Lack Of Women As Engineers In R&D Companies – Lack Of Interest Or Management’s Lack Of Concern

When the world is talking about gender equality and women empowerment and companies are emphasizing on bringing back women to work for a diversified talent pool, a striking observation reveals that there is a significant lack of women engineers in R&D companies. While the higher management may think of it as public relations issue, there may be more to this front than just this explanation. While many claim that women leave their professional career after a certain period of time due to personal responsibilities, which might not be the case as the women professionals claim a different reason for their withdrawal. They have pointed out towards lack of career growth opportunities and isolation as key elements. Hence, it is necessary to put forth the real reasons behind this problem.

• The major point which has come up while looking in to this issue is the stereotypic view point of the management as a whole. We often hear the term it is a man’s world out there. This thought itself put off the urge of excelling. Women feel out of place due to this thought alone.
• Women have also claimed that during their career they often need to push harder or go ahead an extra mile just to prove their worth or a relevant point. This constant extra effort in a long run kills the creative or decision making initiative to a great extent.
• Gender business leads to lack of career growth opportunities. This factor is an extension of the first pointer. Many women felt that their capabilities were not judged on potential. Their contribution was overlooked in terms of gender.
• Lastly, the feeling of isolation becomes uncomfortable for many women in companies. They have claimed that they are often deliberately neglected in discussions or people hesitate to communicate to them.

This issue might seem only a public relations issue to many managerial professionals, but there is more to this problem than just this reasoning. It is high time, that the gender diversity is encouraged in the workforce. Recruitment & selection of women can be a key contributor to a diversified talent pool which is the increasing popular trend among organizations now days. The benefits of having women engineers in R&D segment are as follows.

• The gender diversity in the R&D segment is expected to bring in major innovation in terms of creative ideas and decision making.
• A team of mixed gender is essentially to increase the employee engagement to a great extent.
• The productivity is expected to increase to a significant level as people will put in the maximum effort to prove their worth.
• The inflow of new and creative ideas in expected increase if the women are also made part of essential discussions and decision making.

There are some companies around the globe who have already taken the initiative of bringing in women professionals in this segment from the past two to three years. They have seen the benefits and the performance meter rise due to this step. It can be expected that this trend will be followed by other companies in the coming years.