Balancing the Equation

PRESS RELEASE

Women Lag in Technology & Engineering:
New Report Challenges Educators, Policy Makers
And Industry Executives to Advance Women and Girls

WASHINGTON, DC - Women and girls made significant progress in the sciences over the last two decades, particularly in medicine and the biological sciences. But women's gains have stalled - and in some cases eroded - in engineering and computer sciences, despite effective new programs to increase women's participation in these fields. Those are among the findings of a major new report released here today by the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) at a news conference featuring former astronaut Sally Ride, National Science Foundation Director Rita Colwell, Congresswoman Connie Morella (R-MD), Intel Science Talent Search winner Mariangela Lisanti, and other experts.

Balancing the Equation: Where Are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Technology? notes myriad reasons to advance women in the sciences, including the economic imperative to increase the technological and scientific literacy of America's workforce. At a time when U.S. industry cannot fill the openings for technically advanced jobs, women are grossly underutilized. Equally important, the report says, are the perspectives women bring to the sciences, often leading them to different decisions on allocating research dollars, targeting drug testing protocols, and developing technology to benefit communities.

The report analyzes strategies to attract women and girls to science and retain them in technological fields. It finds that efforts to open up scientific study and work have created new opportunities for women and minorities - but those efforts have been sporadic and disjointed. The report calls for a national commitment to remove the persistent barriers and glass ceilings facing women and girls in the sciences.

"This is a critical moment for the nation," said NCRW Executive Director Linda Basch. "In the last few decades, we have learned how to increase women's and girls' participation in science and technology. Now we need to use that knowledge. This report offers cause for cautious optimism. Change is possible, if complex - and certainly worth the effort. What is good for women and girls is also good for men and boys, and good for the country. We simply cannot continue to overlook the contributions of half our population. If we do, our society, our nation and our world will suffer."

Balancing the Equation reviews hundreds of programs that successfully increase the classroom, laboratory and workplace participation of girls, women and minorities in the sciences. It finds that women and girls excel in environments that encourage hands-on research, include mentoring and role models, and link science, technology and engineering to other disciplines and real world applications. It provides a blueprint to help leaders make the culture of scientific enterprise inclusive and advance institutional change, and an extensive resource guide to help educators, business leaders and policy makers promote women's and girls' advancement in the sciences. The report finds that:

• In 1996 women constituted 45 percent of the workforce in the U.S., but just 12 percent of science and engineering jobs in business and industry.



• There has been a marked decline in women's participation in college-level computer science study. In 1984, women earned 37 percent of undergraduate computer science degrees. In 1999, women earned fewer than 20 percent of computer science degrees.



• In 1996, women earned 53 percent of undergraduate degrees in biology and 46 percent of degrees in math and statistics, but just 19 percent of physics degrees and 18 percent of engineering degrees.



• From 1975 to 1992, three-quarters of African American women receiving Ph.Ds in biology came from historically black institutions.



• In 1999, 56 percent of Advanced Placement test takers were female, but 90 percent of computer science test takers and 78 percent of physics test takers were male.



• Less than ten percent of full professors in the sciences today are women, despite the fact that women have been earning more than one-quarter of the Ph.D.s in science for 30 years.



• Balancing work and family issues is a key concern for women scientists and engineers. Among those who won National Science Foundation professional awards, the percentage that cited balancing work and family as a top concern rose from 62 percent in 1997 to 77 percent in 1999.

• Teachers integrate science and technology learning with other disciplines such as history, literature and art.



• Communities invest in science and technology literacy at all levels, provide resources for teachers to develop their science careers, and actively encourage parents to promote their daughters' interest in science and technology.

• Higher education institutions replace gatekeeping courses in computing, physics and engineering with courses that invite students into these disciplines.



• Colleges and universities adjust science and engineering curricula to accommodate late bloomers and offer opportunities for cross-disciplinary study that includes science and technology.

• Universities look to liberal arts, women's colleges and historically black colleges and universities when recruiting students for graduate science and engineering departments. Women science Ph.D.s are more likely than their male counterparts to come from liberal arts institutions.



• Universities appoint women professors to influential committees where they will be visible as role models, and provide mentors to women graduate students, instructors, researchers and assistant professors early in their careers.

• Employers develop strategies to make the workplace more diverse, promote capable women to senior decision-making positions, provide role models for younger women employees, and offer more opportunities for networking and learning from mentors.



• Top executives institute and promote family-friendly policies and encourage employees to take advantage of those policies.



• Employers immediately assign new science and engineering graduates to "real" projects, rather than training exercises, to help recruits make the job transition and improve retention rates.