Stereotypes: A female engineer is first and foremost the (token) woman—and only later, if at all, a skilled professional

Every year, billions of euros in revenue are lost—particularly in technical professions within the industrial sector—because too few women enter these fields. The core problem does not lie in a lack of talent. It lies in persistent gender stereotypes on the dominant male side, which have an impact from early childhood all the way up to the executive suite, as a study on women in STEM professions illustrates. In male-dominated STEM professional cultures, women may incur so-called “identity costs” when they are perceived primarily as representatives of their gender rather than as experts. The solution: more women in leadership—and more flexible work models…