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Harvard University president Larry Summers's comment that "innate differences" between men and women might explain the lack of top-level female professionals in science and engineering spurred a nationwide debate on the numbers and status of women in those fields. But are minorities any more visible than women in the sciences?
Building Engineering and Science Talent (BEST) offers some sobering statistics. According to the organization's Web site, in addition to women, African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, American Indians and workers with disabilities "comprise two-thirds of the overall workforce but hold only about one-quarter of the technical jobs that drive innovation."
A BEST report, The Quiet Crisis," reports that African Americans, who make up 12.8 percent of the US population, hold only 7.2 percent of science and engineering jobs requiring a bachelor's degree and 3.6 percent of professional jobs requiring a PhD. Hispanics/Latinos, 13 percent of the population, fare even worse: They hold 3.7 percent of bachelor's degree-level jobs and make up just 2.1 percent of the PhD/professional workforce. American Indians, 1.2 percent of the US population, barely register, with 0.3 percent of bachelor's-degree jobs and a statistically insignificant number of PhD/professional jobs.
Only Asian Americans are overrepresented. Although they comprise 4.5 percent of the US population, they hold 12.6 percent of all bachelor's-degree positions and a whopping 17.6 percent of PhD/professional jobs.
Few Minorities in the Pipeline
Why such low numbers? "It starts with the pipeline: Going through high school, college and then graduate school," says Refugio I. Rochin, executive director of the Santa Cruz, California-based Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). "For minorities, that pipeline thins out quickly."
Rochin adds that education, government and private-sector organizations are ineffective at recruiting and hiring minority scientists and engineers. "Some of the top-tier schools have multimillion-dollar research labs, paid for with federal funds, but their efforts to find minority candidates are faint," he explains. "Government spends billions of dollars on research, and they run big labs, too, but when you ask about their hiring rates or efforts at diversity, they can't show you numbers."
In private industry, fields like pharmaceuticals and chemicals rarely have minority scientists in charge. Even companies like Boeing, which Rochin says spends $80 million on diversity efforts annually, may not see their efforts pay off directly with more minority scientists and engineers. "Funding is always dependent on the economy," says Rochin. "And in today's global economy, diversity can be defined in a lot of ways. Some companies spread their money all over the globe."
Too Little Diversity at the Top
Science is like any other field, Rochin notes: People tend to hire other people who look like them. "Without minorities at the top or minority mentors and high-level career training, you're not going to get much movement for minorities," he says.
The old-boy network, another barrier to advancement for women in science and engineering, also hinders minorities. "We don't have a lot of Nobel Laureates, senior academicians or people who can identify and promote top-notch candidates," Rochin says. "We're not yet on review panels, which is where research gets funded and careers get promoted. At the lower levels, after 30 years of pushing and prodding, we've got an emerging population of successful students, lab assistants and researchers. Our challenge now is to springboard them into the top positions."
One scientific sector stands out for Hispanics/Latinos, African Americans and American Indians, says Rochin: Public health. These jobs, many well-paying, are available because public-health organizations reach out to minorities, hoping they will return to serve their communities of origin.
SACNAS is working hard to open science and engineering's doors to minorities. The organization has supported nearly 15,000 students with educational and career-advancement programs. SACNAS runs an internship program, an annual conference and mentoring programs for K-12 teachers, undergraduate and graduate students and promising PhDs.
Organizations allied with SACNAS include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Indian Health Service, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Energy, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Seagate Technology, IBM, HP and Agilent Technologies.
Additional Resources
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