State of the Union: Career Pathways for Working Families

I listened carefully to President Obama’s State of the Union Address last month and was pleased to hear him say, “Still, in this economy, a high school diploma no longer guarantees a good job. That’s why I urge the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill that will revitalize our community colleges, which are a career pathway to the children of so many working families.”

IWITTS’ work focuses on ensuring that working women are part of the science and technology landscape with an emphasis on technician-level careers. Sometimes we are asked, “Why focus on careers at the technician level? Every girl and woman should have the opportunity to go to four-year colleges.”

True, however, if we only introduce women and girls to engineering and science careers that require a bachelor’s degree or graduate education, we will have missed the opportunity to impact the majority of women and girls who come from working families and who attend community colleges, not four-year universities.

IWITTS strives to bridge the gender gap in technology for these women and girls in particular because 1) they have made the fewest inroads in the science and technology workforce and 2) they are among those most in need of better jobs.

Women and girls of working families deserve entrée to the jobs of the future – green jobs, biotechnology, medical information technology and construction – and I am so glad that President Obama has focused attention on our community colleges and the career pathways they provide to all students.

What do you think? Should we focus primarily on professional occupations for women and girls in Science, Engineering, Math & Technology (STEM) or should we focus in all areas including at the technician level?

Did you know? Role Models are a top way to inspire women to choose careers in traditionally-male fields.

Our series of 7 posters feature real women working in trades & tech. Use them in classrooms, counseling offices and hallways to make women think twice about their career options.

Green Jobs: Not For Men Only

The bright spot on the economic recovery horizon is green jobs. Community colleges are partnering with Workforce Investment Boards to provide education/training to prepare the workforce for this new sector. But is it so new? At a conference panel I recently attended, many of the green jobs being discussed were in power plant and construction-related occupations.  Women, who represent less than 10% of workers in these areas, have been trying to break in for years with little progress.   In 1993, I collected data on the small percentage of women in U.S. Department of Labor School-To-Work sites and testified before Congress.  Wow, here we are 17 years later and green jobs – the crown jewel of job training – is likely to have less than 10% females.  When asked how many women work in the power plant, the panelist replied, “One very hardy woman.”  We don’t need a lone “hardy” woman.  What we need is a unified program of change, similar to IWITTS’ achievements with the CalWomenTech Project.  We work with eight community college technology programs to develop their capacity to recruit and retain women.  The Project is being highlighted by the National Science Foundation for effective practices. It’s 2010.  It’s just not acceptable to have women vastly underrepresented in green jobs and IWITTS can help.  I’ll be sharing our proven practices in an upcoming WomenTech Training on Feb 18/19 in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’re offering great group rates, including a  3-for-2 special and discount for groups of 10 or more.   Hope to see you in February!

Funding for Green Jobs Training

Green jobs are a priority at the U.S. Department of Labor (U.S. DOL). The department believes that strong partnerships “are the key to the country’s success in strengthening not just training programs but also employers and industries” and “that’s why the training initiatives at the Department of Labor frequently involve strong partnerships with community colleges, local businesses, and workforce development boards.”   In fact, over $305 million in grants were awarded by U.S. DOL in 2009 to support training for green jobs.  And just this month it announced $100 million in Energy Training Partnership Grants and another $150 million in “Pathways Out of Poverty” grants to help disadvantaged populations find employment in energy-efficiency and renewable energy industries.  This month’s grants are part of a larger Recovery Act initiative totaling $500 million — the department expects to release funding for two remaining green grant award categories this year. Community colleges are already collaborating with workforce development boards to take advantage of grant dollars for green jobs, and there is a good chance that U.S. DOL is looking to partner with more educational institutions in 2010. So keep an eye on the U.S. DOL website for more funding opportunities in green jobs training!

Recruitment Solutions from 2nd Annual CalWomenTech Project Partner Meeting

Instructors, administrators and counselors from the eight California community colleges involved in the CalWomenTech Project came together a couple of weeks ago  to share their successes recruiting and retaining women to targeted technology programs and to problem solve as a group to overcome key challenges they are encountering. One of the issues is the current economic situation in California, which seemed relevant to our audience across the country, and so I wanted to share some of the great solutions our colleges came up with:

Challenge: Due to budget cuts, many colleges have had to cut faculty and classes even as their enrollment keeps increasing. Trade and technology programs are overflowing with people looking to expand their career options. Unfortunately, this diminishes the opportunity for women overall as many women hesitate to sign up for a technical class and lose their chance to register when it fills up right away. One of the CalWomenTech colleges had three women try to add a technology class this fall; they even attended the class for several weeks. However, they could not continue on because no one dropped the class during the drop/add period.

Solutions: When recruiting women, focus efforts on priority registration groups such as Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS), athletes and fast track high school students so that the women will be able to enroll in classes that fill up quickly. Once you have women in the introductory courses, take time during class to register students for the next/another course in the program. This will act as a form of personal encouragement and ensure that female students who might be hesitant to sign up for another class will get a space.

