Given the changing gender demographics on college campuses, with women soon to make up 60% of those earning bachelor’s degrees, the issue of why fewer women choose math/engineering/science majors, stick with those majors through graduation and then pursue long careers in those areas, now matters a lot to the economy, as I laid out in this previous post. Eduwonkette then challenged the numbers, arguing that women are making progress in taking on science majors.

Of course they are, as the graphic that accompanied one of my editorials linked in that post illustrated. That modest progress, however, seems outstripped by the rapidity of the campus gender trends. Look at what happened to engineering majors in California public universities when those systems swung toward two-thirds female grads.

Plus, completing a science/engineering major doesn’t necessarily lead to a long career in that field. Why do so many women drop out or secure fewer patents than their male counterparts in those fields? The Kauffman Foundation is doing some interesting work on encouraging entrepreneurship among female researchers. But female scientists will never become science entrepreneurs if they drop out of the field entirely. This article from today’s Chronicle of higher Education gets at some of those reasons:

The paper, produced by the Center for Work-Life Policy, found that more than half of women who enter science, engineering, and technology careers drop out. The paper’s authors identified several “antigens” in corporate sci/tech cultures that force women out: macho work environments, feelings of isolation or career stagnation, cultures that encourage risk-taking, and time-intensive positions that compromise family responsibilities. The study also analyzes 13 company initiatives that try to combat these pressures.

Tags: female majors, science

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