Stephanie Slocum is the Founder and CEO of Engineers Rising LLC and is a career and business strategist for engineers. She is the author of She Engineers, chair of the Structural Engineering Institute’s (SEI’s) Business Practices Committee and has also been elected to the SEI Board of Governors. (stephanie@engineersrising.com)
How has the pandemic changed the landscape for women engineers? What are the new challenges and opportunities?
The pandemic has changed the way everyone works and has been particularly challenging for those who are caregivers. A 2020 NCSEA SE3 survey of structural engineers found that 87% of women structural engineers with dependents reported providing more than 50% of dependent care, compared to only 42% of male structural engineers with dependents. In that same survey, 57% of women structural engineers reported needing to choose between work and caregiving often or always, compared to 20% of men. More concerning: only 4% of all respondents said that their firms were supportive of employees with dependents.
The pandemic has presented a documented challenge for workforce retention of women with dependents. For example, one survey of 5000 professional women published in Forbes magazine found that nearly 80% of women said their workloads have increased because of the pandemic, and 66% reported having more responsibilities at home. This created a perfect storm for burnout and retention challenges for women in work cultures that did not adapt quickly to provide the flexibility and support needed to balance those responsibilities.
Is the “perfect storm” all bad news?
No. That perfect storm has also created an opportunity for nimble organizations that want to improve gender diversity in their leadership pipelines. Women are demanding more from their work. In fact, women leaders in 2021/2022 are leaving their companies at the highest rates on record for better opportunities, better work cultures, and more workplace flexibilities (Source: 2022 Women in the Workforce report). Anecdotally, in the last year, I have worked with an unprecedented number of ambitious, rising female stars who are changing jobs. However, it is not simply moving from one employer to another. Instead, they are taking career risks by pivoting to different industry sectors, taking a career break instead of putting up with an unsupportive work culture, starting businesses, and choosing career options that prioritize schedule flexibility and employee wellness.
You have written and spoken in the past about how women engineers can self-advocate to advance their careers: Has that also changed due to the pandemic?
From a self-advocacy standpoint, the normalization of remote work has enormous benefits for women. According to the 2022 Women in the Workforce report, only 1 in 10 women (and about 2 in 10 men) want to work primarily on-site. When women work remotely, they experience fewer microaggressions and higher levels of psychological safety. In addition, they can spend more energy focused on their technical work (i.e., the reason most became engineers!) for improved happiness and work outcomes. The challenge with limited exposure is to avoid proximity bias (i.e., out of sight, out of mind) in work environments where some workers are mostly remote while others are primarily in-person. Remote workers must intentionally overcommunicate their ambitions, activities, and accomplishments to maintain visibility if they want to advance in the future.
One final pandemic-related opportunity is the relative ease at which rising female leaders (and anyone with initiative) can obtain 1:1 mentoring from senior leaders – typically men – when requested in a virtual environment. My case study research of women leaders in STEM found that 1:1 mentorship is essential for women’s advancement. In addition, online meetings remove much of the social stigma related to gender dynamics compared to a 1:1 closed-door meeting. Combine this with fewer incidents of traditional networking post-pandemic (think happy hours and golf tournaments), and women have more options available to build relationships on their terms if they choose to do so.
What support systems do women engineers need from their office supervisors, and how has the pandemic (e.g., remote work, remote meetings) changed those needs?
The pandemic has not changed the needs of women (and everyone else). Instead, it has brought clarity, empowerment, and reconsideration of how life and work are intertwined. That means fewer employees tolerate work cultures that do not provide the support they need.
It is also notable that managers – which in some cases ARE the office supervisors – may not be getting the support, training, or resources they need. It is challenging to support your people when you are not supported. That lack of support is a contributing factor to the burnout faced by an estimated 40% of female people managers.
How can we support people better and prevent that burnout?
