Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship

Research into businesses in the USA, Australia and India that recruit and retain women in Engineering and

Technology profession

Australia: June - July 2009 India and the USA: September - October 2009

Margaret Ajibode

FELLOW 2009 Director

220 Ellison Road Streatham

London SW16 5DJ Mobile: +44(0)7951 576708

Email: margaret@obatec.com

Acknowledgement

With many thanks to everyone who has made this project possible, in particular the interviewees who gave time out of their busy schedule to talk to me but especially to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust who made this happen by awarding me a Travelling Fellowship to do a project which was important to me and an opportunity to have an experience of a lifetime. Thanks also to Pam Wain and Milada Williams of the Women Engineering Society Marlene Kanga, Rolfe Hartley, Gunilla Burrowes of Engineers Australia Mark Toner of Toner Associates Tony Marjoram of UNESCO Tahani Youssef of WFEO Marie-Hélène Therre of WFEO – Women in Engineering Committee Maggie Berry of Women in Technology Betty Shanahan of Society of Women Engineers Sonja Bernhardt of WIT, AWISE & ThoughtWare Caroline Bucknell & Penny Tralau of Australia CIO Executive Council Michelle Beveridge & the Advisory Board of Victoria ICT for Women Network Inc Annette Williams and UK Resource Centre for Women in STEM Dee Weir and Ann Pitkeathly of RTA Liisa Von Hellens, Sue Nielsen, and Jenine Beekhuyzen of Griffiths University & WinIT Tim Miller of Jethro Management Suzanne Jenniches, Alleace Gibbs & Tameika Hollis of Northrop Grumman Susheela Venkataraman, Marti and Sadhana of Cisco’s Women Action Network Claudia Morrell of MDWIT Yvette Ramos & Gail Matteson of INWES Yolanda George of AAAS Julie Lenzer Kirk of Path Forward International Catherine Didion of NAS Barbara Bogue of Penn College of Engineering Betty Shanahan of SWE Asha Gopinathan Rani Ramesh of Wins Infotek Pvt Vasanthi Srinivas of IIMB Rashmi Prakash of Dell Sangeeta Wij of Consulting Engineers Association of India Shyman Najim of Consulting Engineers Association of India Nilanjana Rao Mike Sanio of ASCE William Butcher of WFEO

Executive Summary In the UK, there is a big skills shortage in particular in Engineering and Technology. The Engineering and Technology Board's flagship publication, Engineering UK, reported in May 2009 that 61% of the nations skills shortages are in technical, engineering and engineering related roles. The skills gap in the UK is the result of a combined issue of an ageing workforce where the average age of an engineer working in the UK industry is 53 and a lack of young graduates and apprentices entering the engineering and technology profession sector. It is even worse where fewer than one in five women are been retained in engineering and technology professions, and there is a decline in females entering the profession. The current economic downturn has amplified this problem, as the recession has led to downsizing and early retirements, causing major concerns that over half of the global engineering workforce will retire in the next five years, taking their expertise and skills with them. In addition to the issue of experienced engineers retiring, the industry is also suffering from the current workforce not having the necessary skills to respond to the ever-changing demands and challenges of the industry. So why is it difficult to recruit and retain females in the profession in the UK, why are they falling off the radar when they have a change of circumstance in their lives and are leaving the profession more than ever before, very few are studying engineering or technology at university or considering the profession as a career choice. Is the work environment within the industry not conducive for a female to thrive? Women have it good, says M&S boss “Women have never had it so good in the workplace,” Marks and Spencer chairman Sir Stuart Rose has said. He said so-called glass ceilings barring promotion in the workplace no longer exist. Women can get to the top of any single job that they want to in the UK, he told the Observer newspaper in 2009. So why is the engineering and technology industry finding it difficult to recruit and retain females in the sector and what are they doing to address the crisis faced here in the UK to bridge the deficit, apart from bemoaning the fact that that there is a skills shortage and going to other countries to recruit skilled workers for major engineering projects or outsourcing projects to other countries. What happens when the pool runs dry? The engineering and the technology sector is in crisis, which is not a female issue but an industry one which is not going to go away over night and needs to be addressed. We know that this problem is not going to go away and can only get worse if is not addressed. We know that the recruitment, retention and promotion of women is part of the solution to the problem currently faced in the UK to bridge some of the deficits currently faced in this sector. The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust awarded me a Travelling Fellowship to investigate what businesses in the USA, Australia and India were doing to recruit and retain women in the profession. The USA, Australia and India were selected for several reasons: The USA and Australia because of the advancement of women at all levels of society

The different initiatives to promote and encourage more females in particular young girls to studying engineering and technology and I was curious to see if this was now demonstrated in the engineering and technology profession. India, because globally, businesses are recruiting skilled workforce from India for technical roles and are also outsourcing work to this country. What was India’s ingredient for success, are the females in India enjoying the same success rate as their male counterparts in the profession? These countries are miles apart not only geographically but also in a social and cultural context, although you can argue that USA and Australia have similar social and cultural values So what were organizations in these countries doing to recruit and retain females in these professions and what lessons can be learnt from them that can be adapted in the UK. I would be looking at what is currently happening in Australia, India and the USA and making comparison, taking into account the culture, education system and how engineering and technology profession is viewed in the respective countries. There have been huge recruitments drives in the past to get more females into these fields, has it made a difference within industry, are more women now been recruited and retained in these countries. Engineering and technology profession has traditionally been a male dominated profession. While progress is being made in recruiting and retaining women in engineering and Technology roles, the progress rate has been very slow. Most of the women who have been successful in the profession have had supportive managers or mentors and a good support network outside of work such as family and other women; they have been exposed to different cultures, they are very focused, determined and have made sacrifices along the way to achieve success in the profession. We can say that progress is been made but at a very slow rate, businesses I spoke to, did not have gender specific policies or initiatives but were equal opportunities organisation, that were committed to having family friendly environment and a culture that is inclusive to cater for the diverse workforce, some businesses did try to consciously recruit females as they were aware of the need to have a diverse work force which was reflective of the global market that they were dealing with today. This report is combination of interviews with individual organisation, speaking to experts in the field of gender and education institution and women working within the profession. The organisation range from corporation such as Intel, Cisco, Northrop Grumman to public sector organisation RTA, Trivandrum Technopark to Small and Medium sized enterprises, such as ThoughtWare Wins Infotec Pvt, Women Groups such as women in Technology WIT. I report on some examples of best practices in recruiting and retaining women in Engineering and Technology Profession. The aims of the project: To understand what organisations in particular Small and Medium sized Enterprises in these countries were doing to recruit and retain women in Engineering and Technology profession, especially where they have career breaks or circumstances changes. To identify best practices/initiatives/policies that have been implemented to enable the retention of these highly skilled women What lessons can be learnt that can be adapted and applied within the UK

Methodology The fieldwork was carried out over a seven-week period in two phases across the three countries; this visit only gave me a sample of what was going on in the different countries. In Australia, I visited Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, while in India, I visited Delhi, Bangalore and Trivandrum and while in the USA, I visited Washington and California I spoke to over 50 people within the profession, individuals from

organisations. My sample was made up of private sector organisations (including SMEs) and Public sector organisation. Women Groups and Not-for-Profit (NGOs) organisations to get their viewpoint and females who were working within the profession. I also interviewed senior HR managers and hiring managers, women with their own businesses. Interviews were mainly face to face, some took place by phone, a couple by Skype using VOIP and email correspondence, giving them a set of questions to complete, this is available in the appendix. All interviews were transcribed and most of the interviewees were asked to approve any references to themselves or their organisation in the report. They has only been a couple that have not responded but assuming this is due to their busy schedule. There were constraints and these were time and availability of individuals, my time of visit to India and USA was hampered by bank holidays and festivals, this has meant, I did not get the same opportunity to speak to as many organisations as I did in Australia. This will be reflected in the report. Contacts were identified through individuals and organisation such as the Women Engineering Society, World Federation of Engineering Organisation, Australia Engineers, International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists, Women in Technology, Society of Women Engineers in the USA.

