Race and Gender Variation in STEM Employment and Retention: A Cohort Analysis Using SESTAT Data

女性、黑人和西班牙裔在科学和工程职业中的持续不足阻碍了增加科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）劳动力规模的努力，这是政策制定者所关注的问题，他们认为科学和科学家对美国经济的未来至关重要。现有的研究表明，造成这种代表性不足的一个因素是，女性、黑人和西班牙裔在STEM大学专业中代表性的增加并不一定转化为STEM就业的平等增长。此外，与白人或亚洲男性相比，女性、黑人和西班牙裔在大多数STEM职业中就业的可能性要小得多，尤其是在生命科学以外的领域。但现有的研究很少研究STEM就业中性别和种族差异的长期趋势或这些模式背后的因素。拟议中的项目将使用美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的科学家和工程师统计数据系统（SESTAT）的七波数据，研究持有STEM学位的大学毕业生在STEM职业中就业的性别和种族差异。更广泛的影响：政府用于教育和培训STEM工作者的支出相当可观，2011年美国国家科学基金会（NSF）的支出接近9亿美元（美国物理研究所，2010年）。这些投资以及需要增加女性和代表性不足的少数族裔科学家的数量，以保持STEM劳动力的未来健康（Burke, 2007; National Science Board, 2010），使得在相关职业中保留STEM工人成为一个关键的政策问题。该项目将提高公共和私营部门决策者和项目主管制定和实施鼓励女性和代表性不足的少数族裔留在STEM职业的做法的能力。

The continuing underrepresentation of women, Blacks and Hispanics in science and engineering occupations impedes efforts to increase the size of the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce, a concern for policy makers who view science and scientists as critical to the future of the U.S. economy. Existing research shows that one factor contributing to this underrepresentation is that gains in women's, Blacks' and Hispanics' representation among STEM college majors do not necessarily translate into equal gains in STEM employment. Additionally, women, Blacks, and Hispanics remain far less likely than White or Asian men to be employed in most STEM occupations, particularly outside the life sciences. But little existing research studies trends over time in gender and race-ethnic differences in STEM employment or factors underlying these patterns. The proposed project will use seven waves of the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) to study gender and race-ethnic differences in employment in STEM occupations among college graduates who hold a STEM degree.Broader Impacts: Government spending to educate and train STEM workers is considerable, reaching nearly 900 million by NSF in 2011 (American Institute of Physics, 2010). These investments and the need to increase the numbers of women and underrepresented minority scientists to maintain the future health of the STEM workforce (Burke, 2007; National Science Board, 2010) make retention of STEM workers in related occupations a critical policy issue. This project will enhance the ability of public- and private sector policy makers and program directors to develop and implement practices that encourage the retention of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM occupations.