Building Inclusive STEM Workplaces in Scotland: Reflecting on an inspiring day of conversation, collaboration and action

In May, Equate Scotland brought together partners, employers, policymakers and industry leaders from across Scotland’s STEM ecosystem for a landmark event. The launch of our General Inclusion Practices in Scottish STEM Organisations (GIPSO) research report marked not only a significant milestone for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in Scotland’s STEM sector, but also the beginning of our 20th anniversary celebrations.

Across the day, one message came through clearly. Progress has been made. But the pace of change must accelerate. More importantly, intention must now turn into meaningful, measurable action.

Grounding the conversation – Why this matters

Opening the event, Equate Scotland Director Dilraj Sokhi-Watson set the tone with a powerful reflection on the lived reality of women working in STEM.

She spoke candidly about the pressure many women experience to present a particular version of themselves in the workplace, often adopting an “alpha” persona to succeed, while simultaneously balancing competing responsibilities beyond work.

It was a reminder that inclusion is not simply about representation. It is about how people experience work every day, whether they feel they belong, and whether workplace cultures and structures genuinely enable them to thrive.

As Equate Scotland celebrates 20 years of championing gender equality in STEM, Dilraj reflected on both the progress achieved and the persistence of many of the same challenges. While opportunities for women have expanded, systemic barriers continue to shape their experiences and careers.

“Inclusion is not simply about representation. It is about how people experience work every day.”

What the GIPSO research tells us

Dr Athina Frantzana then presented the key findings from the GIPSO research, offering a clear picture of how equality, diversity and inclusion is being approached across Scotland’s STEM organisations.

The research paints a nuanced picture. There is clear recognition across the sector that EDI matters, and many organisations have introduced policies, flexible working arrangements and initiatives designed to create more inclusive workplaces. However, the findings also reveal a significant gap between commitment and implementation.

Leadership commitment does not always translate into action

While many organisations recognise the importance of EDI, leadership across the sector remains far from representative. More than 75% of CEOs and organisational leaders surveyed were men, highlighting the continued lack of gender diversity at the highest levels of decision-making.

The research also found that nearly one-third of respondents had experienced active resistance to EDI initiatives, demonstrating that creating inclusive workplaces is not simply a matter of introducing new policies. Cultural change requires visible leadership, sustained commitment and engagement across every level of an organisation.

Measuring progress remains one of the biggest challenges

Perhaps the most significant finding was the lack of meaningful monitoring and evaluation.

Nearly 37% of organisations reported having no mechanisms in place to monitor EDI data, making it difficult to understand whether initiatives are improving employee experiences or delivering lasting change.

The research concluded that many organisations currently lack the capacity to:

collect meaningful EDI data;
monitor workforce experiences; and
evaluate whether interventions are achieving their intended outcomes.

Without robust evidence, organisations risk investing significant time and resources without knowing what is genuinely making a difference.

GIPSO at a glance

📊 37% of organisations have no mechanism to monitor EDI progress.

👔 More than 75% of CEOs or organisational heads surveyed were male.

🛡️ Almost 50% of organisations did not have formal safeguarding measures against discrimination and harassment.

🗣️ Two-thirds of SMEs did not have anonymous reporting mechanisms in place.

⚠️ Nearly one-third of respondents reported experiencing active resistance to EDI initiatives.

Embedding inclusion into organisational culture

The research also found that inclusion is still not fully embedded into organisational culture.

Policies often exist on paper but are difficult to translate into everyday practice. This can result in:

reduced leadership engagement;
limited staff buy-in;
resistance to inclusion initiatives; and
policies that fail to influence day-to-day behaviours and decision-making.

The findings were particularly striking around workplace safety and trust. Almost half of organisations surveyed did not have formal safeguarding measures against discrimination and harassment, while two-thirds of SMEs lacked anonymous reporting mechanisms, making it harder for employees to raise concerns with confidence.

Taken together, the findings reinforce an important shift in thinking.

Gender inequality in STEM is no longer simply about attracting women into the sector. It is equally about retaining talent, supporting progression, creating psychologically safe workplaces and embedding inclusion into the everyday culture of organisations.

That conclusion set the stage for the panel discussion, which explored how employers can move beyond good intentions and begin turning evidence into meaningful action.

Panel discussion: Organisational Culture and Leadership

Following the research presentation, Dr Athina Frantzana was joined by a panel bringing together expertise from business, policy, employment law, financial services and Scotland’s SME community.

