Trend, Personal Stories Point To Age Bias In Science Jobs

BOUGHT OUT: Eileen Gorman lost her senior scientist position with DuPont when Dade International (now Dade Behring) purchased her research unit. She now runs her own consulting business. In retrospect, Eileen G. Gorman should have known. However, she had every reason not to worry. A chemist, she had survived constant restructuring--characterized by multiple name changes of her department--during her nearly 15 years with the Glasgow, Del.-based in vitro diagnostics unit of E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. She even managed to hold onto her position as a group leader and senior research associate when Dade International Inc.(now Dade Behring Inc.) purchased the research unit from DuPont in May of 1996. Then, less than a year later, in January 1997, a downsizing left her unemployed at 46. A recently released study from the National Science Foundation (NSF) suggests that Gorman's experience is more than an anomaly. The report, "Who Is Unemployed? Factors Affecting Unemployment Among Individuals With Doctoral Degrees In Science and Engineering," concludes that, while unemployment for Ph.D.'s in general has remained fairly low and stable, at about 1.8 percent from 1973 to 1993, the unemployment rate for older scientists like Gorman has begun to rise along with their age (C.F. Shettle, NSF-97-336). AGE GAP: While with the NSF, COSMOS Corp.'s Carolyn Shettle reported that unemployment rates rose for older scientists in rates for a similar 1973 population remained stable. Carolyn F. Shettle, who wrote the report while she was director of the doctoral data program at NSF's Division of Science Resource Studies, notes that this phenomenon seems especially striking when comparing the 1973 population with the 1993 population. The rise in unemployment rates for Ph.D.'s 45 and older in the 1993 population leaves her with one question, she told The Scientist: "Is there now some age discrimination going on at the older end?" Shettle, now a project director for COSMOS Corp., a social sciences research firm in Bethesda, Md., cautions that the age information represents one small aspect of the study, which mostly paints a bright employment picture for science and engineering Ph.D.'s, relative to individuals with less education. In the report, Shettle stopped short of the cause-and-effect implications a "Yes" answer to her age- discrimination question would yield. Instead, she wrote, "Being an older member of the labor force is more strongly associated with unemployment in 1993 than in 1973." Shettle says she's not sure exactly what factors are driving the long-term trend. Richard N. Zare, Chairman of the National Science Board and Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science at Stanford University, agrees with her that a complex set of factors probably contributes to it. "This topic needs to be studied further," Zare comments, adding that he wonders how specific the trend is to certain fields. A separate NSF study of recent Ph.D.'s indicates that, for this younger population at least, unemployment varies widely by field. Zare notes that the definition of employment in science has changed drastically over 20 years. Postdoc positions have become more prevalent. Fewer tenure-track positions exist in academia. Universities hire more part-time adjuncts as lecturers. Industry employs more Ph.D. scientists than academia does. Firms now restructure, merge and downsize with frightening frequency. Employment in fields such as biotechnology are often associated with cyclical economic trends as well as the vagaries of the investment community and uncertain federal grant money (Richard N. Zare, The Scientist, 12[1]:10, January 5, 1998). "It seems that the shift from academic employment to other sectors is a long-term trend influenced by many factors," Zare explains, "including reduction in federal defense R&D spending, reduced government funding of federal laboratories, a slowdown in academic hiring, the growth of more part-time academic positions as a way for universities to economize, and a long-term shift from academic to industrial employment in this country, particularly in small start-up companies." MONEY MATTERS: The Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology's Catherine Gaddy suspects the higher salaries of older scientists are a factor in their rising unemployment rate. Catherine Gaddy, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST), thinks that several of those factors probably contribute to unemployment among older scientists. However, the most dominant factor, she surmises, is money. She suspects that people making decisions on hiring and firing operate under an assumption: "Older workers are going to expect higher salaries." Gaddy notes that the assumption could be false in many instances. Nevertheless, it leads to the same result. Gorman guesses this was the case behind her dismissal, noting that salary and age are "highly correlated." Her years with the company resulted in a salary considerably higher than starting wages. She emphasizes that she also had a "corporate memory" of projects under way and projects to be undertaken. The company that purchased her division ostensibly didn't value that memory--or her years of experience--enough to continue paying her those wages. "When there's this much buying and selling of companies, new owners don't often understand the value of the senior people," Gorman states. "When you're consolidating organizations, decisions are made based on having to meet [corporate] financial objectives." The current business model, she thinks, almost encourages scenarios like her own. In that model, she explains, academic and government scientists perform basic science, then start-up companies or special research divisions adapt