Underpaid, overworked, passed over for promotions and told to smile.

The results of a global survey of 600 women working in STEM by MyBioSource, has found a myriad of upsetting, but ultimately unsurprising, trends and statistics.

The survey revealed several patterns that advocates for gender diversity and equality have pointed to – women tended to be higher earners or were more likely to receive a promotion if they had female mentors or bosses. Likewise, women who were passed over for a promotion said that a lack of women in existing leadership was the main cause of this.

Still, ensuring women are in power is not a cure-all – women can and often do perpetuate patriarchal standards in order to maintain their own power, and a lack of diversity in female leadership can lead to further biases down the line if the the women in power do not consider intersectional power dynamics of race, disability, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic class.

Institutional sexism perpetuates in STEM because STEM is not separate from society. Delving into the specifics of how sexism perpetuates in STEM – which ideally should exist as a merit based industry – is still important. As an industry that esteems itself on the basis of scientific logic, fact, and statistics, why would it fall victim to the fallacies of sexism, racism, and ablism?

Some of the most disappointing statistics revealed in the study show that one in ten women in STEM know that they are paid less than their male counterparts. This points to a two-fold issue – where women are being paid less, and may feel powerless to speak to their managers about this issue.

Pay and Promotions 

Over a third (34%) of women in STEM suspect that they make less than their male counterparts, pointing to the overall issue of pay transparency, which typically only benefits bosses and does not support equality in the workforce.

While 56% of women earned a raise in the past year, one in four had yet to receive a raise at any point in their career.

Further, nearly half (45%) of women in STEM had never received a promotion, with 38% believing that they were promoted less frequently than their male counterparts. Around one in five (19%) had been passed over for a promotion in the past two years, with 69% of these promotions instead going to a male co-worker.

Disturbingly, but again, not surprising to anyone who has ever been even close to STEM, 55% of women in STEM reported having been ‘quietly promoted’, which means they were given more responsibilities than a change in title or pay.

A lack of female leadership (15%), a feeling of being sidelined from informal networking events (11%), a struggle to connect with male supervisors (9%), and the perception that they were less committed to work because of family responsibilities (6%) were all quoted as reasons women thought they were passed over for promotion.

Having a female mentor tended to play a pivotal role in a women’s ability to climb the ladder or earn more – 31% of those who had a female mentor received a promotion in the last year, compared to only 21% without a mentor.

61% of women with a female mentor got a pay raise in the past year compared to 53% of those without.

Office Culture 

On a different but also disturbing front, 18% of women in STEM report having been told to smile at work.

Those working in person tended to have more negative experiences, and also had more instances of not feeling respected, valued or taken seriously.

While two thirds (66%) of Women in STEM agreed that their manager respects them, less (56%) felt their opinions were valued, with only 54% saying their peers took them seriously. Half (50%) said people respected their expertise, with less than half (47%) saying they were critiqued fairly.

Over half (53%) of women reported that their abilities were underestimated at work, and reported being talked over (40%), experiencing mansplaining (39%) or receiving comments on their physical appearance (38%).

Balancing Act – Work-Work Balance

While three in four women in STEM have worked overtime in the past year, only 36% of them have received overtime pay – this is less than half.

52% of women said they have a good work-life balance, while 29% were neutral and 20% said their balance was bad.

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Only half of women in STEM with children reported a good work-life balance, while those without children reported about the same, at 54%.

Further investigations showed that 37% of women reported having to miss work for a family event, but 38% also reported having to miss a family event to fulfil work commitments.

However, nearly one in ten (8%) women in STEM had been accused on having a poor work-life balance, despite reporting they were not feeling distracted from work.

While almost all (97%) of women in STEM reported feeling productive at work, 85% felt regularly stressed, 75% felt anxious, and 56% reported feeling regularly burnt out at work.

Evolution of Equality 

Despite these statistics, 65% of women in STEM reported that they had seen improvements since they began their careers.

However, they still see room for progress across the industry, siting changes that would not just benefit women, but the entire workforce.

The most desired change was salary transparency, with 68% advocating for more openness about pay. Similarly, many also called for more transparency in advancement criteria (53%) s that benchmarks for promotions are clear and objective.

Millennials and GenZ also called for more women in leadership roles, while GenX women wanted more flexible schedules.

GenZ women also wanted more support for women returning to the workforce, which is interesting as a large swatch of GenZ are still entering the workforce for the first time.