Defying – Not Glorifying – Stereotypes

Every once in a while, something really fires me up. Today’s trigger is about misconceptions regarding women engineers.

First, there’s the words of wisdom (insert heavy sarcasm) of Nobel Peace Prize winner Tim Hunt. This summer, he declared – at the World Conference of Science Journalists – that labs should be segregated by sex. “Let me tell you about my trouble with girls,” he reportedly mused. “You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry!”

Shameful, indeed. It reminded me of another recent high-profile controversy, this time involving Isis Wenger. The brilliant OneLogin platform engineer unwittingly found herself at the center of a firestorm when she posed for a recruiting photo.

To both the company and Wenger’s surprise, what got people talking about the campaign wasn’t the image of its security engineer wearing a black hat and hackers shirt … Instead, it was the photo of Wenger. TechCrunch reported a taste of what people had to say about it:

“This is some weird haphazard branding. I think they want to appeal to women, but are probably just appealing to dudes. Perhaps that’s the intention all along. But I’m curious people with brains find this quote (appearing on Wenger’s shirt) remotely plausible if women in particular buy this image of what a female software engineer looks like. Idk. Weird.”

And here’s what another guy said:

“If their intention is to attract more women, then it would have been a better to choose a picture with a warm, friendly smile rather than a sexy smirk. …”

To change the way people think about engineers, Wenger started the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineer.

“#ILookLikeAnEngineer is intentionally not gender specific,” Wenger says. “External appearances and the number of X chromosomes a person has is hardly a measure of engineering ability. My goal is to help redefine “what an engineer should look like” because I think that is a step towards eliminating sub-conscious bias towards diversity in tech.”

Wenger’s hashtag has inspired women to post their own photos illustrating that they also “look like an engineer.”

You go, ladies!

Finding Workers is Tough, Especially in These 10 Areas

The bad news is that there is a talent mismatch — many of the unemployed don’t have the skills necessary to fill the numerous job openings. The even worse news is experts expect the problem to deepen before it improves.

The ManpowerGroup recently conducted its seventh annual talent shortage survey and identified the 10 most difficult jobs to fill (more on that in a bit). Melanie Holmes, a vice president with the company, explains.

During the recession, employers made broad, deep cuts to their workforces. They learned to do more with less, she explains. “People who remained employed expanded their roles; they picked up new skills, they added responsibilities.”

As a result, many of the jobs that were cut during that time are not coming back. They have morphed into higher skill and higher paying positions. Consequently employers are more selective about the skills they require for an open job.

“They are looking for people who have multiple skill sets and varied backgrounds, and those individuals are hard to find, especially among individuals who have been out of the job market for an extended period of time,” adds Holmes.

Two more numbers from the survey: 49% of employers are having a hard time filling vacant positions; 55% of those cite a lack of qualified applicants.

Now for that top 10 list of where, oh where, are these skilled workers:

  1. Skilled trades
  2. Engineers
  3. Information technology staff
  4. Sales representatives
  5. Accounting and finance staff
  6. Drivers
  7. Mechanics
  8. Nurses
  9. Machinists and machine operators
  10. Teachers

More from Holmes:

“Many skilled tradespeople are older and beginning to retire. As we’re losing workers to retirement, we’re finding that there is not enough young talent to fill the ranks. We have seen less emphasis on steering youth toward vocational and technical programs over the last 20 years, and now we’re feeling the impact.”

Part of solving this problem involves changing the mindsets of parents and young people and bringing honor back to the skilled trades, she says. Careers in areas like plumbing and welding offer a lot of opportunity and family-sustaining wages.

It turns out geography also plays a significant role. Skilled trades workers may be in short supply in one region but find it tough to find a job elsewhere. The same goes for engineers (No. 2), machinists (No. 9) and teachers (No. 10).