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Trends in education, employment of women and minorities
In January, Paul Thacker of Inside Higher Ed had an article on the representation of women and minorities in science and engineering, using data from the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology biennial report on Professional Women and Minorities. (This report is worth looking it - it was released in November 2006, and contains more tables than you can imagine).
Gender trends
Thacker notes positive long-term trends in degrees awarded to women in science in engineering.
Bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering awarded to women (percent)
- 1966: 24.8%
- 2004: 50.4%
Master’s degrees in science and engineering awarded to women (percent)
- 1966: 13.3%
- 2004: 43.6%
PhDs in science and engineering awarded to women (percent)
- 1966: 8%
- 2004: 36.4% - this is a factor of 4.5 increase!
In the workforce, the professions with the highest percentage of women in the workforce are psychologists (67.3%), biological scientists (48.7%), and chemists and materials scientists (35.3%). The professions with the lowest proportion of women are civil engineers (13.2%), engineering managers (9.5%), and mechanical engineers (5.8%). Overall, women make up 25% of the science, technology, and engineering workforce. The article goes on to say:
However, that proportion varied widely, with fewer women in occupations that require a high level of skill in math, such as engineering. Nathan E. Bell, an associate director with the commission and one of the report’s authors, said that women are avoiding those fields. “The strange thing is that at the high school level, women are prepared in math,” he said. “So it’s not that they are not prepared, but something is happening during enrollment and in college and they making different choices for some reason.”
We are not surprised that women make “different choices for some reason”, given the not-so-friendly climate for women in many science and engineering fields.
Race statistics
Things aren’t looking as good for racial minorities. The number below are for degrees awarded in 2003-2004 in science and engineering. Hispanic representation:
- 14% of US population
- 7.3% of bachelor’s degrees
- 4.3% of master’s degrees
- 2.7% of PhDs
African American representation:
- 13% of US population
- 8.4% of bachelor’s degrees
- 6.3% of master’s degrees
- 2.8% of PhDs
Native American representation:
- <1% of US population
- <1% of degrees
These numbers show a dramatically leaky pipeline for racial minorities: only slightly more than a third of Hispanics and African Americans who have bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering go on to get PhDs. Apparently minorities also “make different choices for some reason.”