Table of Content Acknowledgement .............................................................................................................. 2

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 3

Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 5

Table of Content ................................................................................................................. 6

Australia .............................................................................................................................. 8

Overview of the Engineering & Technology industry, and Women in the Profession. ..... 8

Engineering Industry ....................................................................................................... 8

Engineers Australia ..................................................................................................... 8

Technology Industry ....................................................................................................... 9

CIO Executive Council ............................................................................................... 9

Education Viewpoint .................................................................................................... 10

Griffith University: The Women in IT project group ............................................... 10

Women Group ............................................................................................................... 12

Victoria Women in Technology (WIT) .................................................................... 12

Businesses with Good Practices........................................................................................ 12

RTA: Public Sector Organisation ................................................................................. 12

Strategy and Polices for retention at RTA ................................................................ 13

ThoughtWare: Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) .................................................. 14

Recruitment and Retention Strategies ....................................................................... 15

R2A: Mentoring and Support........................................................................................ 17

KBR: Training and Development ................................................................................. 17

Ford Motor Company: Flexible working ...................................................................... 17

India .................................................................................................................................. 19

Overview of the Engineering and Technology Industry in India and Women in the

profession ...................................................................................................................... 19

Women Engineers Forum, of the Consulting Engineers Association of India ............. 20

Businesses with Good Practices........................................................................................ 21

CISCO: Enabling and Supportive Environment ........................................................... 21

Technopark ................................................................................................................... 22

Tata Elxsi: Inclusive and Supportive Environment ...................................................... 22

Issues with Retention .................................................................................................... 23

Kerala State Government: Recruitment and Retention of women in Technology roles

by default ...................................................................................................................... 24

Challenges faced by women ..................................................................................... 25

United States of America (USA) ...................................................................................... 26

Overview of the Engineering and Technology industry and Women in the profession 26

The Society of Women Engineers ................................................................................ 26

Northrop Grumman: Enabling a Diverse Workforce .................................................... 27

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 31

Comparison between Australia, India and the USA ..................................................... 32

Benefits of a Diverse Workforce .................................................................................. 32

Summary ....................................................................................................................... 34

Appendix I: References..................................................................................................... 36

Appendix II: Acronyms .................................................................................................... 37

Appendix III: Questions for Employer and Employee ..................................................... 38

Australia

Overview of the Engineering & Technology industry, and Women in the Profession.

Engineering Industry

Engineers Australia Australia is currently experiencing technical skills shortage but not as critical as in the UK and the Engineers Australia are looking at ways to address the issue and part of their strategy is to look at ways to increase the number of female engineers in the profession. The Engineers Australia is the largest and most diverse professional body for engineers of all discipline in Australia with over 85000 members, it is the national forum for the advancement of engineering and the professional development of their members.

Engineers Australia designated 2007 as the ‘Year of Women in Engineering’ as part of a long term strategy to recruit and retain a greater number of women into the engineering profession. They realized with their membership of 80000 members in 2007 only just under 10 percent of these were female members and Australia could not afford to have 50 percent of the population so underrepresented in the profession. They did a study which showed that more than half the women in the engineering workforce were less than 30 years of age, and only 15 per cent of women over 40 were still in the profession.” The forum, with the help of their Women in Engineering National Committee recognized, if there was an increased representation of women, the engineering profession and community will benefit from a more diverse team of talent. They wanted to help in the drive to retain more women engineers in the workforce that engineering can offer women both full-time and project-based opportunities, and employers are increasingly accepting that it is imperative to offer flexible arrangements and support frameworks that allow women a work/life balance. In 2008, they did a study which confirmed that more effort was needed to attract and retain women in engineering. Engineers Australia wanted to increase awareness amongst the profession, industry and the community of the role and contribution of women to engineering. Dr Marlene Kanga, the Chair of Engineers Australia’s Women in Engineering National Committee, said, “The objectives of the project were to investigate the retention, satisfaction and progression of women engineers so that we could have a sound basis for shaping the future policies and programs of Engineers Australia. “The review showed that many solutions will be long-term and will require a cooperative approach in partnership with industry and education sectors.” Engineers Australia’s own membership statistics and the survey results indicated that women continue to leave the profession at a high rate, and at the same time the numbers and percentage of women enrolling in entry level engineering degrees declined from 2002. There was some good news in this study as it also showed that more businesses were offering

family friendly environment which is positive.

Technology Industry

CIO Executive Council The Technology Sector is governed by the Australian Computer Society (ACP), I did try to arrange a meeting with ACP but was not able to. The Technology sector has slightly different issues to the more traditional Engineering sector such as Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, which has been around for decades. The technology industry is relatively new but the common factor again is that there are fewer women in the industry and fewer women going into the profession. I had a meeting with staff of Australia’s CIO Executive Council, who are part of a global community made up of chief information officers and they form a peer advisory resources to the profession. CIO Australia was founded in 2005 and about two years ago got involved with looking into women in technology. I was hoping to get an insight into the technology sector and what they were doing to get more females in leadership position, what was their take on the recruitment and retention of women in the technology profession. Within the CIO Executive Council in Australia, there are only three females out of the sixty five CIO executives and the CIO are looking at ways to address this by looking at the career development with a programme called Women Getting Ahead.. The issue currently faced in Australia is that there are a low number of people going to university to study Technology and even fewer women studying technology. The university degrees in Australia are still quite segregated and what is required, is to push for a business technology focus, because anybody working in technology is not working in the business, there has been a distinct separation between technology and business. They said Technology or IT groups should not be viewed as cost centres but as business partners. The curriculum in schools has to change and the approach universities are using in marketing, selling the degrees and creating degrees has to change, it has to be business and technology. To have a strong career in technology requires that you understand how the business works They explained that a study was carried out on the perception of young people, when asked their views about technology, example of their responses were; backroom, coding, anti social, no career advancement, dotcom crash which is still affecting perception in Australia. The study highlighted that to change the perception of children, you need to change the perception of the parents as there is still a stigma about the dotcom crash, that the technology sector is not a stable environment. It was therefore important: 1. To have a better explanation of what technology and the different roles are, systems

Analysis, Computer Software, etc. There is a disconnect between what they think as broad, young people think technology is very narrow and that it is for geeks, they want real cool solutions which they can relate to in every day life.

2. To educate and broaden young peoples including young girls views about who works within

the industry. Another issues they felt was the outsourcing of technology, although financially good for businesses, it has seen a bit of a backlash because there have been quality issues, also government issues and security issues about outsourcing data centres to insecure location, to

diverse political environment. It is educating the children, careers advisers and the adult about how they feel about outsourcing. The Press in Australia are quite negative about it, “it is a business project until it fails and then it becomes a technology project”. A lot of press carries news of the cost cutting businesses are making and how many local jobs are been lost due to outsourcing. This is another reason why parents and careers advisers, more so than the children who are not paying much attention to the press at this stage feel there is no growth or stability or job security and no career development in the industry. Suggestions on ways forward:

1. To push for “Business Technology” in the education curriculum 2. Educate children, parents and careers officer on careers in Technology 3. To change how we explain what technology is, because the technology sector is still a

relatively young industry, its not clearly defined as say Chartered Accountants, which is a mature industry, they know what story they want out there and they sell themselves really well and this is a big problem for technology industry we are not able to do that.

Education Viewpoint

Griffith University: The Women in IT project group I felt it was important to get the viewpoint of the education institution concerning the recruiting and retention of women in Technology professions, what they see as solutions. I met with some of the staff at Griffith University in Brisbane who are also involved with the Women in Information Technology project (WinIT, www.winintproject.com), They said the issue with Technology degrees is that it is extremely difficult to describe to people what it is they are going to do; a lot of the degrees are so different from each other. The core Information Technology degrees are accredited by the Australian Computer Society and defined as Information Technology degree programmes but this does not manifest well when you enter into industry and what you do. We have often tried to find an analogy between Information Technology (IT) and something else but this has been difficult and this is a key problem with IT where the jobs are not well defined, the jobs are not given specific titles, and there is no prescription on the wall to say, that it is a completely new profession and the first placed modern profession. When we design our degrees, it is designed in an unattractive way because the people in charge are really geeky (computer scientist), it is not really what helps students get jobs in industry and certainly does not give them the idea that they can do job. The technology Industry is one of the biggest ponds for recruiting people. It is impossible to say what exactly you are going to do. You cannot just say, go and look here there is a person doing it. For example if you go and see an eye specialist somewhere, they are going to be the same everywhere, a microbiologist would do the same type of work wherever they are but if you say this person is a software engineer and you go and see other software engineers they all seem to be doing completely different things. For example there was a huge discussion on our usability global mailing list (covering Europe, Australia, USA, Asia etc), about the specific careers within the industry such as information architect etc, what actually came up was that, the same term was been used to describe really quite different jobs/roles/professions in different countries. “There is a definite challenge of what terminology people are using and how it is described.”

