TECHNOLOGY
Years ago , a distraught Alice Williams – an aspiring Royal Air Force member – was told , “ You ' re too short to be a pilot ”, before it was added that she “ didn ’ t weigh enough ”.
Williams – now VP of US Services Excellence at Schneider Electric – says that having her pilot dreams dashed was her “ first experience of feeling like the world was not designed for me ”.
Not one to be deterred , however , she instead pursued a career as an engineer in the British Army , maintaining tanks , among other things .
“ I had to drive them ,” she says . “ But I ’ m only five-foot-one so I ’ d have to take the backrest off the seat and sit on it so I could see out to drive .”
Such situations , says Williams , are exactly why women remain far less likely to fill STEM roles in military and civilian life than men – with STEM being the umbrella term used to group together the technical disciplines of science , technology , engineering , and mathematics .
STEM supply jobs still mostly filled by men Some progress is being made on attracting women into STEM roles in computer science , engineering , economics , and physics , yet these areas remain disproportionately male . Being such a process-heavy discipline , supply chain has always had a strong STEM contingent . The discipline has long been a magnet for engineers of all descriptions , and the more senior the role , the likelier it is that the executive has a STEM background .
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