Abstract:

Women are under-represented in the field of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET).
This low female participation is due to both gender stereotypes and lack of information for young-women on choosing a career in SET. The result is that young women are less prepared to participate in an advanced technological labour market thus the ‘silicon ceiling’ makes its presence felt. Participation of women in SET on an equal footing with their male counterparts is an issue that needs to be addressed at an early age and certainly at the stage of choosing a profession, usually at high-school level. The paper proposed will look at the reasons behind low female participation in the field of SET, the pre-existing stereotypes that reinforce male dominance in the workplace and the lack or limited information on choosing a career. It will also discuss ways of overcoming the above obstacles by focusing on good practices and policy measures that need to be adopted by government and relevant stakeholders in order to address the problems leading to the ‘silicon ceiling’.