The many comments responding to my piece of May 16th read like postcards from the 1970s – from the early bitter edge of the gender wars. I was beginning to absorb this material, figuring out how to respond when I was hit by another deluge—200 comments that came in over a 24 period in reaction to a Q&A in Computerworld.

Both waves of reaction provide deep confirmation of my main finding—that the problems faced by female scientists, engineers, and technologists are enormously serious. These blogs and posts show that women around the country see SET workplace cultures as hostile, predatory and demeaning. They can hardly contain their disillusionment and despair. Take Jessica, Diane, and Anonymous:

“I work with ten forty-something men who work 12 hours a day, read tech magazines for fun, and bond at Hooters….If I counted the number of times I have been sexually harassed, you’d gasp.”
- Jessica

“I am the only woman in a technical position in my company. Many of [our clients] think I’m in the meetings to take notes for the men. Some even apologize for boring me with technical discussions, assuming I have no idea what they’re talking about. Imagine if men had to put up with this on top of the stress and pressures of an IT career!
- Diane

As a female in IT for over 10 years and managed to work my way to the executive level, I‘ve experienced sexual harassment on a quarterly basis. At all levels of the corporate ladder I was propositioned. Me, a married, never “fooled around” on my husband, Brooks Brother suit executive had to fight off male employees at every turn. A male superior even went so far as to place a bet with a male subordinate who would sleep with me first.
- Anonymous

Sadly (though predictably) “Anonymous” ended up quitting her job. She did manage “to walk out the door with self respect” having decided that she was not going to sleep her way to the top. “Looking at myself in the mirror every morning” was more important that making it to the C-suite. And so she joined the female exodus—the 52% of women who leave their jobs in SET ten years into promising careers in science and technology.

These blogs and posts do contain some threads of hope. Trixie reminds us that at least some SET companies are developing programs that support working mothers.

“When I quit my power job to move out of state and be closer to my family in preparation for adoption, the company graciously offered me a telecommuting position. Now 3 years later I telecommute at the Director level and have been offered a VP position. They couldn’t give me a daycare on-site but they did allow me to work from home and use limited daycare services. I applaud them for recognizing that a woman can be a mother and a worker if she so desires.”
- Trixie

Despite glimmerings of good news, in the hundreds of responses I have received to date despondency outweighs hope four to one.

One thing I’m sure of, there’s an urgent need for employers to absorb the following:

SET companies are suffering from talent constraints and they need to figure out how to retain female scientists, engineers and technologists who exist in large numbers (contrary to popular belief) but are abandoning their chosen fields in droves, largely because of the predatory workplace cultures described above. It’s time to take action. A place to start is taking a look at the 14 new company initiatives described in our Harvard Business Review report, The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology. Also please see our free Harvard Business Review article, Stopping the Exodus of Women in Science.