The Australian bureau of statistics had come up with a standard for defining all professions and they have a comprehensive definition on the section of what is an IT profession. But when you go through the list of the roles that has been included under the IT profession, it is very broad from IT support up to getting closer to psychology. It all comes down to terminology. I asked what they saw as solutions to these problems, how do we tackle it? They said if there is a skills shortage then industry needs to define these skills in such a way that they are very clear to the people who want to enter this profession and people that are not qualified into these roles should not be accepted as it downgrades the whole working environment for people who have spent four years doing their degrees or worked and are been paid the same amount with someone who is not qualified. It is the industry’s responsibility to ensure they hire the people with the right skills Industry is asking universities to do certain things but universities are not set up to provide specific skills for industry as skills goes out of date. If industry wants this, then industry should either support universities to provide it, for example after WWII, there was a shortage of teachers and the government provided scholarships for people to study, if there are skills shortage, government should provide incentives to enter those areas, years ago they wanted to reach 40% of women’s participation and so they were doing all these programmes and suddenly it became too hard and they stopped and they did not seem to follow through anymore There should be financial incentives to do Technology, for example, in New Zealand in the 50s, 60s and early 70s when you wanted to go to further education, you had your fees paid for and received a scholarship. The government and industry needs to provide some incentive and some structure Education is what remains after everything else you learnt has been forgotten. “It is the underlying analytical skills, the ability to learn, the approach to learning is what really counts, and that is what many employers want,” I wanted to know what solutions are needed to help businesses recruit and retain women in the profession. They said, they were three ways to move forward and this is by getting Government helping companies, Companies helping each other and Employees providing solutions. What I would like to see is that women are educating themselves with the different options that are available to them and go to the companies and say this is how I am able to work effectively; the women themselves take the solutions to the companies Sue Nielsen It was important to have more mentoring and equal opportunity programme implemented, more universities providing degree programmes for females only with industry involvement, this is based on a successful programme run at the University of Applied Science in Bremen, Germany (http://www.hs-bremen.de/internet/de/studium/stg/ifi/), they have close connection with industry. The bachelor’s degree in computer science programme has increased the number of females doing IT degrees and all of the females got jobs after the course. Research also shows the key to attracting girls into IT is to get them to attend single sex schools and have one of their parents in a technical profession.

Women Group

Victoria Women in Technology (WIT) It was important to get the viewpoint of women groups such as Women in Technology (WIT) in Melbourne, Victoria. They run a Go Girl – two day event program, which started over four years ago and runs every 2 years. Their objective is to demonstrate the vast and diverse nature of Information Technology to attract young girls into technology, they target high school girls between the age of 15 and 18 years, they give talks at trade show and companies using both females and male inspirational speakers on careers in technology and get corporate industry to meet future employees Technology industry needs to realise that it is not a gender issue but a generational issue; we need campaigns to show the attractiveness and incentives of working in the Technology profession

Advice on Recruiting and Retaining women in Technology profession � Businesses should provide Flexible working arrangement to suit the diverse workforce � Mentoring program, women need to believe in themselves more � Need to showcase more role models that can be emulated � The branding and communication of Technology has to change - ICT is very integrated and

vast therefore difficult to explain the roles � The approach for attracting girls needs to change with the generation Technology should be talked about because seeing it becomes a reality, normalising it makes it more acceptable

Businesses with Good Practices I interviewed individuals within organisations such as RTA, ThoughtWare, R2A, KBR and Ford Motor Company on what they were doing to recruit and retain women in technical profession These organisations are equal opportunities organisations but do not have gender specific policies but are doing something to enable and support a more diverse workforce

RTA: Public Sector Organisation Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is the New South Wales (NSW) State Government agency-responsible for improving-road safety, testing and licensing drivers-and registering and inspecting vehicles and managing the road network to achieve consistent travel times. RTA had to review their recruitment strategies due to a number of risks, one of which is the impending loss from its ageing workforce (average age at RTA is 48) and the need to fill the gap between the retirement age of the current engineers and the recently recruited graduates in the early stages of their career.

The four critical skills areas that were selected to be dealt with were: � Road Design � Traffic and Transportation management � Policy � Civil Engineering The outcomes expected were development and enhancement of the organisation’s skills,

knowledge and experiences that would assist the organisation in achieving its objectives now and into the future. At RTA, about 8% of their engineers and technical related professionals are females. RTA Diversity & Equity unit were focusing on five areas which are having more women into management, more women into engineering, employment of persons with disability, increased employment of Aboriginal people and recruitment and retention of young (<25 years) people. Some of the activities that RTA use to achieve their targets is through community liaison, education and having young scholars visit RTA sites. An example of this was to organise a Women in Engineering: Hands on Engineering Day, where they get young women engineers at RTA to design workshops and invite female high school students to participate.

Strategy and Polices for retention at RTA A major role for the RTA’s Human Resources team was to ensure that RTA had the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience that it needs, the capability it needs now and into the future. One of the lessons learnt was the need for flexibility in the way they recruit and employ people, to find ways of doing things differently and establish rapport with people. Some sections within RTA have undergone restructure so that their structures more accurately reflect their needs in providing specialised expertise for RTA projects. The restructures provide opportunities for the RTA to engage the right mix of people and also help to give people career progression pathways. Some things that were done included: � Improving their employee value proposition (EVP) by looking at offering more opportunities

for people to undertake development if they are already with RTA � RTA works to help hiring managers to identify an 80:20 fit of potential candidates to fill vacant

roles, if they were not able to get a 100% match to roles. � Managers are encouraged to look at ongoing work and develop plans for career development

for their teams, � RTA offer career path opportunities to people, i.e., helping those who are not 100% match to

a role and provide personal development to get to the level the job requires, � Developing relationships with universities and other providers who offer short courses to

develop customised training packages for RTA staff based on the gaps they had identified. RTA try to influence opportunities for women by working with the those who manage RTA’s graduate programmes to make sure a balance is being created. They talk to young women graduates during their promotional days about the opportunities at RTA. They also speak to managers who have women on their teams about their track record, interest and the courses they are doing and where they are in their program and if they can offer these positions to the individual instead of having to wait till they finish another rotation. In our pilot project to trial the new approaches to recruitment, we had 31 vacancies and were able to fill all the vacancies which included women in new positions.. We are putting in place some limited rotation processes, where we are trying to give people a bit more exposure to different areas in the section. RTA is looking at its mobility options across the organisation. To help retain skilled engineers: � RTA helps their engineers develop the competencies required for the Australian register

which is run (owned) by Australia Engineers, to work towards their Chartered Engineer status and have linked this with their own career profession opportunities, so an engineer can join

that programme at Engineering Level 1 (EL1). If the individual completes the competences required by Engineer Australia earlier, they automatically progress to Engineering Level 2 (EL2), gaining a financial increase and have more opportunities as an advantage. Once they reach the level 2, they gain their chartered status, the individual is winning because financially they are able to leverage their career and are motivated because they do not feel they are stuck in one position.

� RTA organises cultural intelligence programme, to help with developing the skills to deal with

a diverse culture that they now have in RTA. To make sure the managers are able to utilise the new talent and make use of the benefits of diversity.

� RTA works with Alumni people to ensure there are more flexible ways of bringing people

back into the business but also use them as mentors � RTA have flexible work practices and encouraging their managers to be open enough to

accept theses flexible working opportunities to support their diverse workforce

ThoughtWare: Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) ThoughtWare is a software development company; I interviewed the Chief Executive Officer, Sonja Bernhardt, who in 2009 won Queensland Industry Business Award She is the founder of Women in Technology and the co-founder of Australian Women in IT, Science and Engineering (AWISE). Before starting ThoughtWare, she worked as a Human Resource consultant with Mincom, an IT software company developing HR solutions, it is Queensland’s largest IT software company, this involved business analysis, helpdesk, inspecting local centre and so on. Twenty years ago, by chance she fell into Information Technology (IT), and says that Technology is part of a company’s infrastructure now and therefore an important skill to have. Her position at Mincom was made redundant and she set up her own IT consultancy, now an award winning company, later on she converted the company from services (from consulting, project management, business analysis) to developing their own software. When you worked for Mincom, did they have practices/processes in place that provided nurturing and enabled you to grow? She explained that she had this same discussion with some people at IBM where in Australia, and in Queensland in particular, you will find that the majority of the IT workforce in Queensland had a stint at Mincom and its via learning through a big company, the processes, the practices and the procedures and having that amazing experiences to go out to significant sites like, Roads and Traffic Authority, Fire authority, Ambulances services, the Police, places like that, to be able to go to huge sites that add something new to the environment, your rapid acquisition of not only the knowledge of application but as you know Information Technology is not just about the application but the other things, like the communication, the processes, the project management, understanding the different stages, therefore by working for a large company gave me an insight into a. what large companies things I did not like but b. what sort of things I can make more efficient and effective in a smaller environment

There are people like me who got their start at Mincom and have branched out Has Mincom got a good training environment that allowed you to grow or is it their culture? Mincom is now 30 years and when I joined they had just celebrated their 10th year anniversary, they were into Mining and Communications, which has now included Defence and other areas. they do heavy industry, maintenance, financial, purchasing, HR etc when I was with Mincom, it was very male centric, a very male culture, but it was the opportunity they offered, although a male dominated environment, it did not stop them from hiring females but in terms of progression and other things, it was very much a boys network, it may not be that now. Mincom offered the opportunity to have hands on experience in a variety of clients’ site. It was supported by already existing processes, howbeit it was enhanced and improved by staff, it was not a cold call as it had a framework that was already in place and Mincom gave you the opportunity and if you have the mindset and most people in IT do, you can make suggestion on how to improve or change things and that kind of experience was the real valued part. During her time at Mincom, she started Women in Technology (WIT) and Mincom fully supported her, they gave her communication and media training and helped promote it and they became members themselves, they provided moral support. “WIT was set up because she was aware that there women she knew who did not know each other and she wanted to do something about putting them together.”

