This is my first ever guest blog post. Take it away Hazel Garcia.

Though the gender gap narrows by the year, there remains a noticeable lack of balance in the professional workplace. This gap reflects in everything from gender-based pay scale discrepancies to the ratio of women to men in the workforce. Interestingly, the gap varies by region, though it significantly impacts the professional gender balance all fifty states.

The gender gap displays quite prominently in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, despite a growing number of young female graduates who carry all of the qualifications that their male counterparts possess. Still, highly qualified female candidates in STEM fields frequently find themselves passed over in favor of similarly, or even less qualified male candidates.

Despite overwhelming evidence showing the harm done to the companies themselves by gender discrimination, corporations around the world persist in overlooking qualified candidates based on gender. Corporate investments can take many forms, and the active pursuit of the most highly qualified candidates, regardless of gender, should rank highly in simple methods to improve the bottom line.

Instead, many female graduates in STEM fields find continued problems in breaking into the fields they spent years studying and preparing for. Having so many top-notch professionals sitting around at home and scrounging for ways to make an extra few dollars represents a tragic waste of resources.

Analyzing the geographic differences in the gender imbalance raises some interesting questions, as the data shows several clear, regional trends. With no doubt countless variables contributing, it’s hard to argue with the larger gaps in regions known to hold strongly patriarchal traditions, which also tend to correlate with strongly religious regions of the country.

Take a look at the infographic here. The strong possibility that you’re overlooking the ideal candidate for that new position, because she happens to be female, should present significant motivation to reassess hiring practices.

Thank you Hazel.

This guest post came about through a few emails we exchanged regarding some of my posts earlier regarding women in technology. Hazel showed me what she’s been working on and it dove-tailed so nicely with my own attempts at learning about data analysis, interest in understanding what’s going on with women in technology, etc., that when she offered to write something up, I couldn’t turn her down (like I usually do, and will return to doing, don’t get ideas).

I really did find this information fascinating and I wanted to share. Thanks again Hazel.

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