Abstract of "The Science and Engineering Education Infrastructure"-Chapter 2
The education system is the most effective way to attract people into a science and engineering (S&E) career. Therefore, the Committee of Women in Science and Engineering (CWSE) targets the aspects of the S&E education infrastructure that can best increase the participation of women in S&E.
Studies done by the National Center for Education Statistics show that students initially expressing an interest in S&E studies, often switch to non-science or non-engineering fields. This was particularly true for females. Of all female freshmen enrolling in engineering programs in 1985, 35.6% dropped out of engineering during their sophomore year, compared with around 16% of the male freshmen in engineering majors. A 1986 survey shows that about half as many white females majored in S&E fields, compared to white males. Black females, however, majored in science, engineering or mathematics almost as often as black males. The latter data suggests that further study could probe cultural and sociological reasons for this result.
The S&E education infrastructure contains both formal and informal ways to attract and retain talented, qualified individuals into S&E careers.
The formal S&E education infrastructure consists of institutions providing the education to potential scientists and engineers. The 10 U.S. doctorate-granting institutions that awarded the most S&E doctorates during the past decade are:
- University of California at Berkeley
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign
- Stanford University
- Cornell University
- University of Michigan
- University of Minnesota-Minneapolis
- University of California at Los Angeles
- Purdue
Many of the same institutions that are successful in retaining female S&E graduate students to completion of doctorates, have also provided their undergraduate education in S&E fields.
The number of doctorates awarded to women who received undergraduate degrees from the same institution varies by field but the overall data confirms that women, particularly minority women, are somewhat less likely than men to attend the most prestigious research universities as either undergraduate or graduate students.
Financial aid is also a very important factor in recruiting and retaining able women in S&E. At the undergraduate level, scholarships made available to women in S&E studies often reinforce recruitment efforts. Undergraduate women are encouraged to continue their S&E studies, if they know financial support will be available for continued studies at the graduate level. At the graduate level, recruitment depends most primarily on the availability of financial support, and retention requires consistent, continuing support. However, women do not receive the same kinds and levels of financial aid as their male counterparts in S&E. Research indicates that women who are offered financial aid at the beginning of their undergraduate education are more likely to continue their studies in S&E.
Variations in Ph.D. attainment rates by S&E field are also highly correlated with the availability of financial support. The shrinking availability of research funds affects all graduate students, but women in graduate programs are especially impacted because of their traditional lack of assertiveness. Their dependency on a major advisor for financial support may force them to endure misuse or abuse, such as long hours in the laboratory, excessive teaching responsibilities, and/or extended stays in the graduate program.
Informal aspects of the education infrastructure include the media, parents, role models, and mentors. Informal efforts to recruit women into S&E fields often
- address the negative public image of scientists and engineers and the S&E fields.
- encourage precollege interest of young women in S&E majors and careers.
- involve parental and peers support.
- provide opportunities for female students to interact with scientists and engineers in academe, industry, and government who serve as role models and mentors.
Research indicates that effective male and female retention programs are:
- orientation programs for freshmen.
- remedial courses.
- career seminars.
- educational and career counseling.
- peer tutoring.
- research opportunities.
- cooperative and summer job programs.
- campus chapters of professional organizations such as the SWE.
- recognition awards and events.
- exit interviews with graduating seniors.
Two strategies that have proved effective are:
- the use of professional counselors.
- interactions with industrial scientists and engineers, in order to enhance the motivation of beginning S&E students.
Two factors that were noted to affect undergraduate retention are:
- academic performance during their freshman year.
- self-perceptions of math, science, and problem-solving ability.
The Role of the Media
Science, and engineering in general, has an "image problem." When students were asked about their image of scientists and engineers, they were viewed as traditionally masculine fields of study. Scientists and engineers also were pictured as "mad" scientists and "perpetrators of destruction." This is all counterproductive to the recruitment of female and male students into science and engineering, because that heavily depends on the perception of these fields as being positive career choices.
Parental Guidance
A study done by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
found the most effective precollege programs to increase females' participation in S&E involves parents. Parents were found to play an important role in the initial career choices of all students, and especially those of women.
Role Models and Mentors
Both male and female students are influenced by role models and faculty members. Opportunities to interact with S&E personnel have been central to "career day," and other precollege programs designed to spark young women's interests in S&E careers. However, female S&E faculty role models are most likely to be found among the untenured junior faculty, and these role models can seldom devote significant time commitments to recruiting and other student-faculty interactions.
Many top graduate S&E departments all across the country still do not have any tenured women faculty. Undergraduate women and men at large research universities are negatively affected by the lack of interactions with research oriented faculty in their departments. Such a phenomenon would affect women more than men, since women are usually less plugged into the career network. Some institutions address this issue through formal programs that:
- sensitize faculty to the needs of women students.
- follow the progress of women students throughout their enrollment.
- promote mentoring between undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral women in S&E.
The high attrition rate of women is seldom related solely to academic talent and achievement. The major factors are:
- climate of the workplace.
- competitiveness.
- subtle forms of sexual harassment.
- off-track assignments or limited responsibilities.
- lack of encouragement.
- lower salaries and promotion rates.
- inappropriate responses to reproductive hazards.
- lack of provision for child-care.
Women completing studies in traditionally masculine fields often encounter discrimination called "micro-inequities". For example, women who try to participate in classroom discussion are ignored, or interrupted more frequently than men by both faculty and male students. Faculty, teaching assistants, and graduate students from certain cultures may be less accustomed to the presence of female students in the classroom and laboratory, and may discriminate against women consciously or unconsciously.
The CWSE has concluded that it can play an effective role by:
- stimulating data collection to assess the effectiveness of educational programs.
- examining data on science majors graduating from historically black undergraduate colleges and universities to determine the effectiveness of HBCUs' S&E preparation programs.
- identifying features of effective programs.
- collecting data to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of college admissions policies.
- studying the career differences of men and women S&E doctorates.
- developing techniques to disseminate information to academic administrators on the importance of role models and mentors in the undergraduate and graduate S&E infrastructure.
- examining the incentives (financial support, etc..) available for potential S&E majors.
- conducting regional and/or national conferences on the effective partnerships in S&E between academe, industry, and government.
- planning strategic "awareness" sessions for decision makers in the print and visual media, in order to project a positive image of S&E in society.
Abstract by Juliet Midgley