How to Boost Confidence with Women on Your Engineering Team
Posted May 19th, 2016
Fields in STEM have historically struggled to build a diverse workforce, particularly in regards to gender diversity. And while improvements are starting to be made, there are still many teams on which women are in the extreme minority. Feeling like the odd person out on a team can have wide-reaching professional consequences, and any company that hopes to reap the benefits of workforce diversity must make a proactive effort to overcome those consequences. Start by boosting the confidence of your women engineers:
Double Down on Diversity
It’s important to remember that diversity doesn’t mean putting token minorities on your team. It means that your teams are composed of relatively equal numbers of engineers from diverse backgrounds. If your engineering staff has only one or two women on it, they will unavoidably feel self conscious about their role. Show your commitment to diversity and create and atmosphere of understanding and support by making the gender balance as equal as possible.
Support Professional Development
Women engineers often face institutional obstacles to advancement, whether they’re overt or covert. Start breaking down these barriers and show your female engineers that you’re interested in their long-term success by prioritizing professional development. If you’re willing to offer tuition reimbursement or flexible scheduling to attend conferences or classes, it sends a powerful message that you believe in your women engineer’s abilities and are eager for them to make a bigger impact at the company.
Reward Results
For a variety of reasons, women engineers rarely get singled out for praise. That causes these engineers to feel like they are overlooked, unappreciated, and relegated to a supporting role at best. Ideally, you would correct this by offering bonuses or other perks to female engineers who meet and exceed your expectations. But if bonuses are cost prohibitive, simply expressing how impressed and appreciative you are for the strong performance can have the same effect on motivation and validation.
Scrutinize Company Culture
You can make every effort to boost the confidence of your women engineers, but if your company culture is hostile to their presence or advancement, your efforts will be wasted. The culture at many engineering firms is subtly misogynistic at best and openly hostile at worst. Making and effort to foster a more inclusive and supportive culture will help you retain the women engineers you have now and recruit more of them in the future.
With the right resources at your disposal, cultivating a more diverse workforce doesn’t have to be a long and laborious process. Start connecting with some of the best and brightest women engineers in the labor market by contacting Bayside Solutions.
