Women in Industry

Another of my colleagues, Alexis, is doing research on gender in her indsutry. Why aren't their more STEM teachers in higher education? 

I'm incredibly intrigued by the research she is doing. The refining and petrochemical industry that my organization supports with safety and skills training for field workers and leaders has a similar disparity. 

The imbalance between female and male workers in this section of the industry is as stark as the one she mentions researching, and is heavily weighted to males. This is a loss as there are so many openings that could be filled by any worker do not require that that they be solely male. In fact I would love to do more research and discover how gender affects job performance or skill. 

In general, and although I have no true work to back up this supposition, there is a belief that women make better safety stewards and fire watch, hole watch, and safety managers then their male counterparts, yet recruiting efforts for these positions do not target women. I work with some amazing ladies in my departments, all of whom have supported the industry for years and would be amazing at jobs in the field as well. 

Regardless, there are opportunities for more female workers that are not being filled, and could easily be filled by females as well as male workers, like her STEM opportunities. If I was not focused on technology and innovation for increasing training effectiveness for workers overall, this would have been a subject I would have taken up and enjoyed. I would love to hear more about her research after this class.