Women’s advancement in A&D and tech

What's the prescription for getting more women to join - and stay in - industries like tech and A&D?
10 March 2023

With more women in traditionally male-dominated industries, business will thrive.

The technology industry is traditionally dominated by men – a fact that in itself makes it more difficult for women to break into tech, pursue a career in it, and sustain that career for its full natural length, let alone achieve the advancements their accomplishments deserve. Add to that the traditionally even more gender-exclusive realm of aviation and defense (A&D), and you narrow the funnel for women’s advancement even further.

We spoke to Amanda Blum, Chief Financial Officer at Lynx Software Technologies, a significant tech company in the A&D space, about her career journey, and what it would take to deliver women’s advancement in the sector at an equal rate with men’s.

THQ:

Women in A&D make up just 24% of the workforce. That’s less than half what it needs to be to even achieve parity with men. Is that just down to the influence of the patriarchy, or are there other reasons?

AB:

I think it’s traditionally been a more male-dominated field and it’s seen as a highly technical, competitive and demanding industry that is perceived as less welcoming or accommodating to women, especially those who want to have a family and can’t commit all their time to just work.

That has led to there being fewer women, and fewer women mentors in the industry, leading to a lack of recruitment and retention efforts. Luckily at Lynx, we actually have a strong female presence. But you see it at lots of other companies, that reluctance to invest in the recruitment and retention of women.

Disappearing women.

THQ:

We’ve recently spoken to women who are tech founders and engineering VPs, and what comes through clearly is that they’re currently more the exception than the rule. They’re the ones that have stuck with it. Similarly, there are figures that show that women tend to leave jobs in tech by age 35 – and they don’t come back. That makes you wonder what these industries would look like if they were more welcoming and accommodating to women, and women’s advancement.

AB:

Yes, I read a report that said women in tech are 1.5 times more likely to leave their jobs compared to men in tech. The report also found that the top reasons women left were lack of advancement opportunities, unsupportive or non-inclusive work environments, and low compensation in their career.

So if women pause their careers to have families, it makes it much harder to ever transition back into tech. Getting through those years, especially in their mid-30s, where they’re deciding what they want to do, that’s the big turning point.

THQ:

The figures on unsupportive and non-inclusive working environments make you wonder whether the industry is just “passively” patriarchal or actively misogynistic. Have you had experience of that kind of pushback?

AB:

Luckily, I have not had that experience. I’ve worked for great companies that had strong women in leadership, and I was able to find mentors in those women. So I’ve been very lucky and that’s probably helped me to stick with it. You know, I’ve seen other people experience it, and I see why they leave situations.

But having a strong mentor is very helpful. And actually having men and women mentors is especially helpful. That way, you get multiple viewpoints. At the end of the day, you’re dealing with a lot of personalities, and having both a man’s and a woman’s viewpoint on how to deal with personalities is very useful.

Women in leadership.

THQ:

That’s remarkably good to hear – that there are good companies out there, and that the toxic patriarchy is not simply everywhere. The question then is how do we take what the good companies do and get more of it?

THQ:

I think putting women in leadership roles, and companies that value diversity and inclusion and make them a priority, are the ways to go. When a company makes that a priority, you can feel the difference.

THQ:

That’s a message that keeps coming through – the idea that putting women in leadership and mentorship roles breeds a better, more inclusive pipeline of candidates and staff. It’s that whole representation issue, isn’t it? If you can see it, you can be it?

AB:

Yes, seeing other women do it makes women think “Okay, I can do that.”

THQ:

Which is not the message that the generality of our culture gives to women and girls, so it’s very much needed.

AB:

Right. And with mentorship, or even with networks of women colleagues, the more of you there are, the more it helps. So for instance, if you get to a point where you’re struggling, you can call them up and ask for advice and how they dealt with it. That’s really helpful.

THQ:

When it comes to women not coming back after starting a family, is that just because tech moves on at such a pace it’s difficult to rejoin, or is there active resistance in tech and A&D to take them back once they’re out?

AB:

I’m not sure on that one. I think once some women leave, they might not have the desire to go back. Or if they do leave to have a family, they might realize the job may have changed so much that they don’t want to go back into it. But there will be a range of reasons why women don’t go back to the industry.

Mentors and networks.

THQ:

You said you had good mentors, which helped you progress through your career. What sort of things did they teach you that made you think it was a career you could continue with?

AB:

Most importantly, they taught me how to advocate for myself. Just having those conversations, hearing their experiences and how they got through. It taught me how to self-advocate and to always try something. Even if you fail, at least you tried to keep pushing through it. And they taught me not to get too worried about everyone’s opinion of me.

Sometimes I think women will get concerns with their image, or be worried about offending people, and sometimes you have to just push through that and not worry about it too much.

THQ:

Having spoken to other leaders in their fields, that’s another recurrent theme – the idea that women are not typically encouraged in our society to speak up and self-advocate, and so when it becomes necessary in a career setting, it can create its own barriers that they have to get over. How have you tackled it?

AB:

Experience and age. I think it’s gotten easier over the years!

But certainly, having those mentors that push you to do it takes some of the sting out of it. You’re like, “Okay, I can do this.”

THQ:
And as you say, fortunately, you haven’t had a lot of overtly negative pushback to that. But there’s always that initial question of “If I say this, what are people going to say?” That Imposter Syndrome factor coming from the engrained social programming that “Women aren’t supposed to be in XYZ professions.”

AB:

Yeah. I mean, Imposter Syndrome applies to both men and women, and both in and out of tech, but women do tend to doubt themselves a little more, when they’re completely capable. So I think, again, it’s really important to have those mentors and people to go to for advice that, when you start to question your abilities, help you push past that.

Prescription for an industry.

THQ:

Is that part of the prescription for women’s advancement in tech and A&D? More women in leadership roles, and more women mentors so that women in the industries can not only see a pathway, but reach out for help?

AB:

And networks too. Mentors and networks, so women can find like-minded people with the same interests in the same industry. It’s really helpful. Put all that together and I think it would help with retention and recruitment efforts, definitely.

THQ:

Are there particular barriers currently standing in the way of women in A&D and tech?

AB:

I think women experience fewer growth opportunities, a lack of mentorship, and feeling excluded in certain environments. If women are feeling like that, I think it’s important that they have someone to reach out to about it, or be able to talk to about it. Companies that make it difficult for women to have those conversations can create some barriers.

THQ:

But happily, you’ve had a relatively positive experience. What do you think has helped your career go that way.

AB:

Every job I’ve had, I’ve had a really good boss and they’ve helped me grow in my career. And that’s both men and women. They helped me push past those points where I was questioning myself or my abilities, and they also challenged me in ways that you ultimately grow from. I’ve always been able to have open, honest conversations with all of my bosses, and that’s made a huge difference.

Women’s advancement.

THQ:

That begs the question of whether women’s advancement in industries in which they’re traditionally underrepresented is more a company-by-company thing, or whether it should be more of a government responsibility to help equalize the playing field.

AB:

Ultimately, it’s probably a company-by-company thing, but there are things that can be done earlier, too. Teaching young girls that they can get into tech, that they can do these very technical jobs just as much as boys can, so they go into programs in high school and college that lead to these industries – that’d be helpful too.