Discussion: Expanding Women’s Role in Developing Technology: Increasing Productivity, Improving Life

https://www.cgdev.org/publication/expanding-womens-role-developing-technology

I think this article touches on many important factors and I commend the author for the insightful way they frame these issues holistically as an innovation crisis and not a women's issue. Women's issues are human issues. The fact that humanity has not harnessed the full potential of both genders has been apparent to me throughout my entire life. It is a passion of mine to speak to young girls and women (especially disadvantaged minority girls) about the importance of STEM and more recently STEAM and am proud to help advocate for the inclusion of these programs within the national curriculum as well as recognizing successful and prominent female engineers and scientists for their achievements. I had no female engineering role models and found this career path semi-accidentally in my search for a practical course of study. We could make improvements to education, to child-care accessibility, to business practices, to societal gender roles, to media STEM representation, political representation, etc. that would support the entry and achievement of women in the innovation process. Recognition of the gap is the first step and we have a long way to go.

As mentioned in the article, women's overall educational attainment is at a historical high point. Within the engineering field, there is a retention problem for many factors. Many women are forced to choose between a commitment to their careers and their commitment to a happy and healthy family due to the physical realities of childbearing and caregiving duties that are not formally recognized as labor. Others attempt to strike a balance that is very difficult to achieve in today's professional environment. Another common issue is the company's traditional hierarchical structure in which a woman's network connections limit the level of professional attainment they are granted access.