The discussion featured:

Hayden Feeney, People Change Director at Centrica Retail
Lindsey Millen, Head of Policy and Development at Close the Gap
Eleonora Vanello, Director of Peer Works at Prosper
Campbell MacCormick, Vice President, Cyber Data Risk & Resilience at Morgan Stanley
Sarah Gilzean, Partner at Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP

Together, they explored how organisations can move beyond ambition and begin embedding inclusion into leadership, culture and business strategy.

Turning data into action

One of the strongest themes throughout the discussion was the gap between policy and practice. While many organisations have EDI strategies and commitments in place, the challenge is embedding them into everyday decision-making and measuring whether they are making a meaningful difference.

Drawing on Centrica’s experience, Hayden Feeney shared how leadership ownership transformed the organisation’s approach. Rather than treating EDI as an HR initiative, inclusion became a business priority with measurable objectives built into leadership performance.

He also shared a positive example of what is possible through intentional action. Centrica recently welcomed an apprenticeship cohort with an equal gender split, demonstrating that targeted recruitment initiatives can successfully broaden representation.

However, he cautioned that recruitment is only one part of the picture.

“Everybody was high-fiving about a 50:50 apprenticeship cohort, but we were seeing three times the attrition rate for female engineers.”

Hayden Feeney, Centrica Retail

That realisation prompted the organisation to shift its focus from recruitment alone towards understanding retention, progression and employee experience. It echoed one of the central messages of the GIPSO research.

Building cultures, not just policies

From the SME perspective, Eleonora Vanello highlighted that policies alone cannot create inclusive workplaces.

Many organisations have comprehensive employee handbooks filled with policies, yet those policies often remain disconnected from day-to-day working practices.

As she observed:

“Culture is made of values plus behaviours.”

Eleonora Vanello, Prosper

For SMEs in particular, where dedicated HR resources are often limited, inclusion needs to be visible in leadership behaviours, recruitment, induction, decision-making and everyday interactions. Culture cannot simply be documented. It must be lived.

Inclusion is everyone’s responsibility

Campbell MacCormick reflected on the importance of allyship and engaging people who may not initially see themselves as part of the EDI conversation.

Drawing on his experience within Morgan Stanley and the wider technology sector, he described allyship as an active practice rather than simply an identity. Creating inclusive workplaces requires continual learning, listening and challenging assumptions, not only from leaders, but from colleagues across an organisation.

Lindsey Millen reinforced this message, highlighting that EDI is too often viewed as either an HR function or a “women’s issue”. Instead, organisations need to recognise inclusion as fundamental to business success.

She encouraged employers to move beyond compliance by demonstrating visible leadership, creating clear accountability and challenging long-standing assumptions about the “ideal worker”. Sustainable change, she argued, happens when inclusion becomes everyone’s responsibility.

A changing policy landscape

Sarah Gilzean highlighted the rapidly evolving legal and policy landscape shaping workplace inclusion, particularly around gender equality, workplace health and harassment.

From spring 2027, employers with 250 or more employees are expected to publish gender pay gap action plans alongside their reporting and include specific actions to support employees experiencing menopause.

These new requirements are designed to move organisations beyond reporting towards measurable, outcome-driven action.

The panel reflected that this aligns closely with the GIPSO findings. While many organisations recognise the importance of EDI, progress is often limited by weak monitoring, inconsistent implementation and a lack of measurable targets.

Rather than viewing these changes as another compliance exercise, the panel encouraged organisations to see them as an opportunity to:

Embed EDI into core business strategy.
Strengthen accountability and transparency.
Establish meaningful measures of progress.
Take a more holistic approach to inclusion, including gendered health and employee wellbeing.

Sarah also encouraged organisations to view harassment as a workplace health and safety issue, embedding prevention, training and effective reporting mechanisms into organisational culture rather than relying solely on written policies.

Recommendations: From intention to implementation

The panel discussion reinforced that while the challenges facing Scotland’s STEM sector are complex, they are not insurmountable. The GIPSO research identifies practical, evidence-based actions that organisations and policymakers can take to create more inclusive workplaces.

For STEM organisations, the recommendations focus on embedding inclusion into everyday business practice rather than treating it as a standalone initiative. This includes:

Embedding gender mainstreaming into organisational strategy and decision-making, ensuring that policies, processes and programmes are designed with inclusion in mind from the outset.
Improving data collection and monitoring so organisations can better understand workforce experiences, identify barriers and evaluate whether interventions are delivering meaningful outcomes.
Building inclusive workplace cultures by strengthening leadership commitment, encouraging employee engagement and creating psychologically safe environments where everyone can thrive.
Setting realistic and measurable EDI objectives, moving beyond statements of intent towards clear actions and accountability.
Accessing external expertise and training, recognising that many organisations, particularly SMEs, benefit from specialist support to build capacity and accelerate progress.