Recruitment and Retention Strategies Currently at ThoughtWare, they have eight staff (fluctuates) and three are women including Sonja, all the women are business analyst, not coders (programmers), they are the project managers, who do the configuration and business analysis for the company. She mentioned when she started hiring from partner programme with universities, they initially did not send her any females and she actually said to them that she would like to be sent females but they said there were not sure if the females were good enough. They eventually did send her a female who had the skills and she is still with the company as a business analyst. At ThoughtWare, when recruiting they do not have job descriptions or ask for specific candidate such as a programmer or business analyst, they discuss the skills they have and write a job specification of what their skills are, to fit into the business, they do not go with a prescriptive of what the job is but try to be flexible as possible. They hire people based on the skills they have and now know mostly on the attitude that they will create a job around that. It is in the flexibility of a small company that they have got, there is so much that can be done. “We do not just want to fill little holes; we want to fill it with the right people, so we get the right people and let them find the holes that they are comfortable filling” ThoughtWare get their staff through recommendation or hire through partner programme with universities, this form of hiring is manageable for them as a small company because there is always so much to do and you are much better off getting people themselves to identify gaps as they then have a more binding passion for what they are doing, and they also have a greater ownership over it, because it is something they spotted and they wanted to do. Small companies allow flexibility. What would you advise as practical solutions to recruit and retain women in technical roles

We have had far too many attraction programs globally, but have not gained great value from it, we get a small percentage of those who go in, but are failing to retain, and therefore we are getting a big loss, now its time to move from recruitment to retention and promotion, providing flexible working For example at ThoughtWare, we have flexible working practices. Everyone in the company works part-time and we communicate using VOIP and arrange regular face to face meetings at a restaurant or coffee shop. As a small company for maternity leave, we do things differently here, there is the official period of leave, since we do not know what is going to happen when the baby arrives and we do not want to put pressure on the individual to come back after 6 weeks, (this is something we have done with the women who are and have worked for us), we sit down to discuss with them , fundamentally what are their basic expenses that have to be covered, what will take the stress out of their life, what income must they have to survive, that will allow them to stay out on maternity leave as long as they need, be it two weeks or two years, let time and circumstances determine what that is. We make an agreement as to what income they need and then as a company agree to pay that basic money to that person for whatever period of time that they need, this is what we practice and people actually work during that period of time, although they do not come back straight away, they are not stressed, they have a greater loyalty and a greater engagement with the company. We have someone come back after 6 weeks and another came back after 13 months, it did not matter and we still paid for that whole period of time The reason we do this is to show that we value the knowledge they have; we value them as a person, as a mature grown up adult. We value them as a whole person and their whole person is their ability not to be stressed about payment. Their ability to be comfortable with being a new parent or have a bigger family- it is a kind of value payment for that person. ThoughtWare are truly flexible about where and when you work. We are result driven, we are what you produce and the results, we do not have to be physically in the same place. “We value you for what you enhance and improve of our processes to make things be more efficient and effective.” We value you for the results you produce; therefore, if you can produce results in a shorter period of time, you will still get what your salary is (you can do whatever you want, play golf if you wanted), because you produce result. For us as a company, flexibility, is YOU are responsible for knowing that this is the work you are going to produce, you are a mature adult, you can work out how you can produce that work with the rest of your life, with the whole being of who you are and deliver it when it is needed to be delivered. We use technology to connect ourselves and most work from home. It is important that staff get together face to face, so we arrange meetings once every three months at restaurants, in relaxed atmosphere where we discuss and network; it helps innovation as well because it’s a different environment which helps drive things. We have web meetings room about once a week but this varies we also use Skype, email and VOIP to communicate with our staff regularly. One of the other things we do really well, is we give people the freedom to improve whatever they see needs to be improved, so as a business owner, I am not saying this is the only way we can do something but basically if you feel something can be improved, do something about it. We also encourage personal development, for example, the new business analyst has 20% of her work time as totally professional development, she does four days per week and one of the days is for her professional development, its for her to book on any course, she identifies she wants to go on to, or during performance review, we jointly identify something she wants to go onto and we pay for it, we allow them to become members of industry association groups, go to

social and informative events and activities, but because of who we are, a lot of our materials are authored multi media material anyway so people can look and view it.

There is high trust relationship between staff and employer

You might only be able to do this with SMEs, most software companies are SMEs and this idea can be applied there

R2A: Mentoring and Support Another example of good practice in the recruiting, retention and promotion was through mentoring and support, this was demonstrated at R2A,a small consulting organisation with expertise in due diligence and risk management advise, I spoke to Gaye Francis, a chemical engineer by profession. She has worked with R2A for 12 years and was made a director three years ago, the owner of the organisation gave her opportunities to grow and develop, she said

“A good leader brings out the best in their staff in order to be productive” It was not about having best practices or policy in place but the owner saw her potential and developed it through mentoring and providing support for her career development.

KBR: Training and Development Another example of good practice was at Kellogg Brown & Root Pty LTd (KBR) a leading global engineering, construction and services company supporting the energy, petrochemicals, government services and civil infrastructure sectors and in Australia is in the consulting engineering sector, I spoke to Melissa Griffith, Manager Transport APAC & Sustainability Services APAC who is a civil engineer and has been with the company for nine and half years. She said at KBR, the management team are involved with your development in the company. In Brisbane a number of the general managers are young (in their late thirties and forties). A number of the managers have partners who work and this assists with their understanding of the pressure on working families. They also recognise the importance of diversity in the workplace. This understanding and recognition enables women to apply for leadership roles within the organisation. To retain their skilled staff, KBR � Identifies and support talent, for example Future Leader programme, an 18 month

programme to develop future leaders, Melissa went through the programme � It has a good culture for training and personal development � Work life balance - Alternative working week - accrue time over four weeks, get last Friday off

in a month � Opportunity to comeback and work part-time

Ford Motor Company: Flexible working

An example of a flexible working environment, Ford Motor Company in Australia provide initiatives to give their staff a work life balance by providing

� Flexible care work � Flexible working hours � Flexible working from home option � Part-time working for both male and female, Ford has a Vice president that works part-time

� Maternity leave o paid for o guaranteed a job at the same level when you come back but may not be in the same

department or same position

Flexible working Initiatives are set up by the company and best practices depend or vary from department to department, how well it is implemented depends on middle management’s understanding and support.

Michelle Shi-Verdaasdonk

Network of Women Chair 2009

India

Overview of the Engineering and Technology Industry in India and Women in the profession India is known for the rapid growth of its high-technology sector. From computers and communications technology to rockets and satellites, India has made remarkable advances. One of the reasons for these advances is the emphasis India has placed on producing large numbers of well-trained engineers.

Engineers are highly regarded, respected and in high demand. India has approximately 3,500 engineering colleges, with over 450,000 engineers graduating every year while in the U.S. and U.K, approximately around 60,000 and 25,000 engineers graduate annually. Engineering students generally are in great demand, and this is particularly true for students graduating from big-city colleges. Colleges with a good academic record reported that almost 85% of their graduates secure a job before they leave school Almost 30% of engineering students take courses that lead to degrees in electronics, communication, or computers. Majority of graduates end up in the software industry, which is thriving right now. The software industry’s direct contribution to India’s GDP is only around 3%, but its overall impact is more profound. It distributes disposable income among the Indian population, thereby contributing to the cycle of economic growth that has put India among the fastest growing economies in the world. The kick-start from the software industry, as well as from other kinds of services, is beginning to pull people from the bottom of the economic pyramid, the majority of whom earn less than $2 a day. The young people can see this, and it has contributed in a major way to a large number of them enrolling in engineering colleges. The IT industry also gets a lot of the women engineering graduates. Statistics on women engineers are difficult to come by, but estimates are that men outnumber women in engineering colleges by about 6:1. There are a large number of engineering schools affiliated with well-known universities in cities such as Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi. This has made India a good hunting ground for companies in search of talent. Such leading global companies as ABB, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, HP, Hyundai, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, and Toyota have design, engineering, and manufacturing facilities in India. Many of these companies have set up branches in major cities, for ease of ability to recruit for engineers from the larger schools found nearby. But the pipeline of this engineering talent is getting empty. The response has been to look farther afield. Engineers concentrating in computers and electronics have been the most sought after. Now, employers are now looking at engineers in other disciplines and are recruiting at engineering colleges outside the metropolitan areas. The situation for engineers in India differs from that in developed countries where there is a steady decline in the number of people pursuing careers in engineering and science. In contrast, the number of graduate engineers is on the rise in India. The simple reason is that engineering is seen as a means to a better standard of living. It opens doors of opportunity that were not accessible before.

