'GET BACK TO THE KITCHEN' - women in the workplace

Having completed the first 2 years of our degrees, the majority of students in the same year as me will either have started, or be soon to start their placement years in industry. Whilst I've been working a 9-5 job on campus all summer until I start my placement in October, my housemates and friends have already started their placements. It's a strange transition from campus to the world of work. Office dynamics are weird, corporate habits take hold and suddenly you find yourself knee deep in excel spreadsheets and responsibility.

I was on the phone to my friend the other day, and she was telling me about her experience of placement so far, and we got talking about what it's like to be a woman in the workplace. In the news just this week, was a headline that suggested 50% of females have experienced sexual harassment in their jobs at least once. And I'm sorry to say that this didn't surprise me at all. However it does bring up the very real issue of gender equality in the workplace (not that men do not also experience sexual harassment at work), and raises questions of what can be done to achieve it.

Considering for most of my friends, this is their first proper experience of the corporate world, I thought it would be interesting to ask a handful of them about their experience of placement so far as a woman going into the world of work.

This blog is a collation of their experiences on placement so far. The purpose of this blog is not to imply that the respective companies are sexist, it serves only to highlight subjective experiences of being female in a workplace for each individual. Before we start, some disclaimers: I am aware that

- The lack of female employees is not necessarily indicative of sexism in the workplace

- These accounts are not representative of all female employee experience in the respective workplaces

Out of the 8 people I asked, 7 are studying STEM degrees, ranging from biochemistry and engineering to economics. Historically, females have been significantly under-represented in STEM degrees and industries, however there is an increasing initiative to get more females studying these subjects and pursuing respective careers.

Below are a summary of the answers given to 5 main questions regarding what it's like to be a woman in the world of work.

#1 - Is your workplace male or female dominated or a mix of both?

Half of the girls that I asked said that their workplaces were male dominated. 3 of the girls, working either in Pharmaceutical or research companies said that they felt there was an even mix, although 2 felt their specific departments in pharmaceutical development were female dominated. 1 girl whose course is Sociology (not STEM) felt her placement was female dominated.

For the girls who felt their work was male dominated, there were a range of reasons attributed to the imbalance. Two girls wondered whether the elements of manual labour in their jobs and respective companies may have drawn more male candidates to the company due to the traditional gender role of a man doing manual labour.

One girl working in finance attributed the male dominance to the aggressively competitive nature of the business and how females tend to show these traits less.

One individual suggested that the lack of females at her placement company may be due to the fact that less females do STEM degrees, and this under-representation is therefore carried through into businesses.

Interestingly, for the 2 girls working in Pharmaceuticals who felt there was at least an even mix in the company, if not female dominated in their department, this sits in line with research. Pharmacy is increasingly becoming a female dominated profession, with nearly 60% of employees in the pharmaceutical industry being female in 2011.

However, as many of the respondents mentioned in their answers, there seems to be a significant lack of female employees in chief positions in these companies, whether that be in the pharmaceutical industry where many employees are female, or in civil engineering placements which are mostly male dominated.

#2 - Have you ever felt like you've been treated differently because you're a woman?

5 out of 8 girls either answered 'yes' to this question, or were aware that female colleagues had experienced being treated differently to men.

A civil engineering student working on a construction site said that initially, male colleagues would apologise for or refrain from swearing in her presence, though this changed after a couple of weeks into the placement.

One individual observed that male colleagues appeared to be less willing to speak to female colleagues compared to the dynamic within the female employees in the company.

One mentioned that despite not experiencing it herself, female colleagues had experienced a difference in treatment, and speculated that this must have been an issue in the past as the company had recently held an hour long meeting explicitly talking about the treatment of women in the workplace. 

#3 - Do you feel you were hired based on your merit rather than your gender?

This is a difficult question to answer. With the debate about quotas and meritocracy, an ideal world would have women hired solely on merit rather than for their gender.

The three individuals who said that their workplaces were either a mix of male and female employees, or were female dominated, also said that they felt they were hired on merit.

In male dominated companies, individuals answers lacked the same certainty, often citing that they hoped they were hired on merit, but acknowledged that their role has been fulfilled by men in the past and that diversity requirements may have played a role - one going as far to say as sometimes she doubted whether she was hired on merit, despite believing that she did indeed fit the profile that the company required.

#4 - Have your work clothes/make up ever been commented on or referred to? If so, why?

Thankfully, though none of the girls had experienced comments on their physical appearance on placement so far, many alluded to being conscious of dressing appropriately and were aware of incidences where inappropriate comments had been made towards female colleagues.

Interestingly, two individuals mentioned the fact that they feel it is more complicated for women to adhere to dress codes, as something like 'business casual' generally means suit and no tie for men, but there is no clear equivalent for women. 

#5 - Do you feel that as a woman, you have a different experience working at your placement to men?

One individual interestingly said that because she was noticeably in the minority as a woman in her placement, she felt that perhaps her voice was listened to more attentively than if she were a man. This is perhaps indicative of the team recognising that she was in the minority and making an effort to ensure she felt just as valued as the many male employees in the firm.

Many responses implied that the difference in experience for them as women was subjective - ie they hadn't been explicitly treated differently whilst on placement, but subjectively felt the experience was different. For example, one girl studying natural sciences who drives a van as part of her job felt as though others were surprised when they saw her driving in the van, presumably not expecting a young female to be driving it.

One of the responses which highlighted an interesting difference in experience of work between men and women concerned the role of networking in the corporate world. When contacted after hours by male colleagues, this respondent said she found herself questioning the intentions of the colleague, and overthinking her replies for fear of coming across as 'misleading' or being a tease. Whilst this undoubtedly does happen the other way round with men and women too, this experience of trying to ensure you are being perceived on the right side of the professional/person boundary is one that is well documented in research. An article in the Huffington Post shows how women often lose out on networking opportunities because they don't want to allow for an opportunity in which unwanted male behaviours arise.

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Overall I am pleased to conclude that none of the girls I asked have experienced explicit gender discrimination or sexism in their placements so far. Though it is clear that in a few of these STEM placements, there is an acute awareness of being in the minority and perhaps not just because those male employees had higher merit than female equivalent when recruiting....

Even in industries where it seems there is an even split, there appear to be a real lack of female employees in more executive positions. Including the reasons outlined by the respondents in this blog post, the under-representation of women in STEM degrees and subsequent companies is a result of a lack of female role models, gender stereotyping, and less family-friendly flexibility in the STEM fields. Policy makers have already put strategies in place to recruit more female students into STEM courses and jobs, and I'm pleased to say that at Bath, it appears to be working.

Thank you so much to my 8 respondents for this blog post - you're all great. It is so important to put a spotlight on subjective experience of women in the workplace in order to pick out issues affecting them and tackle them head on. There is literally no reason why a female shouldn't be a construction site manager, or an investment banker, or an engineer. It is only social and cultural barriers standing in the way. And we have the power to smash them.