Friday, May 16, 2008

Diversity Proves Elusive for Women in Technical Fields - New York Times


Diversity Proves Elusive for Women in Technical Fields - New York Times: BACK in the bad old days, the workplace was a battleground, where sexist jokes and assumptions were the norm.

Women were shut off from promotion by an old boys’ network that favored its own. They went to meetings and were often the only women in the room.


All that has changed in the last three decades, except where it has not. In the worlds of science, engineering and technology, it seems, the past is still very much present.


“It’s almost a time warp,” said Sylvia Ann Hewlett, the founder of the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit organization that studies women and work. “All the predatory and demeaning and discriminatory stuff that went on in workplaces 20, 30 years ago is alive and well in these professions.”


That is the conclusion of the center’s latest study, which will be published in the Harvard Business Review in June.