Women in Science, Math, and Engineering

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Women in Science, Math, and Engineering

The statistics can be somewhat startling, while women receive 56% of BA degrees in the United States, they receive only 37% of the Science, Mathematics, and Engineering (SME) bachelor degrees (Chang, 1). As scary as the statistics on women are, they only point to an even bigger problem among all SME majors. According to one study, there is a 40% decline in the number of undergraduate science majors between the first and senior year of college (Didon, 336). Another study found that about 50% of the students who enter college in SME majors will change their major in two years (Change, 1). In a study of Hispanic American women who declared physical science or mathematics majors, 50% drop out within the first grading period (Ortiz, 1). The lack of SME majors has often been blamed on America’s high schools or even elementary schools, with university professors claiming students are not encouraged to consider science careers or are unprepared by their high school teachers. The statistics tell another story, no matter which specific numbers you consider, 50% in two years or 40% in their college careers, students are getting turned off from SME careers while in college, not high school. And the problem isn’t just with women; men are fleeing the sciences as well.

This decline in SME majors couldn’t be coming at a worse time. Studies show the U.S. will need 1.9 millions science workers over the next ten years (Chang, 1). All SME fields, especially physics, saw a rise in prestige, funding, demand, and research areas during the middle of the twentieth century. The space race was a major boost to the sciences as America saw the importance of a scientific education and scientific research. Ma...

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...h Effective Mentoring. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, 1996.

Farrell, Elizabeth F. “Engineering a Warmer Welcome for Female Students.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. February 22, 2002. students p 31.

Ortiz, Flora Ida. “The Recruitment and Retention Patterns of Hispanic American Women in College. A paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (Montreal, Canada, April 11-15, 1983).

Seymour, Elaine. “’The Problem Iceberg’ in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education. Student Explanations for High Attrition Rates.” Journal of College Science Teaching. 21, 4. February 1992, p 230-238.

Seymour, Elaine and Nancy Hewitt. Talking About Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences. Boulder: Westview Press. 1997.

Tobias, Shelia. They’re Not Dumb, They’re Different. Tuscon, AZ: Research Corp. 1990.

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