Despite significant growth in recent years, women are still a notable minority within STEM fields. Women make up an estimated 34% of the STEM workforce overall, yet in more lucrative fields like engineering and computer science, women only account for roughly 20% of college majors.
While the gender gap persists in STEM, this doesn’t mean that women aren’t capable. Far from it. In fact, women have many unique capabilities that make them distinctly positioned to close the talent gap within STEM — not just for other women, but for all STEM workers.
Related: 3 Top Companies’ Strategies for Hiring and Retaining Women in STEM
1. Emphasizing collaboration
As a report from MIT on women in leadership positions notes, women are generally more inclined to be collaborative, a trait that makes them well-suited to finding win-win solutions when working with stakeholders, partners and employees.
This collaborative approach is also necessary for closing the talent gap within STEM fields. Collaboration is key to developing a more cohesive team where each member works together and supports each other — including by making up for each others’ weaknesses and helping each other improve their skills.
By emphasizing collaboration through their leadership style, women in STEM create an environment that will naturally facilitate more learning opportunities as everyone comes together to solve problems.
2. Driving innovation with diverse perspectives
Bringing together diverse perspectives is another important area where women in STEM can help close the talent gap and improve outcomes for their organization as a whole. Research from McKinsey highlights that companies in the top quartile of female representation on their executive boards were significantly more likely to outperform those with less than 30% female representation.
As research from the Harvard Business Review illustrates, firms with women in the C-suite benefit by becoming more open to change while developing a more risk-averse mindset, as well as shifting their focus from acquisitions to research and development.
The diversity of thought that female leadership brings to STEM firms creates new opportunities for learning and growth within the organization, helping the company develop innovations that improve the capabilities of its team while also driving bottom-line results.
Related: 10 Women on the Myths of Working in STEM and Tech
3. Shifting the focus from individuals to teams
Closing the talent gap in STEM requires a focus away from individual self-promotion and a greater emphasis on achieving success as a team. However, this mindset is often not present in STEM. The Gotara 2024: Shattering the Myth of the ‘Bad Manager’ industry report found that, for managers in STEM fields, “increasing my visibility and impact” was the top goal category for technical managers, representing 26% of overall goals.
These types of goals, which included being recognized for another promotion, were especially pronounced among middle managers, 32% of whom had a goal that fit in this category. On the other hand, goals that fit within the categories of “drive team performance” and “leading teams effectively” each only accounted for 15% of total manager goals.
An emphasis on individual self-promotion negates opportunities for true leadership. On the other hand, women in STEM and other fields are generally known for being more community-oriented — more focused on elevating the performance of the entire team. This change in mindset creates more opportunities to close the talent gap by placing greater emphasis on the needs of each team member and helping them achieve their full potential.
4. Leading with empathy
The empathy that women in leadership display is another key trait that can help close the talent gap in STEM. As noted in the MIT report cited earlier, teams with female managers typically have higher employee engagement levels, in large part because of the empathy displayed by their leaders.
Female managers are more likely to provide emotional support, ensure each employee has a manageable workload that helps maintain work-life balance and even check in on each person’s well-being. Such actions help reduce turnover and burnout.
While this may not seem to directly influence the talent gap, it can have a very real impact. STEM workers who feel supported rather than overwhelmed will have a greater capacity to develop their own skills through their work. An improved mental and emotional state creates a better mindset for learning and personal growth.
5. Serving as mentors
A report from Deloitte notes that as digital technology disrupts workforces, it shortens the shelf life of the skills learned by employees in all industries, requiring continuous re-skilling of workers to help them remain employable. When combined with the challenges women face entering STEM fields in the first place, this makes the value of mentorship abundantly clear.
Female leaders’ collaborative and empathetic approach makes them well suited to serving as mentors to other women entering STEM fields. This mentorship can naturally apply to technical skills, which are becoming increasingly crucial in a work environment that is getting radically disrupted by AI. However, it can also help close the skills gap in soft skills, helping new hires develop the attributes necessary to become effective leaders and communicators.
Related: Why We Need More Women in STEM and How AI Could Help Us Get There
Women can close the gap
While women are historically underrepresented in STEM, this doesn’t have to remain the norm. Indeed, as women leverage their innate strengths and apply them to their work and leadership within STEM, they can ultimately help create a more inclusive and supportive environment that inspires a broader cultural shift that helps everyone within these fields improve their capabilities.
