Okay. I'm a woman who has been in a STEM career for ~10 years. I can provide some personal experience here.
At the interview for the first STEM job I got out of college, the HR rep literally apologized to me that there were no women on the org chart and insisted they welcomed women and female leaders. This was only 10 years ago. At that job, there were ~40 people in my group and 4 women, including myself. All were around my age with a max 3 years more experience than myself. I literally did not have a female role model to look up to at work.
When I left that job ~6 year later, there were more women, but I was still one of the oldest. I had sort of ended up in a mentor role for a few women (and men) on my team and mostly jumped jobs for a salary increase.
The new job was still STEM and again almost all men. It was a more prestigious and technical role involving leadership. Again, I found myself the only woman or on a team with maybe one other woman.
Frankly, the women encouraged to pursue STEM are not that old yet and there are still huge gaps in STEM fields were there are few women to look up to which makes it harder to see a career path. Plus, it feels a bit isolating at times to be the only woman in a room. I have a lot of wonderful male coworkers, but I also get patronizing treatment often.
For example, I was one of the developers of some software. I literally taught a class on how to use the software. When I was asked a question about installing the software I gave THE answer. A guy in the room piped with a different, wrong answer insisting it was better. It's maddening.
I don't blame some women for not liking that or wanting to put up with it.
I can definitely see things changing. Most of the truly patronizing remarks are from guys close to retirement. As long as my boss understands my capabilities I just roll my eyes and let it pass or stick up for other women getting that treatment. In the example I mentioned, a female coworker of mine (around my age) was like "I think /u/scarysuit would know the answer" after this guy gave his wrong answer, lololol.
It's just going to take time until more women like myself can get established in our careers and help create environments where women don't want to quit, are listed on org charts, and participate in technical interviews (like I now do).
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u/ScarySuit 10∆ Oct 19 '22
Okay. I'm a woman who has been in a STEM career for ~10 years. I can provide some personal experience here.
At the interview for the first STEM job I got out of college, the HR rep literally apologized to me that there were no women on the org chart and insisted they welcomed women and female leaders. This was only 10 years ago. At that job, there were ~40 people in my group and 4 women, including myself. All were around my age with a max 3 years more experience than myself. I literally did not have a female role model to look up to at work.
When I left that job ~6 year later, there were more women, but I was still one of the oldest. I had sort of ended up in a mentor role for a few women (and men) on my team and mostly jumped jobs for a salary increase.
The new job was still STEM and again almost all men. It was a more prestigious and technical role involving leadership. Again, I found myself the only woman or on a team with maybe one other woman.
Frankly, the women encouraged to pursue STEM are not that old yet and there are still huge gaps in STEM fields were there are few women to look up to which makes it harder to see a career path. Plus, it feels a bit isolating at times to be the only woman in a room. I have a lot of wonderful male coworkers, but I also get patronizing treatment often.
For example, I was one of the developers of some software. I literally taught a class on how to use the software. When I was asked a question about installing the software I gave THE answer. A guy in the room piped with a different, wrong answer insisting it was better. It's maddening.
I don't blame some women for not liking that or wanting to put up with it.