HD6060-.A84-2008-PDF-Athena-factor-Reversing-the-brain-drain-in-science,-engineering,-and-technology

The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology
HBR Research Report
Chapter 11: Going Global
Moving to the global context, many of the opportunities and challenges described in Chapters 1
through 9 are amplified. Not only are SET shortages and shortfalls more pronounced in Europe
and Asia than in the United States, there’s an even bigger treasure trove of female talent in other
backyards around the world.
The Athena Factor research does not allow us to create a comprehensive global picture of female
talent in SET, but we are able to shed light on SET women in certain key contexts—particularly
China and Russia. Most important, we’re well positioned to highlight some major opportunities
for talent-starved multinational corporations seeking to expand in markets around the world.
Our findings are based on focus group research. In the twelve-month period November 2006 to
November 2007 we carried out targeted focus groups in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Moscow, Geneva,
London, and Sydney. We talked to more than 100 highly qualified SET women between the ages of
25 and 45, all currently working for global companies—some U.S.-based, some Europe-based.
The following are some highlights from our global focus group research.
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In China and Russia the female talent pipeline in SET is surprisingly rich. These countries
boast a large pool of highly credentialed women. Focus group participants in Shanghai
and Moscow told us that in many engineering fields women comprise 50% to 60% of the
graduating class, and women are often the top students; it is not rare for the entire top decile
to be female. The existence of these large pools of highly credentialed SET women is due, in
part, to the educational policies and culture of the Communist era. In Maoist China, women
were said to “hold up half the sky.” In the USSR, equal opportunity prevailed and women
were encouraged to enter fields that, under capitalism, had been off limits to females—heavy
industry, petrochemicals, and the like.
SET women around the world prefer to work for global companies. Chinese and Russian
women prefer to work for multinational companies—they see Chinese- and Russian-owned
companies as misogynistic, tightfisted, and reluctant to invest in good people development
practices. Within the universe of global companies, U.S. firms are preferred—they earn high
marks on the nurturing talent front and are seen as woman-friendly. This point was stressed
in focus groups in Geneva and Sydney as well as Moscow and Shanghai. Japanese-owned
companies were singled out for criticism (low wages and disrespectful of women) as were
French-owned companies (arrogant and, again, disrespectful of women).
SET women prefer global companies because of their ethical standards and their track
record on safety and environmental issues. This is a huge lure in Russia and China. In
focus groups in Moscow and Shanghai, SET women talked about how much they appreciated
the higher ethical standards of U.S.- and Europe-based multinationals (less corrupt, fewer
bribes). They also stressed the weight they gave to higher safety standards. One Russian
female engineer pointed out that in heavy industry, the number of on-the-job injuries in
Russian-owned companies is 10 times that of U.S.-owned companies. As a single mother, this
fact was extremely important to her. A Chinese female engineer told us she was “appalled” by
the degradation of the environment caused by Chinese-owned companies. It was the main
reason she had opted to work for a U.S.-based company.
In many parts of the world, the old boys’ club is alive and well. In SET companies in
Europe and Australia as well as in Russia and China, male dominance of top jobs and key
social networks continues to block the advancement of women. Excuses run the gamut from
“She hasn’t put in time on the coal face” to “She’s never worked in the smelter” to “If a women
gets a top job it’s ‘through the bed’—because she’s slept with her boss.” In Shanghai and
Moscow, focus group participants pointed out that the high officials (Moscow) or top Party
cadre members (Shanghai) have always been male and continue to have a lock on power.
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