NSF Employment Study Confirms Issues Facing Women, Minorities

NO PROBLEMS? AWIS’s Catherine Didion comments that women often are not willing to acknowledge impediments to advancement. Women and underrepresented minorities-African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans-generally are paid lower salaries and occupy fewer supervisory positions than their white, male counterparts in industry, according to a recent study conducted by the National Science Foundation. The study also sheds light on the issues that women and minorities say often impede t

Edward Silverman

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NO PROBLEMS? AWIS’s Catherine Didion comments that women often are not willing to acknowledge impediments to advancement.

Women and underrepresented minorities-African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans-generally are paid lower salaries and occupy fewer supervisory positions than their white, male counterparts in industry, according to a recent study conducted by the National Science Foundation. The study also sheds light on the issues that women and minorities say often impede their chances of entering or advancing in the workplace. Women, for instance, report fears that their careers may be incompatible with raising a family. Minorities say it's hard to secure high-level jobs when they lack sufficient experience or education to compete.

The results, reported in "Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 1996" (National Science Foundation, NSF-96-311, 1996), revealed a host of discrepancies in education and salary among different groups. The nearly 300-page report (available on the Internet at ...

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