Study Finds Females Discouraged From Science Careers

By JOYCE GANNON
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


A new survey that attempts to pinpoint reasons why women and minorities are underrepresented in science, math and engineering fields found that many females and minorities were discouraged from pursuing careers in those areas even when they were college students.

The survey of 1,200 female and minority chemists and chemical engineers was conducted by Bayer Corp. to find out what barriers they encountered as students and in the workplace.

Of those surveyed, 40 percent said they had been discouraged at some point in their education and 44 percent said they were discouraged by college professors from entering science, math or technical careers.

The respondents gave low marks to the U.S. education system for how it engages girls and minorities in science. While 59 percent of those polled said they were interested in science before age 11, 68 percent said science is not emphasized as strongly as reading, writing and math. On average, those surveyed gave U.S. schools a grade of "D+" or "D" for how they nurture girls and minorities to pursue science, engineering and math careers.