Pioneering Prospect women in STEM workplaces
Prospect’s campaign to raise the profile of professional women in male-dominated industries, particularly those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), has helped attract and engage women in the union. The campaign included the production of a ‘Prospect pioneers’ calendar to celebrate the success of its women members in male-dominated areas and to help inspire the next generation.
One of the ‘pioneers’ featured in the calendar was Lindsay Chapman, who is also a longstanding Prospect member, branch chair and senior research scientist. She explained why it was so important for the union to play a role in getting more women into male-dominated STEM occupations: “Joining a union is not just about insurance for when things go wrong. To improve recruitment we’ve got to campaign to make the workplace a better place, particularly for women, who won’t want to speak out about issues on their own. Being in a minority, you do wonder ‘is it just me?’, at the same time, you might be trying to progress in your career so you don’t want to put your head above the parapet.”
She believes that getting more women in STEM would lead to culture change and make the workplace better for everyone, for example, by encouraging more flexible working and challenging the lazy stereotyping that is especially prevalent when people are under stress or face workload pressures.
With the support of her employer, Lindsay organised an event in her workplace open to all Prospect women members on workplace culture and how to change it. She said it was also an opportunity for women who were in a minority or sometimes the only woman in their workplace to network and meet others with similar experiences and possibly potential solutions. She has since organised an event in her workplace for Prospect members, who were each invited to bring along a member of management so that they could come up with a joint action plan to make the workplace better for women in STEM.
Case Study from Equality Audit 2014: Improving representation and participation in trade unions
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