NO extenisons Melissa , The article I’ll be discussing in this week’s discussion

NO extenisons
Melissa ,
The article I’ll be discussing in this week’s discussion board was found on SHRM.org. The title of the article is “Women Are Still Underrepresented in STEM Fields”. STEM is the acronym for the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. According to the article, only 28% of the STEM workforce are women. “The gender gap is especially high in computer science and engineering” (Robb, 2023). This is one example referenced in the text of how certain professions have been historically aligned to the male gender.
The first concept from our reading that is covered in the article is the glass ceiling. As defined by Mumby & Kuhn (2018), the glass ceiling is a phenomenon where when someone reaches a certain level in the organization, they find it difficult to continue to grow further up in hierarchy. In the article, it reveals that only 52 women for every 100 men are promoted in the tech industry (Robb, 2023). The article also gives the surprising number of females in corporate leadership roles in tech, a meager 20%! The second concept that is informally referenced in the article is tokenism. Tokenism when a person is identified as a minority in a dominant culture (Mumby & Kuhn, 2018). Tokenism is reflected in the small number of US tech students that are female, making them the minority in the STEM industry. The third concept aligned to this article is the glass slipper. The glass slipper is defined as “the alignment of occupational identity with embodied social identities as it yields systematic forms of advantage and disadvantage” (Mumby & Kuhn, 2018, p.215). The article and our text both reference that tech professionals are heavily dominated by the male gender even though there is not natural connection between the work performed in tech roles and the male gender. There are efforts in place to increase gender diversity in STEM companies, including employee resource groups and mentorships to support women’s professional development. These concepts can help the issues in diversity within the STEM field by identifying the issues and allowing companies within this industry to put actions in place to improve gender diversity. Organizational communication can be utilized to create awareness and interest in STEM careers among women.
The wave of feminism I find the most interesting is the second wave that began in the early 1960s. This wave was concerned with many issues, but specifically interesting to me is the participation of women in roles that were previously reserved for men (Mumby & Kuhn, 2018). Why this wave is notable is that it was criticized by being represented by white, middle-class women and not including working-class, minority women.
References:
Robb, D. (2023, July 6). Women are still underrepresented in STEM fields. SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/technology/pages/women-are-still-underrepresented-stem-fields.aspx
Mumby, D. K., & Kuhn, T. R. (2018). Organizational Communication: A Critical Introduction (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/books/9781544357515