Abstract

The case ‘Gender Discrimination in STEM – Wendy Johnstone’s Initiatives to Stem it’ is about gender discrimination and lack of diversity in STEM and the initiatives taken by Wendy Johnstone (Wendy) to overcome it. The case starts off with Wendy’s observations on gender discrimination when she started her career. The challenges faced by Wendy at her workplace led her to champion the cause of gender equity and inclusion in the workplace in the organizations in which she worked. Lack of women’s representation in leadership roles in STEM was another area of concern which Wendy tried to address at the workplace. The case details the career growth of Wendy over the years and her associations with the various organizations that help mitigate gender discrimination and lack of inclusion of women at the workplace. The case also dwells upon the gender discrimination in STEM and leadership across the world with some interesting statistics. Wendy’s initiatives toward inclusion and countering gender diversity at Salesforce and Zendesk are discussed in detail. The case ends with the future initiatives to be taken by organizations to ensure increased representation of women in leadership roles. It remains to be seen whether Wendy’s initiatives will bring forth the required changes in the approach of other organizations toward gender diversity, inclusion, and promoting women in leadership roles.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concept of diversity and inclusion at the workplace.
• Analyze the impact of gender discrimination on the advancement of women to top positions in the corporate world.
• Understand the various measures that can be taken by organizations to ensure gender diversity and inclusion at the workplace.
• Understand the importance of women leadership role models in motivating the future generation of women.

Keywords

Gender discrimination; Diversity; Inclusion; Women Leadership; STEM; Leadership Role Models; Salesforce; Zendesk; Allyship; Networking; Career Opportunities; Female Leaders; Women Empowerment; Bias;