The reason why stories of successful women in what are considered “male dominated’ careers raise eyebrows is that society still looks at the presence of a woman in those fields as alien.
The hurdles that women in the fields of science and engineering face in South Africa, a developing country, might be worse than in well-resourced western countries, but there challenges that they face are more or less similar, Transform SA Online learns from a report by the Initiative on Women in Science and Engineering Working released in the US.
The report looks at women who enter science and engineering fields in the US. And its findings were that “women often leave prematurely – and if they stay, many don’t advance as quickly as their male counterparts. To stem the tide, a seven point plan for achieving gender equity has been suggested for the so-called STEM fields – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
In a comment which might resonate with South Africa’s gender equity initiative with regards to specialised skills, the Working Group says: “To ensure that women not just enter science, but remain, compete, and truly excel in scientific careers.”
However, South Africa does not have to “copy and paste” the American approach, but some of the following points could be provide a guide as it grapples with its unique gender equity challenges:
- Flexible family care spending awards that could enable travel to meetings and conferences;
- “Extra hands” awards – grants to pay for assistance in the office, laboratory or home;
- Those in careers should seek out female mentors;
- Personal relationships and institutional change are necessary for people to succeed;
- Incorporate implicit bias statements: this is premised on first acknowledging that gender biases exist then finding an appropriate solution;
- Gender-balanced external review and speaker selection committees; and
- Education as a tool.