I met with Vasanthi Srinivasan, Associate Professor in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore to get her opinion on women in the technical profession. She explained women in India were entering Software Engineering profession more than traditional engineering and there were fewer women in traditional engineering in particular Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. In Software engineering, there has been 50% enrolments of female and between 30% - 35% enrolment for more traditional engineering discipline and this has progressively increased in the last seven years. She explained that social and cultural attitudes, portray that women have physical obstacles and therefore not able to work in the oil industry or do night shift for example because of the harsh conditions, “they are not encouraged to do field work. Manufacturing is perceived to be less accessible to women or not as attractive to women” In the retention of women in the technical roles, there has been challenges such as � Social and cultural pressure from society and family, women are expected to be married by

the age of 26 � Relocating when husband is transferred and therefore their career takes a back seat � if a woman has one child, this is not a problem, two children can be more difficult as

inadequate support system. Many career women with one child pursue their career with more than 18 years experience with extended family support, mentors, role models

� Lack of role models, to help bridge the gap, � Lack of help or knowledge on how to return to work or where the opportunities are � if support that enables and leads to promotion opportunities in software companies are not

readily available, women quit and go into social work or entrepreneurship

There is a big shift in attitudes now as education is a passport to getting ahead in life. “Women are seen as a burden and education is a way out for women, there are more women in the workforce and this has improved their status” There has also been a social shift in the categories of roles, nowadays the caste system has less of an impact in the urban area than in the rural area. She emphasized that there was still a need for a change of attitude towards women working and a need for more supportive managers

Women Engineers Forum, of the Consulting Engineers Association of India In Delhi, I was invited to meet some of the members of the Women Engineers Forum of the Consulting Engineers Association of India, the forum was set up by the chairperson, Mrs Sangeeta Wij, Managing Director ICT – SD Engineering Consultants Pvt. to bring women engineers and men supporters together in Delhi, to create networking and support opportunities. The forum is made up of women from different technical background (Mechanical engineering to Civil engineering, Architectural to CEO of consultancy firm) and they were at different stages of their career. We discussed the recruitment and retention of women in technical roles and their own career within the organisations they worked in. The women were all very enthused and enjoyed their technical roles, some felt their organisations

and their line managers were supportive of them and helped in their career development, giving them opportunities, an example, one of the females at the meeting was given an opportunity to do some field work in Ethiopia for a few months, she was initially hesitant as she had a young family but she was encouraged and supported both by her family and company, she really enjoyed the opportunity but others felt hindered, for example one was not allowed to do field work because of the harsh condition, perception: “it is rough and tough”, also the security and safety in some of the remote areas were questionable. They said most women worked in the back office operation, where there was more commitment and dedication and were able to be creative. The women said, none of their companies had gender specific policies but what they all agreed upon was that having a support network both at work and away from work made a huge difference in enabling them to pursue their career and even progress to leadership position.

Businesses with Good Practices Again none of the organisations I spoke to, had gender specific polices but were an equal opportunity company, although CISCO has a women Action Network group that has been working to encourage more girls into the profession and provide support to their women in the company, they value and understands the value add of a diverse workforce

CISCO: Enabling and Supportive Environment

Cisco Systems are world leader in networking for the Internet, as a high technology company, it believes in the power of the human network and recognizes the importance of a diverse workforce. In line with its inclusive organisational culture, Cisco has a number of employee networks to support the development, and growth opportunities of staff. The Cisco India Women’s Action Network (WAN) was launched in November 2004 with the broad Vision “to contribute to the strategic effort to enhance Cisco's success in attracting, developing and retaining talented women employees”. Cisco views the activities of its Women’s Action Network (WAN) as integral to business success. WAN India has more than 350 employees as its members. The WAN activities are strategized and executed by a core team of volunteers lead by the WAN leads, with the guidance of executive sponsors and thought leaders. The volunteers develop programs in line with the business guidelines, employee network directions and needs as per the local culture. The Executive sponsors give business direction and funding for WAN activities. The thought leaders give direction and guidance to the team for the activities and also help in driving down the message. Some of the activities organized by Cisco WAN chapter in India include: � Mentoring � Professional workshops like the Role Model Leadership Series (RMLS) workshops � Community initiatives - Girls in Technology, Adopting charities focused on education � Networking events – Connected Women Leadership Forum, bringing together women

leaders across various industries and organisations � 'Bring your kids to work' day Cisco allows � Career break � Flexible working condition for everyone � Gender driven programmes such as WAN

“The main hurdle for women in technical roles is the distrust in women’s ability”

“Women are attracted to technical roles, if parents are either engineers or director, have peer support, good relationship and upbringing that provides exposure to a broader perspective in life, education is also very important and now everyone is benefiting.” Academically there is minimal barrier; girls are good at Information Technology

Technopark In Trivandrum, I visited one of the Software Technology Parks (STPS), also known as Technopark, which was set up in 1992 by the state of Kerala to promote and advance the software industry in India. Since then, more than 24 companies have been registered and 87 companies are exporting software regularly to countries like the US, UK, Japan Germany and middle East. It has helped in changing the trend from onsite to offshore development by providing state-of-the-art data communication facility through dedicated satellite earth station at various STPS centres. The Software Technology Park is an export oriented scheme for undertaking software development for export using data communication links.

While at Technopark, I interviewed individuals from large organisations such as Allianz Cornhill, NeST, TaTa Elxsi, Technopark to small organisations such as Wins Infotek Pvt Ltd, Enter Technologies, Revenuemed

Tata Elxsi: Inclusive and Supportive Environment Tata Elxsi - Tata Elxsi is the technology arm of the Tata Group, one of India’s largest and most respected business conglomerates with a US$ 76.3 billion in market capitalization who had in 2009 announced a scheme for women returners, a second career opportunity for women getting back into industry. TaTa Elxsi was making an effort in making the work environment an inclusive and supportive one. I spoke to one of the Human Resource Managers and Quality Manager (middle management) (software quality assurance), she is in charge of testing and the verification group. They have 20% of women in technical roles and 3 - 4% in Leadership position. Tata Elxsi has a flat structure, the culture offers a work environment that is open and flexible,

It has six local IT centres located at Kozhikode, Kollam, Kottayam, Kochi, Thrissur and Palakkad. Its software exports in 2002 to the USA was over $200Million.

where there is lot of team interaction and bonding. There is also a buddy / mentoring programme to support staff Since moving to Trivandrum, it’s a much warmer work environment and I look forward to coming to work, a brilliant team that supports and motivates

Bindu Narayanan, Quality Manager, Tata Elxsi � Maternity leave is between 10 - 12 weeks up to 16 weeks, if there are complication with the

pregnancy , they can have leave of 3 months of reduced pay if there is no show in break service unless its after 3 months with no pay.

� The company will help you through the transition to adjust to getting back to work. � Flexible working, you can work part-time, if so desired � Family days out arranged The quality manager said that because of a supportive family and her husband helping out with family, respecting and encouraging her need to have a career. The support from her line manager has made a huge difference, if not for the support network and her determination and focus, it would have been difficult for her to progress in her career.

Issues with Retention As mentioned previously, India has a history of producing female and male graduates with engineering and technology degrees, this was reflected in the companies graduate level intake, for example Allianz Cornhill said, the recruitment of women was very good at graduate level where the ratio of women to men was 50:50, but only one out of eight were women in middle management. The problem it seems was in the retention and progression of women in the technical profession, very few women were retained in technical roles and this was reflected in all the companies I spoke to. The reasons for these barriers as told by the people I interviewed whose roles within the organisation ranged from CEOs, Human Resource Managers and Training Manager were: � Social and cultural attitude, young women were expected to marry once they reach the age

24 - 26 years and leave employment and some of the women bow to the pressure and leave to become home-makers

� In most cases, if married and husband is promoted and relocates they are expected to leave their career and follow their husbands wherever he goes, traditionally husbands are seen as providers, breadwinners in the family

� If they have children, one child is okay, able to cope but if they have more, unless they have their extended family around them to help with childcare or can afford childcare, the pressure can be unbearable and they have to leave

� Men’s attitude towards women, for example, one of the companies had both the husband and wife working there but in different departments, the husband expected his wife to leave at a certain time to tend to family matters but the women on his team were expected to work until work had been completed with no consideration to their family situation.

It will be a slow process to change the attitudes of men in the company towards women

� No support network around them, sometimes it can be an unpopular choice to join a female

networking group � Women supposedly did not want to do shift work so restricting their opportunity to progress � Women not been able to think beyond the job at hand, women focused on the job at hand

“singular thinking” while men saw the bigger picture, � Women not as confident � Women not getting the exposure to other areas as much as the men.

I asked how they were addressing the issues. An example of what is been done at Allianz Cornhill is they had recently started a diversity project to support women into senior management they also have schemes for their diverse workforce such as personal development - internal training for technical development and leadership, line manager were assigned to be career mentor, also opportunity to get mentors from abroad (Allianz Cornhill is part of a global company), they provide transport system with air quality and taking into account safety and the salary package is good for retention for both male and female which is the national bench mark for salary.

