Saturday, August 13, 2011

Pay gaps

A recent article on Bloomberg, "Higher Pay Not Luring Women to Tech Jobs", By Jillian Berma, caught my eye.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workers overall earn about 25% more than people in other types of work. Yet STEM women earn 14% less than their male counterparts. We're supposed to be grateful that this is at least better than the 21% pay disparity in other fields.

24% of the people working in STEM are women. That percentage hasn't changed since 2000. In 2009 there were only 2.5 million women employees with a degree in STEM fields compared with 6.7 million men.

Women are about half of the college graduates each year, total. For women who graduate with a STEM degree, only 26% of them go into employment in a STEM-related job. Almost 40% of men with a STEM degree enter into a STEM job.

Something is seriously wrong in the STEM work world.

Having recently interviewed for STEM jobs, with a BS, MS, and PhD in computer science plus over 10 years of experience, I was told that my technical skills were a little weak for what they were looking for. And we wonder why there are fewer women? It's because you doubt women's capabilities. I have graduate degrees that prove I can learn just about anything I put my mind to. And you say my technical skills are weak? Please. I dare you to tell a male PhD that his technical skills are weak.

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