Does the widely discussed shortage of women and minorities in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) apply to the field of project management also? Are there any percentages available for women in the project management field at various levels? Thanks. www.umagupta.com Saving Changes...
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Andree Emsley PMPIT Project Manager| Coventry Health CareAvondale, Az, United States
I've been working in the PM field for eight years now. There are more men in this field but don't let that stop you. Saving Changes...
I think especially the higher up you go as far as more complex projects with bigger budgets, it seems to be very male dominated but hey, I'm with Andree - don't let that stop you! ;) Saving Changes...
I truely agree to the fact that there are women minorities in project management, bearing the fact that I am the only female in project management side in my department consisting of around 75 employees. I would agree with Bethany that the reason lies with male dominance, especially in my country like Pakistan. I had to struggle very hard to get up here. Saving Changes...
Kathleen ColbeckProgram Manager| SAICAlbuquerque, Nm, United States
I would agree that there are more men in project management, especially in technical project management (IT, engineering, construction, etc.), but I think women are better suited to the work. They tend to be stronger at multi-tasking, relationship building and communicating. However, I've seen women PMs run over by agressive men because the women wouldn't stand their ground. Saving Changes...
I agree that Project Management is well suited to women for the reasons Kathleen suggests. Just as a point of fact, we have four technical PM's in the division I work in, three of us are women. Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
I tend to agree with all of the posts. I have worked with a large number of IT departments and an interesting observation that seems to be consistent and maybe increasing is that in a typical IT department consisting of operations, applications, and project management units (amongst other things), there seems to be a disportionately fewer number of women (as a percent of total) in operations and applications as compared to project management. And in management positions, it is even more pronounced. That is, there seems to be far less women operations managers than women PMO managers. Whether this is by choice or by institutional bias, I have no idea or even a guess. But what I do know is that some of the very best (exemplary) project managers and PMO managers that I have worked with have been women.
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Selva Saravana PuvananthiranDelivery Lead Senior Manager| Accenture Solutions Private LimitedChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
I guess that most of the world is male dominated... especially when it comes to a higher position. However, I have seen more women managers and higher-ups(Director, VPs) in my previous company. Also, I have(am) seen a lot of women than men in the business side. Saving Changes...
Richard HowProgramme Management Consultant| How Associates LtdHarthill, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom
one important thing to remember when looking at the number of any group at a senior level will vary depending on their position in the workplace years ago.
Most senior management have 20 years plus work experience, if you go back 20 years and look at the lower levels there were far less women than men and so as the pyramid narrows and less people move up there will be less women than men at the top. In the work environment now there are almost as many women as men therefore in 20 years time there will be as many women as men in senior roles.
its like a river, pouring loads of something in at the souce will not instantly increase the number at the rivers end you have to wait for them to flo through.
20 years ago there was a glass ceiling almost everywhere for women, 10 years ago a few had broken through and some where still constrained. These days the glass ceilings are in a minority pretty soon they will be a rarity.
cant happen soon enough for me as long as we dont start with the"positive discrimination" thats just insulting to the people it claims to be helping. Saving Changes...