Kerala State Government: Recruitment and Retention of women in Technology roles by default

An initiative to bridge the digital gap in the state of Kerala which has also raised some

challenges In 2002, the Indian state of Kerala broke new ground with the launching of IT@School, a project for Information Communicational and Technology (ICT) enabled education in schools and Akshaya1, a project for e-literacy with the objective of addressing the digital divide in the state. This indirectly created technical roles for women teachers in Kerala Kerala is in the south western state of India, where its performance in social development is on level with the developed countries. The gender development indicators of Kerala, such as sex ratio (1058 females for 1000 males), life expectancy for female (73.1 years) shows that the female in Kerala have a better status. However, their participation is not on equal level as their men in the work place (15.8%) or their political presence (less than 10%) because the cultural and social expectation is rigid in Kerala society, where women are still expected to home makers. To achieve the vision of IT enabled education in Kerala, it was necessary that all teachers have basic IT skills. This made it mandatory for all teachers to participate in the project. IT@School is the largest ICT education project in India. The recommendation was to empower teachers to use ICT as a tool to assist education. Since IT skills were lacking among teachers and students, the project was started with extensive training programmes for teachers and IT was introduced as a subject of study at high school level. Over 80,000 teachers have been trained and each year half a million students are introduced to ICT. The project is also noted for its deployment of Free and Open source software (FOSS). IT@School gave females unprecedented entry into ICT by default where women constitute 67% of the teachers in Kerala. It was mandatory for all the teachers to gain ICT skills; this helped the female teacher gain new skills, improve their ICT skills and awareness. Table 1: Gender disaggregated data of high school teachers in Kerala (2002-2003) Male Female Total Govt. High schools 12335 19919 32254 Govt. Aided schools 15507 35080 50587 Private schools 1333 4583 5916 Total 29175 59582 88757 The IT@School Project was able to recruit and retain women in technical roles because it was mandatory for all teachers to gain ICT skills, this has also created challenges, which we will discuss later Kerala state is divided into 14 regions or revenue districts. The project has a pool of school

teachers as Master Trainers (MT), who are given advanced training in ICT. They lead the implementation of the project in different districts under the direction of the State office. Each school has designated a School IT Coordinator (SITC) and a Joint School IT Coordinator, to implement the project at the school level. The Master Trainers skills are equivalent to IT technicians. They manage the implementation of IT in 22 - 30 schools, arrange and execute training programmes for teachers and support the implementation of various e-governance programmes of the Education Department. Often they have to plan and execute these activities against great constraints of time and feel responsible for all possible outcomes. In terms of skills, SITCs are equal with the MTs. The only difference is that they provide the same level of support at school level. While MTs work full time in the project, the SITCs responsibilities in the project are in addition to their regular responsibilities at school. There are very few women as you go higher up the ladder, this could be because of the pressure of family obligation, the long hours and social attitude to women working long hours.

The IT@School project helped to develop the leadership quality in women teachers. I spoke to Jayasree, a Master Trainer, she started as a teacher and was nominated to go on the course, it took her much longer than her male colleagues who started at the same time as her to become a Master Trainer. She is quietly confident in her ability and has great technical skills, but felt that if she did not have the support and encouragement from her family, she would not have coped.

“The women Master Teachers enjoy better recognition and respect among their peers.” Although there are few women Master Trainers, the example set by them has created confidence among other women teachers leading to the very high level of participation of teachers at the school level. The fact that there are more women who have been recruited and retained in technical roles, has also highlighted the issues that are faced by women in India

Challenges faced by women � Given the socio cultural context in Kerala, many women teachers have inhibitions in seeking

the support of male MTs � The biggest challenge for the women MTs and the SITCs is getting a balance between the

demands of home and work. IT@School demands more time including holidays of teachers. � Women are often working late in the evenings providing training or support, sometimes

getting home late which can create tension in the family. This is not a problem for men but female school teachers are supposed to have regular hours of work with lots of free time for the family.

� Safe transportation is an issue for those who don't have their own vehicles � Mobility is a concern for the female Master Trainers who have to travel extensively across the

district to provide training and support. Leaving families behind for days and concern for their personal safety when using the public transport system at odd hours.

� Workload of the teachers has increased, particularly SITCs who have to manage their regular teaching activities as well.

Teaching is perceived by the family and the society as suitable for women because it fits in with the gender stereotype of women as home makers.

United States of America (USA)

Overview of the Engineering and Technology industry and Women in the profession The Society of Women Engineers carried out a survey in 2007 on the recruitment and retention of women in engineering and technology profession and the survey showed that women were

entering the profession but at a low level and few were been retained in the profession for various reasons Most recently, according to The National Science Foundation,(NSF), Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 report, it stated that Women still remained underrepresented in the Science and Engineering workforce, although to a lesser degree than in the past.

� Women constituted two-fifths (40%) of those with Science and Engineering degrees in 2006, but their proportion is smaller in most Science and Engineering occupations.

� As more women than men have entered the Science and Engineering workforce over the decades, their proportion in Science and Engineering occupations rose from 12% in 1980 to 27% in 2007.

� Women in the Science and Engineering workforce are on average younger than men, suggesting that larger proportions of men than of women may retire in the near future, thus changing these sex ratios.

I also spoke to Claudia Morrell of MDWIT about the situation of women in the Technology Industry and she said there is a need to apply research into practice,

The Society of Women Engineers I attended the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) “Women Advancing the World of Technology Annual conference held in Long Beach, California. SWE is a not-for-profit educational and service organization that empowers women to succeed and advance in the field of engineering, and to be recognized for their life-changing contributions as engineers and leaders. It was founded in 1950 and they are the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career for women through an exciting array of training and development programs, networking opportunities, scholarships, outreach and advocacy activities, and much more. I was really impressed with the conference which included a career fair. It brought together women who were at different stages of their technical career, from students who were looking for internship to graduates looking for jobs, to established women engineers and women in leadership position and educationist. Even more impressive, there were more than 200 leading corporation, government agencies and graduate schools that attended, companies were proud to be associated with SWE, showing their plaque on their table that they were corporate partners (diverse workforce) with SWE, companies such as BP, Chevron, Cummins Inc, Dell Inc, Caterpillar, BAE systems, Schlumberger Technology and Northrop Grumman Corporation’s to name a few who had come to the event to recruit women into technical roles. This was a wonderful experience to see as it demonstrated there were organisations like SWE who are having an impact on the industry in the United States and making a positive difference for the advancement of women in technical roles. Also the US government expected companies who were going for government contracts to have a diverse workforce and policy to enable that. I spoke to representatives and women engineers from some of the companies such as Intel

Corporation, BAE Systems, Boeing Company, Caterpillar, Schlumberger that attended and they all said, they had diversity policy to ensure the work environment was an inclusive one. They were also involved with organisation such as SWE and other minority organization to have a access to a diverse workforce. All of the recruiters were targeting women to hire, this was a positive thing, women were been recruited and retained because of the flexible working practices and other benefits within the organisation, this was still at a minority, it was difficult to really say what best practices they have in place due to my time constraints and it been a busy couple of days for the companies who had interviews booked with potential employees. Again diversity policy is only as good as those who implement it, some of the companies did say that in some states in the USA, it was still difficult to recruit women into some of the technical roles, due to attitude and other issues.

I attended one of the workshops which was run by Northrop Grumman at the SWE conference and they spoke about the Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) which was led by elected employees and the company supported them, I was impressed with what they had achieved and the impact on those that participated in it.

I have only got Northrop Grumman as an example of good practice but when asked for the ratio of women hired in technical roles in their company, they were not able to provide that data. I am aware that there are other companies in the USA but unfortunately was not able to set up a meeting with them or get them to participate due to time constraints and other company reason.

Northrop Grumman: Enabling a Diverse Workforce Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Electronic Systems sector is a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of advanced electronics for military, civil and commercial use. Northrop Grumman is a company that values and fosters diversity and inclusion. They are an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce. I was really impressed that they were strong national supporter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and participate in many of the recruitment initiatives and events with SWE. I had the opportunity to have a teleconference with Alleace M. Gibbs, Communications Manager and Suzanne Jenniches, retired vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems sector’s Government Systems division; she is also a past president of Society of Women Engineers. They were happy to help out. I believe that having a diverse work force including women across the board and in senior management position has influenced the way Northrop deals with its diverse workforce. Their goal has been to have an environment that attracts, develops, recognizes and retains a diverse workforce. Through established programs that recognize and celebrate diversity which include:

� Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) – grassroots organizations that link employees with similar interests or life experiences; opportunities for networking, career development, community outreach and professional development; open to all. ERGs are open to all employees, are led by elected employees, and benefit from strong executive sponsorship. It was interesting to hear this, because at the SWE conference in 2009, Tameika N. Hollis and someone from Human Resources were running one of the workshops and Tameika mentioned she started the Women Technical Group and how it has empowered and given confidence to women who have been part of it.

� Diversity Council – employee and executive forum to discuss and address diversity-related

priorities.

� Diversity Strategy – Comprehensive approach for talent acquisition, development, recognition and retention for individuals and the corporation.

