Report Reveals Ongoing Gaps in STEM for Women, Minorities, Disabled

Author: National Science Foundation
Published: 2017/01/31 - Updated: 2025/05/16
Publication Details: Peer-Reviewed, Data & Statistical Analysis
Category Topic: Disability Statistics - Academic Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: This report, authored by the National Science Foundation's National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, offers the U.S. federal government's most comprehensive analysis of the participation of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in science and engineering (S&E) education and employment. Mandated by Congress, the biennial report draws on extensive national data to highlight persistent under-representation of women, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian or Alaska Native individuals, and people with disabilities in both S&E education and the workforce. While women have achieved parity with men in educational attainment, significant disparities remain in S&E employment, with representation varying widely by field.

The report also details how minorities and persons with disabilities are less likely to be found in S&E occupations, and provides nuanced data on enrollment patterns, degree attainment, and employment status across demographic groups. This authoritative resource is vital for policymakers, educators, and advocates seeking to understand and address barriers to participation in STEM, making it especially useful for those working to support inclusion for people with disabilities, seniors, and other underrepresented populations - Disabled World (DW).

Introduction

The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) announced the release of the 2017 Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering (WMPD) report, the federal government's most comprehensive look at the participation of these three demographic groups in science and engineering education and employment.

Main Content

The report shows the degree to which women, people with disabilities and minorities from three racial and ethnic groups - black, Hispanic and American Indian or Alaska Native - are underrepresented in science and engineering (S&E). Women have reached parity with men in educational attainment but not in S&E employment. Underrepresented minorities account for disproportionately smaller percentages in both S&E education and employment

Congress mandated the biennial report in the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act as part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) mission to encourage and strengthen the participation of underrepresented groups in S&E.

"An important part of fulfilling our mission to further the progress of science is producing current, accurate information about the U.S. STEM workforce," said NSF Director France Córdova. "This report is a valuable resource to the science and engineering policy community."

NSF maintains a portfolio of programs aimed at broadening participation in S&E, including;

• ADVANCE: Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers;
• LSAMP: the Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation;
• NSF INCLUDES, which focuses on building networks that can scale up proven approaches to broadening participation.

The digest provides highlights and analysis in five topic areas:

• enrollment
• field of degree
• occupation
• employment status
• early career doctorate holders

That last topic area includes analysis of pilot study data from the Early Career Doctorates Survey, a new NCSES product. NCSES also maintains expansive WMPD data tables, updated periodically as new data become available, which present the latest S&E education and workforce data available from NCSES and other agencies. The tables provide the public access to detailed, field-by-field information that includes both percentages and the actual numbers of people involved in S&E.

"WMPD is more than just a single report or presentation," said NCSES Director John Gawalt. "It is a vast and unique information resource, carefully curated and maintained, that allows anyone (from the general public to highly trained researchers) ready access to data that facilitate and support their own exploration and analyses."

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Key findings from the new digest include:

• The types of schools where students enroll vary among racial and ethnic groups. Hispanics, American Indians or Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders are more likely to enroll in community colleges. Blacks and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders are more likely to enroll in private, for profit schools.
• Since the late 1990s, women have earned about half of S&E bachelor's degrees. But their representation varies widely by field, ranging from 70 percent in psychology to 18 percent in computer sciences.
• At every level - bachelor's, master's and doctorate - underrepresented minority women earn a higher proportion of degrees than their male counterparts. White women, in contrast earn a smaller proportion of degrees than their male counterparts.
• Despite two decades of progress, a wide gap in educational attainment remains between underrepresented minorities and whites and Asians, two groups that have higher representation in S&E education than they do in the U.S. population.
• White men constitute about one-third of the overall U.S. population; they comprise half of the S&E workforce. Blacks, Hispanics and people with disabilities are underrepresented in the S&E workforce.
• Women's participation in the workforce varies greatly by field of occupation.
• In 2015, scientists and engineers had a lower unemployment rate compared to the general U.S. population (3.3 percent versus 5.8 percent), although the rate varied among groups. For example, it was 2.8 percent among white women in S&E but 6.0 percent for underrepresented minority women.

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Attribution/Source(s): This peer reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by National Science Foundation and published on 2017/01/31, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.