Visit the CalWomenTech Section of the IWITTS website for more information on the CalWomenTech Project and the Proven Practices Library for case studies from the project (PDF).

Has your school seen an impact on recruiting women students during this economic downturn?

Recruiting: 9 Women in Auto Technology!

Last week we had the CalWomenTech Project Partner Meeting and our 8 community college sites presented their successes to each other. It was amazing, truly. What an incredibly dedicated group of educators, it’s a privilege to work with them. More on this to come.

At this meeting we also learned that one of the colleges, Evergreen Valley College (EVC) in San Jose, has 9 women in the introductory auto tech classes. EVC is a leader in auto tech with both a hybrid and Honda program and now the college is a leader on recruiting women.

Then this past Wednesday I and our Program Coordinator Daniella Severs spent 3 hours at Evergreen with the Head of the Auto Program, one of the instructorswho is a co-leader and the Dean of Workforce Development, revising the retention plan with the goal of ensuring that the women are retained.  

We used 100% of our brains for three hours to come up with some innovative strategies, as well as some standard ones. Each of these three men took responsibility for leading a piece of the plan which will involve others on the CalWomenTech leadership team.

What struck me was how deeply committed these men are to having the College’s female students succeed.  Auto technology only has 2% women nationally.  We need the men in the field to support women to ensure their success. We certainly have this at Evergreen. Personally I find it inspiring. 

We have many other committed men and women in the CalWomenTech Project, from time to time I’ll be bragging, I mean blogging on them.

Question/Answer: How Do We Improve Computer Science’s Image?

See Wechie’s Comment of 8/21: There seems to be hundreds of separate initiatives to encourage girls to study computer science but there remains an image problem. How can we get an industry wide campaign going to improve the image of computing?

Yes, Wechie you are correct, there is a huge image problem. American Association of University Women’s Study, Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age (2000) which you can download for free, documents the image problem among girls and many other studies have gone on to replicate these findings.

I would like to see one of the major computer giants – such as Apple or Electronic Arts – use their marketing savvy and department to team with a nonprofit (such as us) to develop a multi-media marketing campaign (YouTube, facebook, TV commercials, Posters) that could create a more positive image of computer science for women and girls (and men!).

Of course, we also advocate that schools help to change the image by showing female role models in posters and career videos — our womentechstore has many resources to help with this. I’ve personally previewed the videos we have and they are extremely well done. (Shameless plug). Now if we could combine this with a national campaign by industry leaders this could be the push that’s needed.

Question/Answer:What To Do When A Woman is Blocked by a Woman

On 8/27, Mcauly asks what should she do when she’s blocked by another woman? Julia Child actually gives us some guidance on what to do when as a woman you are blocked by another woman. (See my earlier post of 8/20).  Essentially the same thing you would do if you were blocked by a man. 1) She uses politically savvy – by referencing her ally in power (the ambassador); 2) she persists by insisting she be given the test and by asking to be given it again when it is designed for her to fail; 3) she over prepares and studies long, long hours – determined to pass; 4) she does not take it personally.

She reminds me of the first women entering firefighting and what they went through. Is it fair, no? However, there are important lessons to be learned from those pioneers like Julia who refuse to fail. To summarize: have good political skills, persist, over prepare, don’t take things personally.

Readers, do you have strategies you’ve used successfully that you’d like to share? Please comment.

A Tale of “O” Diversity Training Video

A number of you asked me for more information about the training video that I mentioned in my Julie/Julia post. Here’s a description:

A Tale of O, the most popular video about diversity worldwide, is unique both in style and content. It shows the striking consequences of being “different” from the others around you – being an O among Xs. The videotape illustrates dramatically how this alone powerfully affects both the Xs treatment of an O and the O’s view of itself, regardless of the nature of the difference. Whether the O differs from the Xs by gender, race, age, language, age or other factors, the effects are similar.

This differential treatment of Os, especially when the difference is highly visible or socially important, is often taken as a sign of bias or deliberate discrimination. A Tale of “O” shows to the contrary that much of this different treatment is largely a consequence of the situation. It is not necessary to blame anyone, unlike many other approaches, which may punish and blame people quite unfairly. A Tale of “O” helps everyone identify with Os since everyone has been an O at one time or another. Moreover, the video suggests whole new avenues to systemic solutions. A Tale of “O” is narrated by its originator, Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School.

Here’s a link to a vendor that sells the video (in a DVD format). If you sign up for a username and password you can preview the video online in both the 18 and 27 minute format.

I used this video to do training for supervisors on how to integrate women into male-dominated occupations such as law enforcement and cable installation. I prefaced showing it by mentioning that the narrator has a high sing-song voice, which can be distracting. I’d recommend others do that as well if they are showing it in a predominantly male setting.

Where do I connect with women’s associations in technology and trades?

Recruiting 101:  Have you visited the career links section of www.womentechworld.org? There are links to many women in technology and trade associations—some of which have local chapters or an email list that you can access.   A few examples of what you can find include Women in GIS, Women in Animation and Women in HVACR .

