Women in the Chemical Workforce A Workshop Report to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable (2000) / Chapter Skim
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An Oddity No Longer: Women Scientists in Industry
An Oddity No Longer: Women Scientists in Industry
Pages 58-73
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From page 58... ...
"An Oddity No Longer" is an apt title for this discussion, as the statistics and some of the anecdotal evidence I'll be presenting amply demonstrate. This will be a balanced picture, because by no means does the industrial world have the perfect solutions to attracting, retaining, and promoting outstanding women scientists.
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From page 59... ...
Perhaps a slightly clearer indicator of the increasing number of females receiving science and engineering degrees can be seen in Figure 5.5, which shows women as a percentage of the total chemical engineering degrees granted. The numbers steadily increase over the years, so that today's graduating classes of chemical engineers are around 30 to 35 percent female.
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From page 60... ...
The share of chemistry degrees earned by women shows a similar trend (Figure 5.6~. We see a continuing increase in the number of women receiving chemistry degrees at all degree levels.
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From page 61... ...
If we've had a full pool of talent for 20 years, then a snapshot survey should show women at all levels of industrial jobs today. Even with some attrition, we should see women attaining the upper echelons of career paths, whether that is in management or in the technical track.
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From page 62... ...
Also, current trends in degrees granted and numbers of people employed in the science and engineering fields indicate that the shortfall of trained scientists and engineers that was so highly touted several years ago is not going to occur. While record numbers of science and engineering professionals will begin retiring as the baby boomers hit retirement age, there seem to be sufficient numbers of people entering these fields to replace them, so the age equation seems to be pretty much in balance.
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From page 63... ...
More than half of marriages in 1996 were dual-income couples, and they made up 45 percent of the workforce. These changes have driven changes in many other areas as wellbenefits policies and growth industries such as day care, Internet shopping, and the like.
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From page 64... ...
And some industrial recruiting efforts target specific schools. Industry has also recognized the need for support structures, with new-hire orientation programs, communications classes, and, in some cases, special programs for the needs of dual-career couples.
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From page 65... ...
A) ° 60 40 20 o 65 fUerFMS M__ Hi,` ~ Women- PhD _~ ~< Women-MS Men-BS Women-BS 2to4 Stop 10to 14 15to 19 20to24 25to29 30to34 35to39 40+ Years Since BS FIGURE 5.7 Industrial salaries by gender.
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From page 66... ...
Overall, the trends in the early years are very positive, with women holding their own in terms of salary. The salary divergence gradually creeps in as years of experience increase, and it gets quite noticeable in every degree category about 15 to 20 years past the B.S.
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From page 67... ...
These sessions were intended to instill in participants an appreciation for other perspectives and to begin to highlight some of the more subtle forms of discrimination that exist, to bring to the surface some of those filters that resulted in the famous glass ceilings, and to become more aware of subtle barriers to success that exist in organizations, work groups, and individuals. While in most cases this training was well received, the increased focus at the same time on both diversity issues and sexual harassment had some negative ramifications in the industrial workplace.
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From page 68... ...
People who pursue commercial business management tend not to classify themselves as technologists and so are lost to ACS salary surveys and the like. More and more people are achieving some semblance of their goals only to find out that "corporate America" isn't really what they want to do with their lives, and so they drop out to pursue other careers.
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From page 69... ...
The critical issue today is how to retain talented scientists in industry. Atmosphere and other more tangible things that make up an organization such as policies, external forces, and demographics are all key indicators for retention that should be taken into account when reviewing organizations for their success in retaining talented women.
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From page 70... ...
I really believe that in the future you will see a more realistic picture of the women chemists and what they have accomplished in a 20- or 30-year period. I know a lot of senior colleagues with wives who have earned a chemistry degree but have never practiced chemistry because they chose to follow their husbands to different locations to fulfill their husbands' careers.
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From page 71... ...
Even in places where there are no glass ceilings, there is still a sticky floor holding people back. You were talking about people at the entry level let's call it the bachelor' s-degree level that industry pulls out of the pipeline into industrial positions in chemistry, the people that you are actively recruiting.
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From page 72... ...
Faith Morrison, Michigan Technological University: Actually, almost the same question had been rolling around in my head, but it's a little different because I think the answer to your question is that they are underemployed in some parallel field. I can name you five black women chemical engineers from our institution who were unable to find an entry-level job in the last 5 years.
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From page 73... ...
Retention is a particularly acute problem for chemical engineering at least; I saw a statistic a couple of years ago indicating that chemical engineering had the lowest rate of participation in the engineering workforce by its women graduates. It was only half, and this was the lowest of all engineering fields.
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