Gender bias of women in STEM in India high: survey

81% of women perceive a gender bias in performance evaluation in India, says the latest survey by Kelly Global Workforce Insights

Globally, women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) jobs are highly ambitious and driven, but gender bias and hostile work cultures make them feel stalled and hasten their decisions to quit sooner than their male counterparts. This feeling is equally prevalent in India, where 81 per cent of women perceive a gender bias in performance evaluation.

The latest Kelly Global Workforce Insights (KGWI) survey on Women in STEM, found that women in India tend to drop out of workforce at key phases in their lives, most notably around childbearing years and later at mid-management levels. The most significant driver is the "double burden syndrome" of women struggling to balance work and family in a culture where both men and women feel the family and household duties are primarily the woman's responsibility.

While women represent 46 per cent of all enrolled undergraduate students in STEM, not many continue to pursue careers. "41 per cent of women in technology companies leave after 10 years of experience, compared to 17 per cent of men," said Kamal Karanth, Managing Director, Kelly Services & Kelly OCG India. "This is a very worrying scenario."

Consequently, there are few women left to fill roles at the top, KGWI survey says. This glaring disparity is clearly visible in publicly traded companies. As early as 2015, 12 per cent of the companies had failed to fulfil the mandate of having at least one woman representative on their board. Of the 50 companies in the NIFTY index, only five had two female directors. And 53 per cent met this directive by appointing directors that were either wives or sisters of executives and not really independent members.

The study also captured some of the key experiences felt by women at the workplace in India. While a resounding 77 per cent of female workers complained of double standards in training opportunities for women, 76 per cent believed that men have a genetic advantage in math and science and 66 per cent felt that women would never get top positions irrespective of their performance.

An intriguing aspect that KGWI survey identified was the level of confidence felt by women in STEM. Globally, women feel less confident in their roles than their male counterparts-and this confidence gap extends across all key STEM skill sets and career stages.

This gap is most pronounced in engineering, followed by science. The confidence gap in STEM women is driven by a number of factors, ranging from too many "lack of" situations, to bias, to isolation.

Addressing the challenge of retaining women in STEM, Karanth said, "It takes a multi-pronged approach to create meaningful, lasting changes in the retention of women in STEM fields. One-off programs are insufficient." According to the study, the core components of retention are top leadership support, institutional accountability and emphasis on supervisory relationships. "Flex-time and other family-friendly policies are critical, but must be offered to all employees, not just women. And, most critically, taking advantage of flexible arrangements must be actively encouraged and even modelled by both direct managers and senior leadership."

While offering flexible work arrangements is important to women of all ages and levels, it is especially critical for mid-career women who are typically in their prime child-bearing and family-raising years. In a different way, STEM women in executive roles are looking for limits on work hours more than male counterparts, perhaps because they are seeking employer support that demonstrates they do not have to continue to prove themselves in typically male dominated STEM cultures. "Even with work-life balance being a top priority, women in STEM are primarily attracted to employers that will develop them and their careers."