Study of Access of Women Scientists and Engineers to Research Careers

在未来的20年里，要有比以往任何时候都大的比例的美国妇女（包括少数民族妇女和残疾妇女）加入到S/E劳动力中来，如果只是为了帮助阻止目前根据人口统计数据预计的S/E劳动力总数的下降。未来女科学家/工程师职业生涯的一个重要过渡阶段是紧接着的博士后阶段，在此期间，在参与科学/工程方面出现了严重的差别。之前试图理解这种人员流失的尝试只取得了部分成功。因此，我们将进行一项重大努力（基于我们在试点项目中的经验）来研究整个女性科学家/工程师群体，以及匹配的男性样本作为对照，所有这些人过去都曾获得过NSF和NRC的博士后奖学金。通过标准调查和分析方法获得的定量和定性数据将用于更充分地说明现有的障碍，并拟订和检验有助于指导改善或消除这些障碍的政策的主张。

A larger proportion than ever before of American women (including minority women and disabled women) will have to become available to join the S/E workforce during the next two decades, if only to help stem the decline in the total S/E workforce now expected on the basis of demographic data. An important transition phase in the careers of future women scientists/engineers is the immediate postdoctoral period, during which a serious differential in participation in S/E occurs. Previous attempts to understand such attritions have been only partly successful. We therefore shall undertake a major effort (building on our experience with a pilot project) to study the whole population of women scientists/ engineers, as well as matched samples of men as control, all of whom in the past received Postdoctoral Fellowships from NSF and NRC. Quantitative and qualitative data, obtained through standard survey and analysis methods, will be used to provide a fuller description of the existing barriers, and to formulate and test propositions that can help guide policy for their amelioration or removal.