the basic science to a potential technology. When the technology shows promise, larger companies invest or buy the start-ups outright. Senior people are the most likely to be hurt in these transactions--unless they are the ones selling the start-ups, Gorman says. In 1973, the unemployment rate for doctorates was 0.9 percent for men and 3.9 percent for women; in 1993, it was 1.6 percent for men and 1.8 percent for women. Women doctorates who were married and had children experienced relatively higher unemployment rates than male doctorates who were married and had children in the home. The 1973 unemployment rate ranged from 1.0 percent for Ph.D.'s under 35 to 1.4 percent for Ph.D.'s 65 years and older. The 1993 rate ranges from 1.1 percent for Ph.D.'s under 35 and grows to 4.2 percent for Ph.D.'s over 65. The differences between the two studies becomes statistically significant at the 45-54 age category. At that point, the 1973 figures show 1.1 percent unemployment, while the 1993 rate is at about 1.5 percent. The gap increases at the 55-64 age category, with the 1973 rate at about 1.2 percent, while the 1993 rate climbs to about 2.1 percent. Source: National Science Foundation Norman Matloff, professor of computer science at the University of California at Davis, asserts that this scenario is most prevalent in the computer science industry. Matloff, who has received a good deal of publicity for raising the age-discrimination issue, including an editorial in The New York Times (N. Matloff, The New York Times, January 26, 1998, page 19). He has written a report, "Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage," charging that programmers over 50 face a 17 percent unemployment rate, despite employers claiming to be desperate to hire. The NSF report supports his view, he says, and also extends the claim by hinting that age discrimination is creeping into other scientific sectors. Matloff agrees that in the software industry especially, the higher rates of unemployment among older workers isn't about lack of skill, it's about saving money. "Employers are doing what comes naturally," Matloff asserts. Anita Borg, 49, hasn't personally noticed age discrimination in the computer industry. She left a research position with Digital Equipment Corp. in Palo Alto, Calif., on a Friday and started her new job at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) the following Monday. She serves as a member of the research staff there and is also the founding director for the nonprofit Institute for Women and Technology. "In the high-tech business, there's a premium put on one's willingness and ability to work start-up hours and have youthful energy." She hasn't heard any horror stories among her many over-45 high-tech friends, she adds. Still, she acknowledges some bias might exist. "There's a perception that only youthful people have youthful energy," she admits. She also admits that geography has been on her side. She still recalls a wave of Digital layoffs in Massachusetts from 1992 to 1996, while she was working for the company in Silicon Valley. When jobs disappear in one part of the country, however, even if opportunities exist here, older scientists may be less able than younger individuals to relocate, notes Catherine Didion, executive president of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) "Age is inversely proportional to mobility," Didion theorizes. Unemployed scientists may be married to spouses unwilling to give up their jobs, thus restricting the geographical scope of their job hunt. Often, they also must contend with issues such as selling their homes and uprooting entire families. Gorman grappled with this mobility issue while interviewing for jobs shortly after her dismissal. She recalls interviews when questioners would illegally ask her: "What are you going to do about your husband?" Obviously, she didn't feel comfortable about declining to answer that question. Ultimately, she decided to only consider prospects near her home--thus limiting her opportunities. "I decided I was not in a position where I could just pick up and move." "Who Is Unemployed? Factors Affecting Unemployment Among Individuals With Doctoral Degrees In Science and Engineering" http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf97336/htmstart.htm "What's Happening In The Labor Market For Recent Science and Engineering Ph.D. Recipients?" http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/issuebrf/sib97321.htm "Debunking the myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage" http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.html Another option for older scientists who become unemployed is taking a lower- paying position. The NSF report doesn't differentiate between full- and part-time employment, nor does it account for in-field and out-of-field employment. Howard Garrison, director of public affairs at the Federation of the American Society of Experimental Biology (FASEB) in Bethesda, Md., suspects that most older unemployed scientists find work eventually. "These are highly talented, highly motivated people," he says. "But they may not have the same level of jobs." Gorman decided she didn't want to take a lower-paying position, or uproot her family. So she eventually decided to take matters into her own hands and start a consulting business. Her firm, DNA Bridges Inc., formed in late 1997, has offices in both Wilmington, Del. and San Francisco. The company's goal is to provide business and technical advice to start-up biotech firms. She has some advice for older scientists, which she has already applied to herself: "There is no such thing as job security anymore. The only security is that which you make yourself."

Trend, Personal Stories Point To Age Bias In Science Jobs

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