Efforts to achieve equal representation in STEM continue to face challenges

Fiona Croke, global talent acquisition lead for Ireland, discusses the progress made, the road ahead and the role MSD Ireland is playing in levelling the playing field

Colleagues at MSD Biotech in Dublin at its all-Ireland early talent annual summer BBQ.

The conversation around women in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) has been ongoing for some time. What progress has been made, and what still needs to happen?

I believe there’s been significant progress made, particularly in the last five years, in highlighting the opportunities for those who choose a career or education in Stem. From an MSD Ireland perspective, we’ve seen a rise in female engineers joining our business and more women in Engineering, Technology and Manufacturing at a senior level across our organisation and network, which is, of course moving in the right direction. But if we take a step back and look across Ireland and elsewhere, the gender gap at Leaving Certificate and third-level is present and women are still underrepresented in physics, technology and engineering. Ireland is an incredibly buoyant hiring market, which is fantastic, but we need to put measures in place to really start seeing the dial fundamentally shift to a more gender-balanced workforce in Stem positions in the next 10-15 years.