Women in Tech-Catching them from the other end!

Women in STEM initiatives are not enough, we need to do more!
To celebrate International Women’s Day, I attended the recent SVFWomenTechFest. It was an amazing scene—and for the first time in nearly two decades of attending tech events, I saw mostly over 200 women of all ages and colors.
The event offered me the opportunity to hear and meet with Ingrid Vanderveldt, the creator and manager of the Dell $100 million credit fund, and is the woman behind “Empowering a Billion Women by 2020”. Her story was inspiring, going from the success of her first start-up to literally being homeless, and the difficulties she encountered in seeking funding. The event was full of stories and I could relate to many.
As the “The Future of Your Career” panelist debated on various issues, I noticed that most of these professional women either talked about enjoying being single, having a pet or debating about the next steps, and few had a family with children. They started their careers in many different ways such as a ballerina, a high school dropout, and even an FBI agent. The common theme from these successful women was that their significant other does more home related chores than they do, “Train your man” they suggested. Even in their view and experience, “There is no middle solution” they said. Of course, not everyone has such a luxury. And with divorce rates being as high as they are (Huffingtonpost) and children of divorce more likely living in poverty (FamilyFacts), many well-educated mothers are forced to make extremely difficult choices—do they prioritize the career or prioritize their children? Complicating such decisions is the fact that keeping job skills fresh is essential; technology changes so quickly that staying home for even a brief time can quickly make a skillset –and a worker—obsolete (NYTimes, Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety).
Reflecting on being a woman in tech, I can speak from various experiences. Coming from a third world country, it was hard enough to not drop out of schools as a girl in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), then to survive the gender imbalance in the workforce as a young woman in STEM, and definitely not easy to jump for the biggest hurdle of all—the motherhood stage. According to The Athena Factor and National Center for Women & Information Technology, 56% out of 74% women in tech dropped out between ages 34-45, the most costly stage to companies. The study also pointed out that by reducing only one quarter of the women attrition, “220,000 highly qualified women would return to the labor market”. With 80% of women become mothers by the age 40-44 (Census.gov), it will be a significant contribution. Yet, while rates of employment for women between ages 25-54 have been rising in other countries, they have declined from 74% to 69% in the US (NYTimes).
One of the biggest current social issues and at the global scale, is the workforce deficit, estimated 5M STEM related workers shortfall by 2020 in the United States alone (US News). What do you think? Are mothers in STEM likely to encourage their own children to pursue careers in STEM? I also have read that the number of childlessness women is on the raise, US ranked near the top—7 out of 117 countries (PewResearch). Japan has already quickly turned to what they called “Supermom”, allowing a more work-life-balance to rescue their economy (NYtimes).
Everyone comes from a mom, so is there “a middle solution” for moms? AtMomWorkforce Solutions, we believe there is, and we are making our best attempt to create a “central” support structure, with flexibility to accommodate changes, and meaningful jobs with flex schedules, either part or full time, that cater to talented moms and women who seek greater work-life-satisfaction. Until we can address the middle solution question, which may help shed light on the younger generations of women who we promote STEM and Tech careers to, I believe many of those social trends will continue.
Without people working to promote girls and women’s participation in the technical workforce and STEM education such as some of the initiatives below, the decline will continue. We have a chance to stop this. We need to keep the dialogue alive, not only for the current, but also for our daughters, granddaughters, and for generations to come.
Next release: Mothers In Tech: What’s Not Being Heard.
1. Lean In
2. Anita Borge Institute
3. Mathematical Association of America
4. Society of Women Engineers
5. Black Enterprise
6. EBW2020
7. In Focus-Women in Business
8. JohnKlugeTrek4Toilets
9. CraigConnects
Picture credit: antidepressioninstitute.com