How to Recruit Female Role Models!

Recruiting 101: The key to recruiting women and girls in a field in which they are under-represented is female role models.  You already know their numbers are small, so where do you find these women?  IWITTS did a survey in 2005 and found that among educators word of mouth was the leading strategy (86%), followed by connecting with women on the street (66%).  Respondents also found doing a newspaper story on their program effective! In addition, I’d recommend putting flyers up in your community saying you are looking for female role models in specific occupations.

What does following up with women on the street mean? I remember meeting a female telephone repair person in our office building one morning. I invited her into our office, explained what we did, got her contact information and a little bit of her background. She told me, “I’m the queen of DSL.” Another time, via a journalist I was able to track down a woman who had been written about in the local paper. She ended up testifying before Congress in hearings I helped set up for legislation on women in non-traditional jobs that I drafted on behalf of a Congresswoman.  (The bill was signed into law!)

These are direct recruitment strategies.  Even more effective in the long term is to recruit female role models via program partners.  Employer Industry Boards can place articles in employee newsletters advertising for role models and can provide paid release time.  Develop partnerships with Women in Technology Associations; they can become a pipeline for role models.  Self-employed women have more control over their schedules and may be found via your local chamber of commerce. Also, speak with community college and 4-year college instructors in male-dominated program areas.

Please keep in mind that women in technical occupations (rather than professional occupations) have less control over their schedules, make less money and may not be able to take time off during their regular workday. If they have to take time off from work and you can offer them a stipend that will help. Some will work evenings or weekends, making it easier to connect with them during the daytime if that’s when your classes meet.

The first time you try to find female role models, give yourself three to six months. If you recruit program partners it shouldn’t be as hard on the second go around. And the good news is that as women and girls enroll in your programs you’ll have your own role models to feature in any publicity about your program! If you or someone you know has been successful in recruiting female role models in a way I haven’t mentioned here, please post a comment and let us know about it.

Julie and Julia: What Julia Child Has to Teach Women Students Today and What Julie Had to Teach Me

I had the good fortune of seeing the movie Julie and Julia this past weekend and I loved it, as did the rest of the audience! Everyone clapped after many of the scenes—something which rarely happens in the movies. The movie is based on the true stories of the famous, American-French chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) and a New York writer named Julie who decides to cook all of Julia’s recipes in a year and to blog about it daily.

Julia Child broke into the elite and all male French culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu, via sheer persistence.  In the movie, Julia watches on her first day as her fellow classmates expertly and rapidly chop onions while she lags behind. The instructor tutors her on proper knife technique, while the others watch and no doubt question her skills.  In the next scene we see Julia’s husband come home that evening to find his wife chopping a mound of what must be 30 to 40 onions. The scene is hilarious as they are both crying from all the chopped onions, and the message is clear—Julia is going to do whatever it takes to succeed at Le Cordon Bleu.  The very next day in class she chops the onions expertly and is the first to finish, thereby gaining the respect of her fellow male students and instructor.

However, there is one other obstacle to Julia’s success at the Cordon Bleu school of cooking and guess what? It’s a woman, the owner of the school. She is reluctant to let Julia in the school in the first place and sets her up to fail by placing her in an advanced professional class when Julia complains about being in a beginning all female class that is extremely elementary. She refuses to let Julia take the test she needs to receive her diploma. Julia must ultimately reference her friendship with the American Ambassador in order to take the test (her husband is a diplomat). She is given a test clearly designed for her to fail; forcing her to request another opportunity to take the exam.

This touches on a little discussed subject—one that is still relevant today.  What about when women undermine other women? Well this does happen, especially when a woman is one of very few. Sometimes the pioneer woman doesn’t want other women to succeed. Why? This phenomenon–referred to as “tokenism” in the field of sociology—happens when someone is a minority and wants to fit in with the majority. Sometimes the way a person tries to accomplish this is by trying to appear more like the majority than the majority group themselves. Clearly it must have been quite rare at that time for a woman to own an elite male culinary school–she must have herself struggled to be in this position–and she did not want to jeopardize this.

An excellent video on tokenism that I have used in the training I do for supervisors on how to integrate women into a male-dominated workplace is The Tale of X and O.  The Xs are the insiders and the Os are the outsiders. There are many “ahas” that go off for both men and women when I show it.

Ok, so what did I learn from Julie? I could really relate to her blog launching experience. The first day she gets a comment she’s so excited, only to see it’s from her mom. Weeks go by with no comments and she wonders if anyone other than her mom and her husband read her blog. (Reminds me of me!) The day she gets 10 comments and half of them are from people she doesn’t know, she’s super excited. When her readers start sending her photos, recipes and words of encouragement, she’s in disbelief and ecstatic.  Starting a blog is hard! Watching Julie and Julia has inspired me to hang in there and keep posting! Still, if you’re reading this and feel like commenting, please do. I’d love to hear from you and it would really make my day. Thank you for the moral support!