According to the Boston Consulting Group and BCG GAMMA's report "What's Keeping Women out of Data Science?", almost 50% of female STEM students believe that the Data Science is overly theoretical and that work in companies in this discipline still has little impact. In addition, there is a feeling that the Data Science is more competitive than other fields. A significant proportion of STEM women around the world say they do not have a good understanding of how a "career in STEM" is articulated. Data Science"and, above all, what is the day-to-day life of a data scientist in the workplace. This negative perception and the lack of transparency combine to widen the gender gap: only 15 to 22% of the professionals in the Data Science are women.
Perception reflects reality
Students from around the world focus on an unfortunate reality: many companies are still trying to create real impact with artificial intelligence, and still lack a collaborative culture in their analytics teams. The study reveals that nearly 75% of female students from Data Science They are looking for the complete opposite in their future jobs to what they perceive working in this field brings right now, i.e. applied, tangible, high-impact work. As long as companies are approaching and driving the data science and artificial intelligence as theoretical endeavours without concrete and measurable value, STEM students will continue to find it uninteresting to enter this discipline.
Finding the gaps in the approach to Data Science
BCG surveyed more than 9,000 STEM men and women in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, the UK and the US, with between 700 and 1,000 responses from each country and an even split between men and women in each case.
With regard to transparency, the study revealed that only about 63% of men and 55% of women are well informed about the various opportunities in relation to the Data Science. Even among data science and computer science students themselves, almost half (47%) alluded to a lack of clarity regarding career options within the field. Australia, France and Spain achieved high rankings in this area, while students in China, Japan and Germany referred to a low understanding of their options in this discipline. In terms of perceptions of impact and purpose, China and Japan ranked at the bottom, while students in the UK, USA and France reflected better views.
Businesses must act
Despite these variations between countries, the problem is fundamentally global and affects gender diversity in this fast-growing field. Companies are leaving it to the media to take the lead and drive the buzz around AI, in the hope that this will be enough to spark interest in the field," he says. Data Science among students," says Llorenç Mitjavila, Partner & Managing Director of BCG and head of BCG GAMMA in Iberia. "But in view of the results, something more is needed. Create a culture within the teams of Data Science that celebrates impact and rewards teamwork will be key to providing tangible and attractive career opportunities for students of both genders".
What can companies do better?
While companies already have recruitment strategies in place to attract talent interested in AI, they can promote diversity more directly by being much more specific in their communication with students by directly addressing the concerns that women highlight as critical: the role of the Data Science in the business, how the data scientists collaborate on case studies, and how a career in this field involves much more than just programming.
They should approach students with real-life examples communicated by data science professionals that make their day-to-day lives tangible and directly confront negative perceptions about the work culture.
Spain, country with the least fearful perception of competitiveness in Data Science
Of the ten countries included in the sample, Spanish STEM students have the lowest percentage of students who perceive that the STEM sector has a positive impact on the quality of their education, and the lowest percentage of students who perceive that the STEM sector has a positive impact on the quality of their education. Data Science is a field with a high level of competition in both access and employment. In our country, 67% of students perceive the sector as highly competitive, compared to 84 and 83% respectively in China and Australia. Activities such as programming competitions or hackathons contribute decisively to this competitive edge.
Business can play an active role in advancing knowledge of the discipline. Data Science and raise awareness of its transformative impact not only in the different economic sectors but also in society and contribute to the search for a solution to the gender gap in this field. "We need the female perspective to ensure that what we build for our society represents our society," says Andrea Gallego, Partner at BCG GAMMA, who adds that "the problem extends to other fields". She adds: "If we start building models with biased teams, we will encounter a number of longer-term effects, including ethical issues and models that propagate a bias that we are trying to stop.
Access the press release of the report by clicking here. link