Kelly Lyons, a professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and interim director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, recalls that when she graduated in 1985, her computing class was almost 40% women. “It was quite a high number at the time. But then over the years, I found I felt less and less part of the crowd, first in the workforce and then as a student in my doctoral work. So, I realized that you must find people that support you, that you can talk to. It’s all about the people, not the programming anymore,” she said.
Lyons was speaking at a virtual event hosted by the Diversity Institute and Women of Influence (external link) , Inclusive Leadership: Women Breaking Glass Ceilings in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Sharon Broughton, senior research associate at the Diversity Institute, set the context for the discussion with research from the Diversity Institute and Future Skills Centre (external link) , including the recently completed seven-year project, Bridging the Technology Skills Gap, which was funded by the government of Ontario. She noted that, shockingly, there are fewer women in computer science and only marginally more in engineering than in 1991, when women represented 20% of those working in STEM occupations. Thirty years later, women make up just under 24% of the STEM workforce. She said that women who work in STEM often leave because of inflexible and toxic environments; when an intersectional lens is added, it reveals that Indigenous Peoples and Black people are significantly underrepresented.
Denise Pothier, an engineer and chief operating officer at the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business, agreed, citing challenges she faced. “A number of barriers existed even before I entered engineering in the education system, let alone the workforce,” Pothier said. “My schooling was all in French until grade 10, after which I had to switch to English because the advanced science and math courses were only offered in English. Then when I got to university, I quickly realized that my advanced calculus course was not as advanced as the calculus that was offered in urban centres. I had to move away from home to attend university, which meant the financial burden of loans for the next 10 years,” she said.
