International Women’s Day

With 8th March being International Women’s Day, it’s a time of year to celebrate the success and achievements of women around the world. This year’s theme is break the bias and it’s in place to further dismantle gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping.   

Jobs that are related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, typically have a history of being male dominated. With these categories grouped together and referred to as STEM jobs, they are often highly competitive, sought after careers that pave the way for the future.

However, things are starting to change and there is now a year on year increase of women entering these jobs. Although, still a long way to go, women now make up a notable 24% of the STEM workforce in the UK. In certain segments of the job market, unfilled STEM positions are growing at a rapid rate. Therefore, to help solve this problem, the number of woman in STEM related jobs needs to continue increasing.  

One way to ensure that a wider demographic of people become qualified in STEM fields is to provide more visible role models. With more diverse role models in STEM fields, people will be inspired and influenced when they are making life changing decisions about their career. Through this, those from underrepresented backgrounds will realise it’s possible to have a STEM job, something that has previously turned people away from these fields. As a result of a wider demographic becoming available to fulfil these roles, the UK’s STEM skill shortages can be closed.    

We are happy to say that during the month of February, over 50% of Pareto’s change and transformation candidates were women. With our keen focus on gender, we have managed to create a diverse candidate population. This is important to us because we are providing a wide variety of people with career development opportunities. With the help of people from different genders and backgrounds, organisations have a higher chance of discovering potential creative solutions, leading to more successful change and management projects.