Preventing soft skill decay among early-career women in STEM during COVID-19: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention

Julia L. Melin and Shelley J. Correll
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Julia L. Melin: a Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;; b VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
Shelley J. Correll: a Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;; b VMware Women's Leadership Innovation Lab, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022, vol. 119, issue 32, e2123105119

Abstract: Women leave science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at higher rates than men do. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this problem. As companies emerge from the pandemic, interventions that prevent the gender gap from widening are critical for retaining a diverse STEM workforce. We evaluate an intervention to improve women’s confidence in their soft skills, an important predictor of workplace retention among women. We leverage rare longitudinal data collected from biotechnology employees immediately before and during the pandemic. Early-career women in the intervention experienced significant gains in their perceived soft skills, while similarly situated women experienced a decline. Furthermore, soft skill improvements were associated with significant increases in retention, suggesting the importance of soft skill development for early-career women post-pandemic.

Keywords: gender; soft skills; COVID-19; hybrid and remote work; online interventions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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