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This Community Newspaper is a weekly publication of Escambia Santa/Rosa Bar Association Page 1 Vol. 15, No. 30 VISIT THE SUMMATION WEEKLY ONLINE: www.esrba.com July 28, 2015
4 Pages
STEMinists By Josh Newby
In an increasingly diverse and gender-equal workforce, more women than ever are starting to take jobs once reserved for men and in some cases are even becoming their family’s primary caregiver. It has therefore become important to ensure competitive wages and job security for these relatively new members of the professional labor force. But in a world buzzing with computer science and built on the principles of engineering and math, some women are facing systemic obstacles and having to settle for the jobs of yesterday instead of tomorrow. Women’s participation—or lack thereof—in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields has been widely reported and is the focus of a number of federal, state, local educational and workforce programs. According to the most recent census data, women make up about 48 percent of the workforce, but only 24 percent of STEM workers. This underrepresentation has continued even as the female share of the college-educated workforce has increased. Even the women who do have STEM jobs can usually be found in physical and life sciences, as opposed to the engineering industries that most often feature the highest wages and greatest demand for measureable skill. As with most gender-based disparities, this one has huge, far-reaching consequences. For example, STEM jobs pay more—a lot more, according to the Department of Labor. And those who don’t have those jobs find themselves routinely making less than those who do. In this case, that inequity is largely along gender lines and is a big contributor to the oft-cited 75 percent wage gap. As women continue to fall into average-paying careers like education and nurse-level healthcare, and as men continue to fill more technical vocations, the wage gap will likely increase. This leads to less financial independence, less resources for further education and so on. Women in STEM is a crucial aspect of the larger systemic problem of female viability and marketability in the workforce. If women are just as capable as men at understanding complex equations and solving quantitative problems, which they are, why then don’t they simply enter those disciplines? According to a 2011 study by the Department of Commerce, the answer is multivariate. First, there are social and family issues in play. Gender norms over the years have created very traditional market demands—trucks and computers for boys, dolls and kitchens for girls. Even women who clear those obstacles will find job-based roadblocks. STEM career paths are less accommodating to people cycling in and out of work to raise a family. An issue that seems to transcend all female age groups, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, is a lack of confidence. In Pensacola, we have the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, nationally recognized programs at the University of West Florida and Pensacola State College, and forthcoming projects with Space Florida. The city is poised to become an engineering and computer science hub in the Panhandle, and with that upward trajectory comes the responsibility of ensuring that women who want to participate feel welcome to. We also need to make sure that our city’s future generations of women know, even from an early age, that math and science is not just for the boys. Alexis Janosik is a professor and department advisor at the University of West Florida. She holds a doctoral degree in marine biology and regularly advises young women in pursuit of a higher education STEM degree. Recently, she said, she has seen more and more women interested in and engaged in the sciences. “I think recently there’s been less of a focus on women staying home and doing traditional things we expect them to do,” said Janosik. While in pursuit of her degree, she had to go to exotic locales and intensely hot and cold climates to conduct research. She was surrounded by men and sometimes heard whispers that she may be unable to perform some of the more strenuous work. “I just told myself that I can do this,” said Janosik. “I taught them not to judge a book by its cover.” Nowadays, Janosik happily reported, her male colleagues and superiors are very supportive and encouraging of all her endeavors and very much view her as the equal she is. She is optimistic about the future of women in STEM, because the job characteristics that women value are slowly becoming more mainstream. (continue page 3)