Employers must remove barriers for women returning to Stem jobs

Report says women who have left sector have a 'key role to play' in fixing leaky engineering talent pipeline

The cost of childcare and inflexible working hours are the main barriers to a return to work according to the interim findings of a new survey run by Prospect, Talent Retention Solution, Women in Manufacturing and the Women's Engineering Society.

The survey, Women in Stem: Are you in or out?, asked 4,000 women about several key areas including their early career and current employment situation, if they had taken any breaks in their career and if they had experienced any barriers in returning to work.

Of those asked, 50% had taken an employment break at one stage in their career, primarily due to maternity leave. More than half (58%) of the women who took maternity leave reported they had experienced barriers in returning to work, with 40% citing the cost of childcare and more than 25% unsuitable working hours as the biggest barriers. 

For those who left for reasons other than childcare, nearly two thirds (63%) agreed they would like to return to a role in the sector, but do not feel able to, stressing the need for better support and 'refresher courses' to ease them back into the job.

Sue Ferns, Prospect's head of communications and research, said: "The under-utilised talent pool is made up of women who, through life choices like bringing up children, have left work, but now want to return to their careers.

"Our survey found that those who want to return to work need: training; work experience and refresher courses; support from professional organisations; training on the job; flexible working and sharing and support from colleagues."

Professor John Perkins, chief scientific adviser at the department for Business Innovation and Skills said: “Women have long been described as the 'low hanging fruit' for Stem-related jobs, yet they have proven very difficult to harvest. It is time for concerted action on behalf of the government, industry and academia to solve this problem. Encouraging those with Stem qualifications back into the sector is a vital part of this.”

He added that a £10 million government fund recently launched for employers to offer skills for women in engineering could be used to set up 'returner courses' to attract female staff back to work.

The interim study also found that institutions are well placed to reach a large proportion of women finding it difficult to return to Stem careers as nearly half (48%) of those asked are members of a related institution, with 7% members of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and 6% from the IMechE.

A further report will be published in the autumn. The survey is open until 15 September and can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/womeninSTEMinorout