Amalia Rusu is often the only female in the room, even when she is at the head of the classroom.
A software engineering professor at Fairfield University, Rusu said she”™s used to it. She was often the only female in her engineering classes, beginning at the undergraduate level and continuing into her doctorate program. Until 2011, she was also the only woman faculty member in Fairfield”™s engineering department.
“I don”™t pay attention anymore,” Rusu said with a laugh. “But it is a problem and we need to address it.”
Women make up the majority of the workforce now, but they still occupy only a quarter of the jobs in fields related to science, technology, engineering and math ”” called STEM ”” according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. And at a time when the governor and business community are fighting for more STEM-related jobs, many want to see the gender ratio even out. The problem is that even when women are interested in STEM fields, they face a number of barriers, including discrimination. The old adage “girls aren”™t good at math,” still seems to lurk in the collective unconsciousness.
“I never felt like a minority, I was always blending in,” Rusu said. “Honestly, I always felt empowered and special for being a female, rather than discouraged. That”™s my kind of way.
“But maybe I”™m not very representative of the female group,” she said. “I”™ve heard the stories of faculty who get promoted to tenure who have had a faculty member ”” that was male ”” say they should give up or make rude comments on their performance.”
At a recent roundtable in Hartford, women from around the state gathered to promote young girls in STEM and discuss the barriers women later face while pursuing STEM careers.
Lucy L. Brakoniecki, research director for the Connecticut Women”™s Education and Legal Fund, said people are often very interested in STEM interventions for young girls, but not as much when it comes to discussing why women later drop out of their STEM careers.
The Education and Legal Fund, in partnership with the Connecticut Labor Department and Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, hosted the event.
In addition to the normal family responsibilities that can stunt a women”™s career, some claim there is still unfair gender bias at play in STEM fields, especially in the academic world. Some women say professors and mentors have wrongly discouraged them from pursuing a career, while others say the experience of being the only woman, often working alone, is too isolating and not rewarding.
“The question is how you keep women in STEM, in jobs as engineers, when you know they don”™t usually go into those fields and drop off,” Brakoniecki said. “As you go further and further up (the career ladder), it”™s harder to find them.”
Across all fields in Connecticut, a woman working full time earns 23 percent less than a man on average, according to a recent government study. However, the gap, in part, can be explained by the type of jobs toward which women typically gravitate.
“Pink collar” jobs in education and health care often pay lower wages, though they are also industries growing fast. If more women pursued STEM careers, however, that gap could decrease, some experts say.
In 2011, the national median salary of those ages 25 to 29 with a computer science degree was $75,700, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Yet, only 8.7 percent of those who graduated with a computer science degree in 2011 were female.
There are some discrimination issues at play with Connecticut”™s gender wage gap, but a lot of the gap is reflected by individual choices, said Linda Barrington, executive director for the Institute for Compensation Studies at Cornell University. Barrington was a presenter at the Hartford roundtable.
“It matters what fields women go into,” Barrington said. “STEM is an industry where people make more money. If women went into the field at the same rate as men, the gap would close.”
It”™s predicted that the state will need to fill 116,000 STEM-related positions by 2018, but interest among female high school students in Connecticut remains low, Barrington said. About 11 percent of female students say they are interested in science and only 1 percent to 2 percent say they are interested in technology, engineering or math.
To increase interest, Barrington said she believed girls would need to be encouraged at an earlier age. Sharing a personal story, Barrington said her husband first realized the unconscious bias against women in science when he was trying to find planet-themed pajamas for their 4-year-old daughter. He could only find boy pajamas.
“I know that sounds silly and cute but he had an eye-opening experience,” Barrington said. “We”™re shaping those ideas so young. You do want to acknowledge that men are over represented in science and technology and those jobs pay more. It explains why men are paid more, but that doesn”™t mean there isn”™t any discrimination.”
Brakoniecki said realistically there isn”™t an obvious answer as to how to make STEM jobs more attractive. But women are organizing affinity groups within their workplaces and regularly holding industry discussions.
“Women are as good, and some argue better, team builders, problem solvers and process-oriented people,” Brakoniecki said. “The best businesses use a diverse talent pool to get what they need done. If only 20 percent of the workforce is female, you”™re leaving out a perspective.”
Brakoniecki said the solution could be as involved as restructuring the rigid STEM education model to make it more humane or instituting policies that hold women harmless for child bearing.
“You can”™t really ignore this,” Brakoniecki said. “It”™s too important. We can”™t lose valuable people anymore.”