Last year, Donna Strickland, the physicist whose work resulted in a huge number of practical applications for laser technology – including laser eye surgery that many of us will have benefitted from – became the first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for physics in 55 years.
Forget light sabres, Death Star laser weapons and that rather nasty laser that threatened to cut short James Bond’s love life – Donna Strickland, with work she developed as a doctoral student in 1985, focused on practical applications that were just as thrilling as sci-fi imaginings but actually made a significant difference to real people, in the real world.
Only three women have ever received the Nobel Prize for Physics, but as one of my female WBDL students pointed out in her excellent dissertation on women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) industries last year, it was not for want of ability or talent.
Unfortunately, women whose passion is focused on STEM subjects are often not encouraged to follow their dreams. Worse, they are frequently advised against it. Yet there is no reason why women cannot be great engineers, great scientists, or great physicists, except that it was historically a closed door to women, and men held fast to the key.
Attitudes have moved on, by and large, and there are increasing numbers of women excelling in STEM industries today, but news of women’s success in these fields still has the power to surprise and stir the media, which only serves to emphasise that this is perceived as exceptional.
WBDL programmes are female-friendly in that they enable women to learn and develop their management skills outside the male-dominated lecture hall environment. Currently, there is a male/female imbalance in our intake, which wider marketing activities in 2019 seeks to address. However, it is interesting to note that, so far, only my female students have addressed the gender imbalance in organisations in their work, when in fact this is an issue that all professional managers need to acknowledge and consider.
Organisations need all the talent they can get to be competitive, and a gender-balanced workforce can more effectively harness the available talent – it’s a simple business truth.