEM

Lauren Neal takes a novel approach to explaining why STEM employers are finding it so hard to build diverse workforces

Lauren Neal is a chartered engineer and chartered project professional who has worked in the energy industry since graduating in 2006. In Valued at Work: Shining a light in bias to engage, enable and retain women in STEM, Neal draws from her own experiences and of other women working in STEM roles to convey the many ways that women working in STEM are told that they don't belong there. She argues that until STEM industries stop focusing on the recruitment component of DEI and start instead to create a culture of inclusion to retain the staff that they have, efforts to create more diverse workforces will fail.

Valued at Work focuses on what can be done to shift what appears to be a broken dial. Neal presents her ideas as a conversation between two male senior managers (Steve works in tech and Markus in energy) who meet at a Women in STEM awards ceremony and are committed to improving the retention of women in their respective businesses. The men decide on a peering arrangement and meet quarterly to discuss the challenges that women face - challenges that arise from patriarchy generally, but also from power structures and some people in the workplace. They resolve to understand these challenges and find ways to address them.

Neal makes the point early on that Steve and Markus have different motivations. Steve negotiates with his own manager to have investigating the views and experiences of women in his organisation included in his annual performance metrics, with reductions in recruitment and training spending via reduced attrition, and an increase in customers as tangible goals. By contrast, already an executive sponsor of a gender-based Enterprise Resource Group (ERG) Markus is emotionally committed to being a change maker because of his young daughters' leaning towards mathematics and science.

Whilst the difference in motivation of the two main characters is useful in some respects, the fact that Neal makes a point of emphasising the different motivations creates a bit of a problem. Whilst it is usual for men in the public eye speaking on topics such as violence against women to begin their speeches with the words ‘as a father to two daughters' or some such opener, the idea that men can only empathise with women after, essentially having helped to create one, is unhelpful, untrue and risks alienating male allies at the outset.

Furthermore, the idea of Steve being doomed to failure because he views the whole exercise through the lens of business is also unhelpful, because it undermines one of Neal's central tenets - that diverse workforces are more resilient, innovative and ultimately more successful.

Nonetheless, the use of the two fictional and fallible male leaders as a way to convey common challenges is helpful overall because it helps readers to empathise with them as they encounter obstacles in their business structures and listen to the testimonies of their female colleagues. It's a neat way of removing some of the defensiveness that often clouds conversations about women in STEM.

The book covers each of Steve and Markus's quarterly catch ups, focusing on the importance of acknowledging systemic organisational behaviours, the necessity of technical skills and of strong, specific feedback programmes and on leadership. Chapters focus on specific areas such as inauthenticity and how it holds people back, the burden of ‘office housework' and on ethical leadership, and contain real life testimonies attributed to fictional women contributing to Steve and Markus's research. Most will be unsurprising to female readers but may be an eye opener for some of their male colleagues. The book certainly succeeds in its goal of shining a light on bias, and on how subtly it can erode the confidence and careers of women in male dominated industries.

Each chapter concludes with tips for both organisations and women, and all of these are helpful and should be feasible for businesses. The book concludes with review of the progress of Steve and Markus and the reasons why one is more successful at building the foundations of a more equitable and inclusive workplace culture than the other. Neal partially succeeds in providing a narrative free of judgement on the men who dominate STEM leadership but given the sheer scale of the bias that women working in these industries have endured that is understandable. She also reserves most of it for the conclusion.

Valued at Work is lively and engaging. Neal deftly communicates the insidious nature of many of the factors leading women to exit STEM and sets out achievable ways for organisations to ensure that all of their employees are heard and valued. It's a useful and enlightening read for the men who dominate these industries, particularly those who consider themselves allies of women and are curious about how they could do more to become true agents of change.

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