Catch up on the latest news and reports featuring WISE from around the UK.
Engineering is missing out because of latent prejudice and unconscious bias preventing women from entering the profession
by Raconteur
The look of disbelief when Hayaatun Sillem tells people she is a chief executive in the engineering sector is all too familiar. “Some people are better at rearranging their faces than others, but the fact that can be frustrating at times,” she says...
More women are needed in UK tech. So what is being done by universities and employers to develop and recruit them?
The Guardian
Women now outnumber men at undergraduate level in medicine and the biological sciences. But in the physical sciences, the pattern is different: according to Ucas, only 23% of students starting physics degrees in 2016 were women, while for engineering, the figure was 17%....
The UK is on target to employ 1M women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) roles by 2020
by Forbes
The news was announced at the WISE 2018 Awards on November 15 by HRH Princess Anne, the campaign’s patron, who said that the goal was achievable as long as employers endeavoured to recruit at least half of the estimated 200,000 girls currently studying STEM subjects.
WISE emphasised the importance of shining the light on female role models during its 2018 WISE awards ceremony.
by Computer Weekly
The annual WISE awards, now in its seventh year, showcases exceptional women from the science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) sectors to celebrate diversity in these industries and create visible and accessible role models.
The UK Space Agency has joined a campaign to encourage more girls to study STEM and consider careers in space.
article by GOV.UK
Working with the WISE Campaign’s People Like Me initiative, the Agency has helped produce a resource pack for schools to boost the recruitment of girls into STEM subjects post-16, particularly those that girls typically do not choose, such as physics and engineering...
A campaign to close the STEM skills gap wants to encourage more businesses to work with local schools
article by Evening Standard
Across the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) industries, it’s well known that more needs to be done to encourage girls to study these subjects at school and beyond....
GIRLS at Ormiston Park Academy were encouraged to consider careers in science at a special event.
article by Thurrock Gazette
The school in Aveley teamed up with Women in Science and Engineering (Wise), a social enterprise which campaigns for better gender balance in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths sectors, to deliver a workshop for Year 9 and 10 female students to discuss qualifications and career routes.
WISE has suggested ten steps to ensure companies are doing more to inspire girls into science, technology, engineering and maths careers.
article by information age
This is compared to a global average of 30%. Encouragingly though, the research also found a 9% increase in the number of patents filed by women by publicly listed companies. This was 30% in 2016 and 21% in 2012. This figure has increased 500% since 1975.
Research by Wise found fewer than 10% of patents filed in the UK have involvement from women.
article by Computer Weekly
Out of all the patents registered in the UK, fewer than 10% have women working on the teams involved in these patents, according to research by Wise, a campaign for gender balance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem).
The importance of calling out bad behaviour
article by Computer Weekly
The 2018 conference for Wise, a campaign for gender balance in technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem), highlighted some of the key failings of the Stem industries when it comes to gender imbalance and emphasised the need to call these issues out when they are apparent.
Thirty years on from the start of the push to get more girls into science, the sense of urgency and commitment is waning, says Karen Russ
article by Times Higher Education
Forty years ago, before I embarked on my career in science, I sat in a chemistry lesson at secondary school and listened to my male teacher telling the class that women were good for only two things: cooking and breeding.
For the numerous organisations dedicated to addressing the problem of women’s under-representation in science, solutions are far from clear.
article by The WIRE
Growing up in Saudi Arabia, Aciel Eshky didn’t get the memo that science was for boys. When she was around ten years old, her aunt started to teach her basic computer programming. From there, going on to a degree in computer science seemed like a natural fit. So when a classmate in her master’s program abroad told her that women were weaker than men at math, it came as a shock. “I was really annoyed,” Eshky says. “I felt like I was being bullied.”
Women in STEM jobs are paid less than men and the gap shows no sign of shrinking, according to the latest findings from the New Scientist/SRG annual salary survey
article by New Scientist
WOMEN working in science and engineering earn a fifth less than their male colleagues in the UK. And the gender pay gap increases with age and experience. That’s the disturbing finding revealed by the 2017 salary survey carried out by New Scientist and science recruitment specialists SRG.
STEMming The Gender Gap
article by HuffPost
In 2017, illustrator Adam Hargreaves brought the Mr Men and Little Miss series bang up to date with the creation of Little Miss Inventor. Not a moment too soon. Adam brought his father’s books tearing into the 21st Century with a bold new character ready to challenge the gender stereotypes of the workplace, complete with pencils and a spanner in her hair.