The research also recognises that employers cannot drive change alone. Policymakers have an equally important role to play in creating the conditions for long-term progress. The report recommends:

strengthening national reporting requirements and improving the collection of workforce data;
providing targeted support to SMEs, where resources and specialist expertise are often limited; and
promoting and sharing examples of effective practice across Scotland’s STEM sector to encourage learning and collaboration.

Taken together, these recommendations provide a practical roadmap for moving beyond good intentions. They reinforce one of the strongest messages to emerge throughout the event: creating inclusive STEM workplaces requires sustained commitment from employers, policymakers and the wider sector working together.

Closing reflections: A shared responsibility

Closing the event, Stewart McKinlay reflected on both the progress that has been made over the past two decades and the responsibility we all share for shaping what comes next.

He opened with a memorable analogy about a university essay that became famous not for its content, but for its distinctive cover. For years, students bought copies of the same essay, convinced it would guarantee top marks. When one student replaced the worn cover with a new one, despite submitting essentially the same essay, the grade dropped significantly. The lesson was simple. The appearance had changed, but the substance had not.

Stewart suggested that organisations can sometimes fall into a similar pattern when approaching equality, diversity and inclusion. New initiatives are launched, policies are refreshed and strategies are rebranded, creating the impression of progress. Yet unless organisations address the underlying barriers and change the lived experiences of their people, very little has fundamentally changed.

His message echoed one of the central themes of the GIPSO research: success should not be measured by the number of policies written or initiatives launched, but by the outcomes they achieve.

At the same time, Stewart was keen to recognise how far Scotland has come. Reflecting on his own involvement with Equate Scotland since 2008, he recalled a time when women accounted for fewer than 3% of engineering apprenticeship applications. Today, thanks to the collective efforts of employers, educators, industry bodies and organisations like Equate Scotland, there are many more women entering engineering careers and receiving national recognition for their achievements.

This reflected a theme raised earlier in the panel discussion, where Hayden Feeney shared Centrica’s recent achievement of recruiting a 50:50 apprenticeship cohort. These examples demonstrate that targeted action can make a real difference.

However, Stewart also reminded the audience that recruitment is only part of the challenge. As Scotland faces growing skills shortages, an ageing workforce and increasing competition for talent, organisations cannot afford to overlook large sections of the workforce. Supporting women returners, retaining experienced professionals and creating inclusive workplaces are no longer simply equality objectives. They are economic necessities.

He encouraged organisations to make use of Equate Scotland’s expertise, sharing his own experience of using Equate’s guidance to review recruitment language. That simple change led to a 14% increase in female applicants to the Engineering Academy, demonstrating how practical, evidence-based interventions can deliver measurable results.

Stewart closed with one final challenge. Equate Scotland, now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, has grown from a small organisation into an established leader in advancing inclusion across Scotland’s STEM sector. But its future success depends on collective action.

Returning to his book analogy, he reminded the audience that we are all now co-authors of the next chapter. Rather than repeating familiar stories, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to write something better together.

“We are all co-authors of that next book. Let’s make it a bestseller. Let’s make it have serious impact.”

Stewart McKinlay, Co-chair, Equate Scotland Steering Committee

Dr Carol Marsh OBE reinforced this message in her closing remarks, reflecting on the progress she has witnessed during her own career and through Equate Scotland’s work over the past two decades.

While there are more women entering STEM careers than ever before, she highlighted the challenge that continues to hold the sector back.

“There’s more women coming into industry. But the sad fact is there’s more women leaving.”

Dr Carol Marsh OBE, Co-chair, Equate Scotland Steering Committee

She challenged the audience to think beyond recruitment and focus on retention, asking how organisations can create workplaces where women not only enter STEM, but choose to build long-term careers. It was a fitting conclusion to a day centred on turning research into meaningful, lasting action.

Looking ahead

The launch of the General Inclusion Practices in Scottish STEM Organisations (GIPSO) report was more than the publication of new research. It brought together evidence, lived experience and practical insight from across Scotland’s STEM community, reinforcing that creating inclusive workplaces requires sustained commitment, collaboration and action.

As Equate Scotland celebrates its 20th anniversary, the conversations sparked by GIPSO are only the beginning.

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