Navigating Diversity in STEM

Happy International Women’s Day!

In January, I started exploring through this newsletter the five key leadership skills that are critical for technical leaders to master. However, I have decided to take a detour for this edition. Because this week, as we celebrate International Women's Day, I have released my White Paper and I wanted to share it with you.

Navigating Diversity in STEM: Leveraging Female Leadership Development to Expand Diversity and Unlock Innovation

Navigating Diversity in STEM provides practical strategies for STEM organisations to expand diversity across the sector, through focusing on female leadership development as a strategic solution to address the enduring skills gap and low diversity in STEM.

The White Paper supports the #iwd2024 theme of 'Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress’ – providing a blueprint for STEM organisations to #investinwomen in STEM and #accelerateprogress for women in the sector. It is relevant for all industries across the STEM sector, from technology and cybersecurity to research and pharmaceutical sciences, engineering and aerospace, mining, and resources, Defence and data.?

It also supports STEM organisations address the recommendations from the Australian Government’s 2024 Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review. Specifically, it outlines how organisations employing STEM workers can address the recommendation to 'create inclusive workplaces that value diversity, through increasing the retention, promotion and leadership progression of under-represented cohorts'.

If you are a #stem-employing organisation, especially one that benefits from Australian Government funding, procurement, support or other services/activities, you must read this White Paper to understand HOW you can adapt to the recommendations from the Pathway to Diversity in STEM Review.

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Navigating Diversity in STEM

The current reality is that in Australia:

• 27% of the employees in STEM-qualified industries are women, however women only occupy 15% of STEM-qualified positions.
• There are far fewer women in technology and engineering roles than science and mathematics roles.
• At the leadership level, women fill 23% of senior management roles in STEM-qualified industries (not all of these are STEM-specific leadership roles), and only 8% of CEOs in STEM-qualified industries are women.

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There are a range of ways to create a diverse STEM workforce at all points in the STEM pathway.

WHY have I focused on female leadership development, rather than another strategic solution?

Female leadership development is a powerful lever for STEM diversity that is not being utilised.

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Navigating Diversity in STEM explores the role of female leaders within the context of the most significant challenges facing STEM organisations over the next decade. It describes how tailoring leadership development for women in STEM strengthens diversity and innovation at all levels and how an organisation can use this approach to increase its culture, innovation outputs and profitability. The impact of diversity on innovation is highlighted using examples from public and private sector STEM organisations.

Here’s a sneak peak into what it covers.

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Diversity Unlocks Innovation

The STEM sector faces three big challenges over the next decade which, if left unchecked, will negatively impact the advancement of STEM innovation. These include:

1. An ongoing STEM skills gap and competition for workforce talent,
2. Ensuring the workforce is adequately skilled to stay at the forefront of rapid technological change, and
3. A growing requirement for ethical and responsible approaches to innovation.

Increasing diversity across the STEM workforce will unlock innovation through creating opportunities to:

• Increase the STEM talent pool,
• Expand skillsets that enable rapid technological change, and
• Access new perspectives that will be central to delivering ethical and responsible innovation.

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Female Leadership Strengthens Diversity

Leadership development is a key enabler for women to achieve excellence in STEM and supports retention. It also offers organisations an approach to unlock the full talent potential of the STEM workforce, to embed diversity and inclusivity into culture, to become an employer of choice and to experience all the innovation and profitability benefits that diversity offers.

Read the White Paper to learn more.

Diversity Leveraged Innovation

Over the next decade, diversity will be a key indicator of an organisation’s innovation impact (represented by its culture, innovation outputs and profitability) and a measure of its ability to maintain relevance through its STEM talent; advance technological change; and support ethical and responsible innovation. Diversity is critical to exploiting the two new innovation waves of Deep Science and the Digital Age.

Given the important role of female leadership in strengthening an organisation’s diversity, female STEM leadership development can act as a lever to expand workforce diversity and diversity leveraged innovation, leading to the expansion of an organisation’s innovation impact.

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Pathways to Leadership Diversity

In Navigating Diversity in STEM, I provide a step-by-step model for female leadership development as a pathway to leadership diversity. The model is informed by research and industry best practice and presented as an integrated suite of strategies to address the development of emerging and established female leaders, specifically from early- to mid-career across all STEM industries.

?Download the White Paper

Navigating Your Own Pathway to Diversity in STEM

If you would like an expert partner to support you to grow your organisation’s performance, innovation, and long-term sustainability through diversity, I would love to work with you. I can assist you in the following ways:

• Identify and help you implement adaptive opportunities to achieve diversity leveraged innovation through applying the Pathway to Leadership Diversity framework to your organisation,
• Identify where your organisation sits on the diversity scale,
• Provide a diversity capability assessment, and
• Deliver tailored leadership development.