� Support for employees and families with disabilities – networking, training, outreach,

information and resources/referrals. I sent the company a set of questions and a sampling of the replies are shown below:

1. What initiative have you got in place to enable getting the right type of person for these technical positions?

All the positions, up through director level, are posted and advertised to a variety or organizations and job boards and many are targeted to women. Recruiters partner with the hiring manager to ensure we are advertising our positions effectively, drawing a strong and diverse applicant pool. We attend many national diversity focused recruiting events, including the SWE and Women for Hire events. Additionally, we partner with our women’s oriented employee resource groups and encourage employee referrals from all of our employee resource groups (ERGs).

2. Do you have issues with recruitment and retention of good technical professional, what do you do to keep them in your company?

We have a good record of retention of the critical skills we work hard to recruit. We treat all of our employees with a variety of programs targeted to retaining and engaging a high-performing workforce.

3. What initiative are there to increase the number of women in technical positions

and has it been a successful initiative, if not what are the issues?

Yes, we have targeted and recruited women for technical positions. Additionally, Northrop Grumman supports many science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) outreach and community investments to attract more girls into technical fields.

4. Do you have policies in place that help increase the number of women in the work

place?

Through our strong workforce engagement programs, we offer flexible work environments (schedules and space), 100 percent tuition programs and paid continuous learning, company sponsored women’s networking and development groups, wellness programs and many other highly valued programs.

5. How do you select people for promotion?

Individuals are selected and promoted based on merit and performance.

6. Do you have policies in place to increase the number of women in areas where they are underrepresented and help them reach their potential? If so, what are they?

We engage in good-faith efforts for all our open positions to increase women and minorities in our applicant pool.

7. What initiatives are in place that enables you to retain your skilled employees and keep them happy?

We believe employees choose to work for companies that value their strong commitment and drive to succeed, provide opportunities for them to achieve their highest potential, and create environments that honour and respect them for their unique talents, aspirations, and ideas. We believe the value of a career includes much more than a

salary and although pay and benefits are the most tangible elements of one’s compensation, the total value of an employees’ career at Northrop Grumman ES includes access to many additional programs and services including: competitive pay and benefits; learning and development opportunities; a technical environment; community and education outreach; diversity and inclusion initiatives; and work-life integration programs.

8. What would you say makes your company an excellent place to work?

Northrop Grumman is a company committed to employees’ personal and professional development – helping them to be successful at work and in their personal lives. Supported by this commitment, Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems employees experience meaningful connections to their co-workers, customers and communities while working to provide the very best products, systems and technologies to the men and women who defend freedom around the world and here at home.

The company is committed to building the best workforce and the best workplace, while creating an environment where employees can bring their whole selves to work. This commitment is demonstrated through a variety of learning experiences, leadership and career development opportunities, flexible work options, and a portfolio of programs/services that help employees balance the demands of their work and personal lives. We demonstrate commitment to employees through a host of competitive programs, services and initiatives. At Northrop Grumman, we care about employees so they can care about the important work they do for others. I felt it was also important to get comments from women in technical roles within the company and the difference the support of mentors or individuals has had on them and the opportunities available for them to progress within the company, these are the answers to the questions below.

Jungnam Pleasant, a Software Engineering for 24 years

Actually, I have not had an officially assigned “mentor,” but I have always asked for help when I

needed it. The experience has always been a positive one.

We do cutting edge technology and always looking for improvements in our profession. Excellent

people, room to grow, support from top, and good benefits are among the reasons that I still work

here.

Marianne Flaggs, a Software Engineer for 20 years

I’ve had various managers, supervisors and co-workers who have supported me along my career

at Northrop Grumman. There are opportunities available to move in any direction I choose. I

could move up or laterally. I feel I’ve had chances to enhance my technical skill set by being

open to moving to different projects.

Januca Berry, a Mission Assurance and Risk Manager for two years

My mentors provide guidance in job direction, career paths, how to handle difficult situations,

networking and the unspoken rules that I would not know otherwise. My company is excellent for

the many benefits it provides: flexible work schedule, telecommuting, training, college tuition

assistance, employee resources groups, stretch assignments, rotational programs and many

more.

Britt Rodgers, an Engineering Program Manager for Command, Control, Communications,

Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (commonly referred to as C4ISR)

Network Systems for 12 months (promotion)

I have many mentors –men and women, Black and White, formal and informal. They answer

questions the questions that I do not feel comfortable asking my immediate supervisor. They give

me honest feedback and “feed-forward” on my professional management of teams and

leadership skills. Some were just sounding boards when times got tough at work or personally.

My promotions have been through my networking relationships.

In today’s competitive market, one of the real advantages a company has is its people. Northrop

Grumman’s success relies on its ability to attract, retain and motivate its highly talented and

technical workforce. I find, Northrop Grumman an employer who cares about its people. That is

why it is an excellent company to work for and an “amazing place to work.”

Ana Luisa Ramirez, a Systems Engineer for two and a half years, but have been at Northrop

Grumman for four and half years

I have three mentors who have supported and guided me throughout my career at Northrop

Grumman. I feel that it is important to have more than one mentor because you have the benefit

of hearing problem-solving solutions from different perspectives. My mentors have been the keys

to my success. My regular conversations with them inspire and motivate me to continue to move

forward and work hard.

I believe Northrop Grumman is a great place to work because it is very focused on the people.

The company provides job flexibility and opportunities for those willing to step up and meet the

challenges.

TAMEIKA N. HOLLIS, a Program Manager for almost 3 years

I have had mentors who are male and female and Black and White. They have answered

questions that I had and didn’t feel comfortable asking my immediate supervisor. They gave me

frank critique of my professional management of teams and taught me how to be a leader. Some

were just sounding boards when times get tough.

Northrop Grumman has provided programs to benefit working women who are wives and

mothers. They have back-up day-care, flexible work schedules. They are also training their

managers to understand that the new female workforce is a good thing and that change is

necessary

Conclusion

This has been a wonderful experience, having travelled to the USA, Australia and India over a seven week period to learn what lesson can be learnt from businesses that have best practices and policies to enable the recruitment and retention of females in engineering and

technology profession. None of the companies had gender specific policies but were equal opportunity company to support their diverse workforce. This trip has been an eye opener, even though this only afforded me a snapshot of what was really going on in the different countries concerning my mission. My primary aim was to highlight organisations who were making efforts to enable women to excel in the engineering and technology profession and I hope I have been able to showcase some of them in this report and share some of the practice that has allowed women in technical roles to be recruited, retained and promoted within the technical profession. some of the practices are summarised below � The business model of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) annual conference which

combines networking, workshops and career fair event that brings women at different stages of their career and companies, education institutions together under one roof, some of the companies are corporate partners with SWE, who come to the annual conference to recruit women into technical roles.

� When recruiting for candidates for technical roles, consider a 80:20 fit of potential candidates to fill vacant roles, if they are not able to get a 100% match to roles. RTA found this to be successful way of filling in the vacant positions in the organisation, they also developed plans to help candidate to improve skills to do the job

� Offer career path opportunities to staff, i.e., helping those who are not 100% match to a role and provide personal development to get to the level the job requires

� Get line managers to look at ongoing work and develop plans for career development for their teams, collaborate with universities and other providers to offer short courses to develop customised training packages for staff based on the gaps identified.

� Develop rotation programme policies which allows staff to get exposure and experiences in different roles that they may not be experienced in so as to develop their skill levels to help with their progression in the company

� Help engineers develop the competencies required to become Chartered Engineers if they so desire

� Provide flexible working conditions for staff, i.e., part-time working, flexibility in where and when they work using technology as a tool to aid you

� Develop a company culture that is inclusive and supportive – diversity policy that is understood and implemented across the company which allows openness and flexibility

� Provide mentoring programme for your staff this can include both formal and informal mentoring

� Develop workshops for staff on how to work with a diverse workforce and the benefits of doing so

� Empower staff by giving them the freedom to improve whatever they see needs to be improved, ThoughtWare has seen their staff help improve the company’s processes and this has made staff more loyal.

This is not an exhaustive list and some of the practices are well known but I felt it was important to mention some of the practices that has enabled women in technical roles to excel in their environment.

Comparison between Australia, India and the USA However, looking back at what I discovered and making a comparison between India, Australia and the USA made me realise that the same problems we were experiencing in the UK to recruit and retain women in the Engineering and Technology profession was the same in these countries but at different levels. India is different in that the recruitment of women into engineering and technology profession was much higher than in Australia and the USA, the main reason is that India produces 450,000 engineering graduates a year, in which a small proportion are women, most of these women go into technology sector rather than the traditional engineering sector such as Mechanical and Electrical, but even India are facing the challenges of retaining these women in the profession as mentioned in the section on India Education in India is a passport to a better life, engineers are highly regarded and are able to get jobs and the young people understand this. The Society of Women Engineers did a national survey in the USA in 2007 and Engineers Australia carried out a survey in 2008 and both studies showed that more is needed to be done to recruit and retain women in the profession. There have been recruitment initiatives in the past which were successful for a while but that also has not increased the number of females studying engineering or technology at university. In all the countries, what was common and in agreement was that there has to be a shift in attitude towards women working in the sector, “cultural attitude towards women working in the profession, the image of the engineering profession is that it is still male dominated and physically demanding, men’s attitude towards women capability and ability to do the job has to change. We need more appreciation of the added value women are bringing into the profession. we need to showcase more women that are working in the profession. organisations need to do more in attracting and retaining women in the sector especially with the current crisis of technical skills shortage globally and the widening gap between the ageing workforce and the new graduates faced by the industry. We should not just target young people but also women returners as part of strategy to bridge the deficit currently faced in the engineering and technology sector. Nevertheless, we should not ignore the fact women have and are making great strides in the work place, from heading big corporations to owning successful businesses, they have infiltrated every business sectors, but in the engineering and technology profession, progress is still slow. We know there are still issues but some businesses are consciously trying to do something positive about the recruitment and retention of women by providing work-life balance and flexible working conditions. The industry should not look at it as a gender issue but an industry issue and one of the solutions is to enable the recruitment and retention of women in the industry, the industry needs a more diverse workforce to survive. Going to another country to tap into their pool of skilled workforce is an interim solution that will not fix the problem long term, “what happens if that pool runs dry”.