I recently gave an in-person presentation where I spoke with two employees who had been at their company for 20-30 years. I asked them what made them stay. Their response: “My boss.” That does not happen by accident. Organizations and supervisors need feedback from employees to determine what they can do to create that response and reap the retention benefits that come along with it. Additionally, firms must reward supervisors for supporting employee well-being, advancement, and inclusion within their teams. Too often, this is treated as a nice-to-do (because it’s not a billable hour) when in reality, an individual manager’s actions are directly linked to retention costs.
To gain a better idea of what support systems help most for women specifically, the data from my 2021/2022 Women in STEM case study interviews found that the top 5 strategies for organizations supporting gender equity are: 1) Cultivate belonging, 2) Provide workplace flexibility without stigma, 3)Provide individualized professional development, 3) Make growth and promotion paths transparent, and 5) Fix the pay gap. (Author note: We have provided a link to the full report in the digital version of this article at www.STRUCTRUEmag.org. ) (For the digital version – You can get a copy of that full report HERE.)
Notably, none of these items are new, and that research has long shown that ALL employees want these things. What has changed with the pandemic is employee tolerance for organizations that do not meet their needs.
What advice do you have for women engineers who are starting to manage staff? How has the pandemic made new challenges and opportunities for managers?
Women engineers starting to manage staff must put on their oxygen masks first. Practically, this means having an explicit conversation with their managers about how success in their role is defined and what day-to-day activities are essential for work outcomes. New technical managers have a higher statistical likelihood of burnout than other groups because individual contributors are often promoted because of their excellent technical expertise without management training, and successful outcomes in their new roles are not clearly defined. When high-achievers don’t know what activities lead to success, they tend to overcompensate (speaking from experience here!) by taking on extra work that may or may not be tied to role outcomes.
Managing staff is a separate responsibility – not an add-on to technical work – and must be treated as such. As a people manager, getting clear on expectations for yourself also allows you to communicate clear expectations and work outcomes for your staff and empower those you manage to make decisions for themselves on how they achieve those outcomes.
Communication must be a big part of that, yes?
Absolutely. The biggest challenge and opportunity for managers in the pandemic is effective communication and collaboration. A hybrid and remote workforce require intentional communication and collaboration; managers who could get away with unclear emails and directions in person flounder when managing staff remotely (and are typically the first managers to say remote work doesn’t work). On the other hand, this has created significant opportunities for rising stars who excel at communication and are up-to-date on collaboration technologies to accelerate their paths to leadership. On the flip side, mindful communication can spiral into spending all of your time in email, and virtual meetings, which is why establishing expectations (and setting boundaries) for your role is essential.
I have observed from the pandemic that technology (Zoom, Teams, Facetime, email in general) results in less site visit time for structural engineer designers. What are the pluses and minuses of that trend for women engineers?
Less site time does result in fewer challenges for women in dealing with microaggressions on construction sites related to gender stereotypes. However, with that exception, I see the decrease in site time as a negative for three reasons.
First, for many designers seeing something they have designed being built and connecting with the users of projects (such as might happen at a groundbreaking ceremony) is the single most fulfilling part of the work. It is the thing that keeps them motivated when work deadlines pile up and there are late nights in the office, and a tangible reminder that their work matters. Women are more likely than men to say they went into engineering so they could apply their technical skills to make a difference in the world. Reduced site time is a missed opportunity to connect directly to that sense of purpose. Studies show that purpose is fundamental to individual career fulfillment and employee retention.
Second, effective communication with contractors is essential to career advancement in structural engineering. Learning that skill involves putting in the time and observing a senior engineer doing this well. The sooner structural engineer designers get comfortable being on site, communicating with contractors, and troubleshooting field fixes, the sooner they develop the skillsets necessary to rise into leadership.
Finally, site visits are one of the best places for engineers to deepen relationships and reinforce their technical expertise with contractors and owners. While site conditions can be shared via technology and often give engineers sufficient information to solve field challenges from a data standpoint, there is no good substitute for being on-site with contractors, owners, and potential clients (such as architects). For example, structural engineering designers whose firms facilitate their young engineers’ building relationships with young architects find that these become clients 10-15 years later as both mature in their respective expertise. More site visit time creates a business advantage for the individual and their employer.■