Women struggle to get a foothold in the careers of science and technology

An article published by New Castle University in the UK talks about women in the career fields of science and technology still finding it difficult to climb to coveted positions in their workplace. In addition to the interviews conducted, statistics can also be found in the article


Women in 'male' careers still face barriers - New report:

"In total there were three times as many male employees as women in firms surveyed. The average firm had ten male employees compared to only four female employees.
Although 40 per cent of the enterprises had women managers, only two per cent held scientific-related managerial positions, and the majority were employed in the traditionally female administrative and personnel sectors.
70 per cent of the participants were married, divorced or lived with a partner, but only 35 per cent had children. - Only one in ten women worked in research and development (R&D) jobs and other scientific and technical activities, compared with 60 per cent of their male counterparts. However, only one in hundred women worked in industrial R&D. - Many women cited professional barriers to progression such as institutional sexism, informal male networks, male-dominated senior management team, male-biased incentives such as attending football matches.
Personal barriers such as lack of confidence and self-esteem were mentioned, as well as a lack of female scientist role models, lack of support from teachers, lack of information on SET-related careers and low expectations of girls in SET education."