Benefits of a Diverse Workforce Research by organisations such as Delottie, in their annual report in 2007 saw attracting, retaining, and developing women as a business imperative to fuel their growth. They recognised that women represent a growing proportion of a shrinking pool of talent, and a growing number of decision-makers in their client organizations were women.

They said “We have found that creating a culture where the best women choose to be, creates an

organization where the best people want to be.” Through the WIN initiative they have been able to retain their female employees at the same rate as their male employees and today at Deloitte, the gender gap is less than 1% and approximately 22% of the partner, principals and directors (PPDs) are women. Catalyst, a USA research organisation did a study which found that those companies which have approximately a third of their board and senior executive positions filled by women had demonstrated a 35% higher Return on Equity than those companies which had no or possibly one women. The study demonstrated that a more diverse workforce fared more than two-times better than other businesses; therefore there was a clear link between company financial performance and the gender mix in their management team. Based on the interviews conducted and research that has been carried out before by experts on gender and diversity in the workplace, we now need to put the recommendations into practice. To encourage the recruitment and retention of women into the engineering and technology industry needs the branding and communication of it to change in particular Technology - ICT is very integrated and vast therefore difficult to explain the roles, industry has to clearly define the roles within the industry and standardise it globally so that anyone when describing a particular role is talking about the same thing, the approach for attracting girls needs to change with the generation. Engineering and Technology should be talked about and seeing it becomes a reality and normalising it make it more acceptable. Technology has to be business focus and the curriculum in schools has to change and the approach universities are using in marketing, selling the degrees and creating degrees has to change and be relevant, it has to be business

and technology. We need to educate career officers on what is available in the industry to help

them give better advice. It might also be useful to look at the SWE conference (business) model, which includes a career fair, this is an effective way to bring women and industry together under one roof, it shows that organisations are keen to have a diverse workforce and are supporters of this type of initiative to attract more females into technical roles. We need to raise awareness around the benefits of a diverse workforce and the need for a more friendly working environment. Businesses need to have both formal and informal mentoring - men with girls at home are more understanding. It is important to showcase women of all ages in technical roles at different stages of their career which will hopefully encourage more young girls to consider engineering as a possible career If companies are going to attract and retain women employees and customers, women’s views must become part of the on-going conversation and decisions. The rule of three goes a long way toward achieving this outcome.We need to get commitment from senior management (top down approach) and link the initiatives to business objectives, involve senior women and men as sponsors, identify and measure desired results that deliver benefits to men and women, if you don’t get support from the top, start small (this is adapted from social science research and the experience of experts in the field of diversity indicating that when three members of a minority group are present, there is a greater tendency for them to express their views and to be heard when they do so. Most women nod their heads in agreement and recognition when they hear the oft repeated story of a lone woman who says something in a group meeting and is ignored or shot down. Several minutes later a male colleague offers the same suggestion and receives both praise and acknowledgment for his idea. This phenomenon typically ceases when three or more women are present.

“Educating women is not about appearance but competency and skills”

We need to encourage more women to stay and complete the course, develop policy that will encourage more women to come back: i.e., on a part-time basis, help to retrain and provide shadowing opportunities, i.e., 6monthly/yearly

Mark Toner, Toner Associates To encourage a diverse workforce requires a family friendly environment and practices that are open and flexible which will enable retention such as flexible working policy and practices that caters for both men and women, currently parental leave is inconsistent, we need to ensure that when there is a career break, that both females and male remain professional connected to the workplace by doing continual professional development , through emails etc, it is easier if you are a Chartered Engineer than if not, we need more mentoring scheme. When an individual has a leave of absence they should still have access to Training courses, Conferences, Seminars etc, organisations has to change their policy to cater for the diverse workforce Cultural change is much more difficult to do but is required due to the global market we are in and as mentioned earlier requires a top down approach and diversity has to be well published with the support of line managers for it to be effective. It is appreciating that different approaches of (female & male) are not wrong, it is just a different style of addressing and solving problem, therefore diversity is needed to bring both styles together because they complement one another and getting the message across is important.

Rolfe Hartley – Engineers Australia

We need senior management as champions to walk the talk and women groups to diversify to ensure a gender balance; we also need to increase women in STEM career choice from a young age. We need a better understanding and cooperation between, corporation, education and career officers. The CREW report commissioned by Engineers Australia, which was a study of Retention of women in engineering, also recommends the need for more flexible working hours, role models and work life balance, a culture in the company that is inclusive which requires a top down approach, the need for more male champions and a supportive structure.

Summary � ATTITUDE in society towards women in all countries has to change to encourage more

women to select engineering and technology as a profession. � We need to showcase more role models, showing success stories, is an encouragement for

others to follow, because you have been able to achieve it against all odds � We need to showcase companies that are consciously trying to attract, retain and promote

more females in technical roles � We need best practices and polices that attract, retains, enables and encourages a diverse

workforce and this requires a top down approach by management, in particular middle management, raise awareness and understanding on the benefits of a diverse workforce such as the profit margin

� Men and women have to work together to find solutions to the problem currently faced in the engineering and technology industry

� The branding and the marketing of the industry has to be more attractive and relevant � More mentoring both formal and informal is required, including support networks � Women have to be more assertive and fight their corner and not give up

Appendix I: References 1. Statistical Overview of Women in the Workplace : Catalyst 2009

2. The Initiative for the Retention and Advancement of Women: Delottie 2007 Annual

Report

3. Engineering in India: Rajabahadur V. Arcot, 2007

4. National Survey about Engineering: The Society of Women Engineers 2007

5. Science and Engineering Indicators 2010: National Science Foundation

6. Gender Experiences in IT@School, an ICT enabled education project of Kerala,

India: SPACE

7. CREW revisited in 2007 the Year of Women in Engineering: Engineers Australia

(Women in Engineering National Committee) 2008

8. LGMA business case for workforce diversity: Gunilla Burrowes 2009

9. Effective strategies for recruiting strategies and practices (addressing skills need &

gender diversity, Challenges in ITEC and related sectors): Christina Evans, Judith

Glover, Yvonne Guerrier, Cornelia Wilson 2007

Appendix II: Acronyms

ACP – Australia Computer Society

CIO – Chief Information Officer

CEO – Chief Executive Officer

ERGs – Employee Resource Groups

EVP – Employee Value Proposition

HR – Human Resources

ICT – Information Communication Technology

IT – Information Technology

KBR – Kellogg Brown & Root

MS – Master Trainer

NSF – National Science Foundation

RTA – Road and Traffic Authority

SITC – School IT Coordinator

SME – Small & Medium Enterprises

STPS – Software Technology Parks

SWE – Society of Women Engineers

WAN – Women Action Network

WINIT – Women in Information Technology Project

WIT – Women in Technology (Victoria)

Appendix III: Questions for Employer and Employee

EMPLOYER: please provide name of company, the type of company and what services you provide

1. What recruitment initiatives/ drives do you have in place

2. What initiative have you got in place to enable getting the right type of

person for these technical position

3. Do you have issues with recruitment and retention of good technical

professional, what do you do to keep them in your company

4. What initiative are there to increase the number of women in technical

positions and has it been a successful initiative, if not

5. What are the issues

6. Do you have policies in place that help increase the number of women

in the work place

7. How do you select people for promotion

8. How would you describe the culture in work place - is it an inclusive

culture

9. To what extent is promoting gender equality integral to the overall

direction of your company

10. Do you have policies in place to increase the number of women in

areas where they are underrepresented and help them reach their

potential – what are they

11. What initiatives are in place that enables you to retain your skilled

employees and keep them happy

12. what would you say makes your company an excellent place to work

EMPLOYEE/ Technical Professional

1. What type of company do you work for and name of company

2. What made you choose a career in Engineering / Technology

a. what is it you do (position),

b. how long have you been in the role

3. Has your career journey been easy, please explain

4. Do you or did you have a mentor or role model that supported in your

career development

a. In what ways did they provide you with the support you needed

5. In your company, are there promotional prospects

6. what makes the company you work for an excellent company to work for