Is Elizabeth Holmes an Outlier: Women in STEM (Part II)

“We know a lot of cases of corrupt and fraudulent men, but we are not used to seeing female names associated with this type of behavior. One of the main reasons is because the percentage of women in leadership and influential positions is quite low.”

Challenging Stereotypes, Eliminating Myths

As Elizabeth Holmes began to grow as an entrepreneur and CEO, she decided to change and adapt aspects of her life to gain trust and credibility from investors and other possible partners, most of them male. She used a lower voice pitch and dressed androgynously to sound and appear more convincing—maybe because several studies and publications have claimed that deepening your voice can make you more influential or convincing.

When entering the workforce and, primarily, positions of power, women are not the only ones who suffer from sexist myths or stereotypes, but they are the most affected. Filipa Rodrigues believes it’s easier to associate male behavior to successful outcomes in STEM industries. “It’s only natural that we all end up changing something in our behavior in certain situations to gain credibility,” says Rodrigues. Ayumi Moore Aoki, founder of Women in Tech® and CEO of Social Brain, states that we must fight against workplace gender stereotypes, especially because “Many men think that a woman that is attractive and has a leadership position climbed up the ladders due to her physical assets.” We also need to start trusting women more, creating community, and paving the path for future female entrepreneurs.

Many claim that women are less likely to succeed financially than men or less likely to take risks to achieve their goals. Most of the time our risks are larger; we risk being rejected and laughed at just because of our gender; we risk not being taken seriously while being working parents or not being promoted because we may get/are pregnant. Elizabeth Holmes succeeded in convincing investors about her project and getting as much money as she wished for, but not everyone is as lucky as the daughter of an Enron executive. “Can you imagine that I went to six different banks to try and make a small loan in order to launch our non-profit?! I always had a negative answer. Lots of very big companies say to me, ‘I love what you’re doing, we would love to support!’ But in the end, there are just words and no actions. It’s really very deceiving,” shares Moore.

Words must become actions if we want to mitigate stereotypes and create real opportunities. Many countries have implemented policies and solutions to counteract potential risks for women in the workforce and increase female leadership, but these are not a reality everywhere—nor are they enough.

Equally, the challenge of work-life balance may alienate women even further. “In STEM fields at Yale, it’s harder for women to become professors because they usually need a Ph.D., and this takes many years. It alienates women who want to work but also start a family; finding a balance is what has kept away so many women from advancing to higher positions and leaves students without an important pool of mentors,” Yale senior Constance Lam stated. In the U.S. until 2017, 71.1% of working parents were mothers with children under the age of eighteen; most of these women will be unable to reach a board director seat or a similar position of power. Additionally, according to the 2018 International Labor Organization Report on World Employment and Social Outlook, contributing family work accounts for 42.3% of female employment, compared to 20.2% of male employment in developing countries. The ILO does not expect any reductions in the work-family gap during the period up to 2021.