The article “Exploring the Gender Gap in Tech Companies: Why Aren’t There More Women?” explores why tech companies are so male dominated (Haroon et al., 2019). Lack of diversity in workplaces causes many problems from toxic workplace cultures to costing companies billions of dollars every year. This is an important topic to me as a woman as it has impacted my career choices.
The article starts by explaining the impacts of lack of diversity in STEM companies, specifically the “toxic workplace” that it can create. Their research found that discrimination plays a big role in why many women will leave these companies as there is a prevalence of workplace bullying and harassment. This affects performance and confidence in the workplace, both in the targeted employees and witnesses.
This article also examined the idea that female representation is due to lack of interest in STEM careers. It deemed this a myth and relies on how girls and young women are treated when it comes to STEM. They are not encouraged at a young age the way that boys are on any level, from elementary to college. Women actually tend to score higher than men on the STEM portions of the SAT but have less matriculation in these programs.
The authors laid out solutions to the gender gap. First, there needs to be more inclusion among upper management. This will, hopefully, prevent some harassment from upper management as the majority of cases involve male higher ups going against female employees. This will also make female employees more comfortable. Second, we need to encourage girls and young women to explore STEM options. It needs to start in elementary school by educating about and not following the stereotypes that women are not interested. In middle and high school, girls need to be encouraged to enroll in more STEM classes. In college, we need better advisors and advising training for them. This also involves organizations, who could host careers days and show girls and young women the option they have in the field.
A question I had after reading this article (as it was published in 2019) was whether the problem has gotten better or worse. A 2023 Gallup poll found that the STEM gaps are still significant among Generation Z (Gen Z). It found that out of about 2,000 Gen Z that were polled (people aged 12 to 26 at the time of the survey), only 63% of girls were interested in a STEM field compared to 85% of boys (Nicola, 2023). When asked why, confidence was a big driver. 57% of girls stated that they “don’t think I would be good at it”, while only 38% of boys responded that way.
The poll did show one change to the article’s argument. The article argued that girls were not being exposed to STEM as much as boys. However, the poll shows that while girls are learning about STEM less, the gap is not big enough that it can truly be blamed on girls being encouraged to study STEM less. It could also be attributed to incentive and inclination from girls to take STEM courses, especially with the top reasons that girls are not interested in STEM being not enjoying STEM (61%), don’t think they will be good at STEM (57%), and don’t know enough about STEM careers (17%).
A page from MIT called “The Gender Gap in STEM: Still Gaping in 2023” also cites multiple reasons that gender gap exists (Piloto, 2023). They cite the same reasons as the article: stereotypes, biases in hiring, and lack of role models. However, they cite one more reason that I feel the article entirely ignored: work-life balance. A major contributing factor to women’s jobs is often their family dynamic and work-family conflicts. A Pew Research Center survey found that even in egalitarian (both partners are making roughly the same amount) and marriages where the wife is the breadwinner, the women were still doing more caretaking and had less leisure time (Fry et al., 2023).
A 2022 paper also found that this is reflected in academia, especially in science and engineering (Zheng et al., 2022). The researchers found that women lacked representation across all levels of professorship, produce fewer papers, receive fewer citations, have narrower collaboration networks, and are less likely to receive project funding and prestigious awards. This often coincides with parenthood. The authors state, “The prominent motherhood penalty could impel women to self-select away from academic careers and to leave such careers at higher rates than men”.
On one hand, the article is correct in what it states and argues. There is data to back up that the gender gap continues to be a problem, even though they cite slightly different reasons (Nicola, 2023). It could also be argued that girls do not think that they would be good at STEM because they do not have much experience or exposure, meaning the article would be correct that the problem is exposure. Overall, I do agree with the conclusion that more representation and exposure would help more girls get into a STEM.
However, I argue that the article ignores a fundamental part of the issue: part of the gender gap is familial responsibilities. Women often become the default parent, meaning that they are the one who stays home when their child is sick and the one the school calls. This means that women cannot be fully present at work and are considered “less career-oriented” (Lo Sasso et al., 2020). Women also tend to take time out of their career to be home with children.
So, part of this is not just a STEM centric problem, but a societal and global one. It could also be argued that since it is not specific to the field, it does not have a place in this current discussion. However, I would argue that it does. Women do not move into managerial roles because they often times do not have the time or energy to dedicate to both their kids and their job, so one must suffer. The data supports that even when women are breadwinners, they still have less leisure time and spend more time caregiving than their husbands (Fry et al., 2023).
Thus, I would also argue that this is more complex than a company changing policies and procedures. A suggestion by the authors is to move more women into management roles. The problem with this idea is that more will be expected of these women, meaning they either need to be childless or willing to sacrifice more work-life balances. A 2020 study of the wage gap in physicians found that women found work-life balances more important and were more likely to go into primary care than specialties because of this (Lo Sasso et al., 2020).
In conclusion, one can argue that the article “Exploring the Genger Gap in Tech Companies: Why Aren’t There More Women?” explains the STEM-specific gender gap quite well in a few bullet points: harassment is causing women to leave toxic workplaces and women are interested in STEM, but young girls need to be introduced to and exposed to STEM more. However, another argument is that it leaves out a major part of the puzzle that is a societal issue and not specific to STEM: the work-family conflicts that women generally must deal with more than men.
References
Fry, R., Aragao, C., Hurst, K., & Parker, K. (2023). In a Growing Share of U.S. Marriages, Husbands and Wives Earn About the Same. In Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/04/13/in-a-growing-share-of-u-s-marriages-husbands-and-wives-earn-about-the-same/
Lo Sasso, A. T., Armstrong, D., Forte, G., & Gerber, S. E. (2020). Differences In Starting Pay For Male And Female Physicians Persist; Explanations For The Gender Gap Remain Elusive. Health Affairs, 39(2), 256–263. https://doi-org.utk.idm.oclc.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.00664
Nicola, T. (2023). STEM Gender Gaps Significant Among Gen Z. In Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/544772/stem-gender-gaps-significant-among-gen.aspx
Piloto, C. (2023). The Gender Gap in STEM: Still Gaping in 2023. In MIT Professional Education. https://professionalprograms.mit.edu/blog/leadership/the-gender-gap-in-stem/
Zheng, X., Yuan, H., & Ni, C. (2022). How parenthood contributes to gender gaps in academia. eLife, 11. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.78909
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