Debbie Walsh explains the thinking

Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) organisations are waking up to gender inequality. This historically male-dominated and male-orientated sector is slowly starting to examine its relationship with women.

The UK Resource Centre for Women in SET (the UKRC) is flagging up potential female candidates for positions on their own merit. It has recently launched ‘Get SET Women’, a new online database to capture women working within SET at all career stages from graduation onwards. It was initially conceived as a vehicle to assist the government achieve its 40 per cent female representation on SET-related boards and governing bodies such as science Research Councils, government advisory bodies and committees and even museum governing bodies. It now has a much broader remit, raising the visibility for women at all levels within SET.

The aim is that the database will contain 2000 names within 18 months. It will offer a unique resource to both to external bodies, such as media looking for speakers, and to the women themselves with a range of contacts, networking and training opportunities that will be developed alongside it.

Role models and mentors
Two key outcomes will be the identification of potential role models and mentors. These will come from all levels of expertise, depending upon who is seeking them. For example, a world-leading scientist might be an inspirational role model for a young student but on a practical level, someone mid-career might be a relevant mentor for her.

Similarly, with the database as a source for female specialists, the level of the ‘expert’ in a subject depends upon context and audience. To a room full of top scientists, the leading world expert is the one to go for, whilst to the general public it might be someone with a good scientific grounding but less specialised, who can help make the science accessible to non-scientists.

All women within SET-related careers are invited to register on the database, which will comprehensively cover start of career, mid career and senior status – the latter category requiring more in-depth information to be supplied.

There is an obvious need for such a database.

All-round women
Changing demographics, skills training issues and other factors mean that SET organisations are increasingly faced with recruitment difficulties and skills shortages. Yet despite the fact that over 50 per cent of the UK workforce is female, just one-quarter of the overall workforce within SET is female, and women hold only one-eighth of managerial positions in SET. Positions of true leadership and power are even less fairly distributed. Yet why should gender be an issue in leadership?

The recent female FTSE showed that only 11 of the FTSE 100 have female executive directors. Yet a striking fact about those appointed in 2005 is that, compared to their male counterparts, they bring a greater all-round diversity to the boards, being more likely to be international, have board experience and come from more varied backgrounds.

The sad fact is that the advantages of a better gender balance at top-level management are not adequately valued and the barriers to achieving that balance are not understood.

Top achievers
The terms ‘glass ceiling’ and ‘sticky floors’ are well known. We also now have the ‘glass cliff’: an apparent practice of women being brought into top management positions when businesses are precarious and thus statistically more likely to fail. It is unsurprising then, that often those women who get to the top are quite remarkable and inspiring to others, although they, themselves, often fail to recognise the full extent of their achievement.

It is these women who reach the top, and those likely to be part of the expert section of the new UKRC ‘Get SET Women’ database, who are seen as the real key to instigating change both in the SET workforce as a whole and within leadership in that sector. Having become visible and influential, they are in the ideal position to really change both culture and perception, to dismantle barriers, introduce other women into the right networks and bring more diversity of views into management.

To join the database, please visit our website.

Debbie Walsh is the Communicator for the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET