Exercise Instructions:

• Read the short report section written below
• Take note of any data that you think is especially important/interesting
• Create at least two data visualizations from the information in the report
• Revise the textual report by embedding your data visualizations into the layout
• Upload a one-page document that includes some of the text/data below and your own visuals

NOTE: You do not need to use all of the text below in your revision–pick a smaller section and enhance with your visuals to practice designing effective documents

—

LABOR DIVERSITY: SUPPLY vs. DEMAND

(From “DIVERSITY IN HIGH TECH” (Links to an external site.) by the US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission)

Attributing lack of employment diversity in high tech industries to lack of applicant diversity and self-selection of minorities and women away from STEM fields focuses on only part of the industries’ hiring and retention situation. While there is some truth to the “pipeline” theory and anxiety over the ability of the US educational system to provide a sufficiently large, well trained, and diverse labor pool, there are additional factors at play. For example, about nine percent of graduates from the nation’s top computer science programs are from under-represented minority groups. However, only five percent of the large tech firm employees are from one of these groups.[6] (Links to an external site.) This presents the unlikely scenarios that either major employers in the field are unable to attract four out of nine under-represented minority graduates from top schools or almost half of the minority graduates of top schools do not qualify for the positions for which they were educated.

Citing The Urban Institute[7] (Links to an external site.), “labor market indicators do not demonstrate a supply shortage. The United States’ education system produces a supply of qualified [science and engineering] graduates in much greater numbers than the jobs available.” Estimates indicate that close to 50 percent of STEM graduates in the U.S. are not hired in STEM-related fields (Lindsay & Salzman, 2007).

Sources are largely consistent that the number of people receiving undergraduate degrees in science and engineering has increased markedly over the past decade. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of U.S. college graduates with bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering (S&E) was 36.4 percent in 2009 (approximately 20 million people). National Science Foundation[8] (Links to an external site.) estimates are similar: the percentage of bachelor’s degrees in S&E fields has been approximately 30 to 35 percent of all bachelor’s degrees for the past four decades. However, because the U.S. college-age population grew during these years, the total number of science and engineering (S&E) bachelor’s degrees awarded annually more than doubled between 1966 and 2008 (from 184,313 to 494,627).

Women account for relatively small percentages of degree recipients in certain STEM fields: only 18.5 percent of bachelor’s degrees in engineering went to women in 2008. (Williams, 2015) Women accounted for 77.1 percent of the psychology degrees and 58.3 percent of the biological and agricultural sciences degrees in 2008 (Data from the National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics[9] (Links to an external site.)).

Gonzalez and Kuenzi, 2012 make the following observations:

Graduate enrollments in science and engineering grew 35 percent over the last decade. Notably, science and engineering enrollments grew more for racial and ethnic groups generally under-represented in science and engineering.

• Hispanic/Latino enrollment increased by 65 percent
• American Indian/Alaska Native enrollment increased by 55 percent
• African American enrollment increased by 50 percent

Since 1966, the percentage of doctorates in S&E fields has ranged between approximately 56 percent and 67 percent of all graduate degrees (where a field of study has been reported). The total number of doctoral degrees in S&E fields has nearly tripled, growing from 11,570 in 1966 to 32,827 in 2008 (Peck, 2015). Graduate enrollments show similar upward trends.

The AFL-CIO reported that, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the median weekly earnings for women (2012) were 11 to 25 percent lower than they were for men in every STEM occupation for which there is available data. But this may be less of a difference than in other professional fields, as in 2013, on average, men employed in professional and related occupations earned 27 percent more than women.[10] (Links to an external site.)

Additionally, black professionals represented 9.3 percent of the professional workforce and Hispanic professionals 8.2 percent.

• In computer and mathematical occupations, 8.3 percent of workers were black or African American, 6.3 were Hispanic or Latino.
• In the life, physical, and social sciences, black professionals were under-represented, making up 5.6 percent of the workforce, and in architecture and engineering occupations, Black professionals were just 5.5 percent of the workforce in 2013.
• Workers of Hispanic origin comprised 7.5 percent of the architecture and engineering field and 7.9 percent of life, physical, and social scientists.[11] (Links to an external site.)

Based on data from the American Community Survey, there is a racial and ethnic pay gap as well: Asian Americans reported the highest average earnings in STEM occupations, while non-Hispanic whites also had above average earnings; black and Hispanic professionals earned below average wages in 2012.[12] (Links to an external site.)

EXITING TECH & RELATED FIELDS

Over time, over half of highly qualified women working in science, engineering and technology companies quit their jobs (Hewlett et al., 2008). In 2013, just 26 percent of computing jobs in the U.S. were held by women, down from 35 percent in 1990, according to a study by the American Association of University Women. Although 80 percent of U.S. women working in STEM fields say they love their work, 32 percent also say they feel stalled and are likely to quit within a year. Research by The Center for Work-Life Policy shows that 41 percent of qualified scientists, engineers and technologists are women at the lower rungs of corporate ladders but more than half quit their jobs.

This loss appears attributable to the following: 1) inhospitable work cultures; 2) isolation; 3) conflict between women’s preferred work rhythms and the “firefighting” work style generally rewarded; 4) long hours and travel schedules conflict with women’s heavy household management workload; and 5) women’s lack of advancement in the professions and corporate ladders. If corporate initiatives to stem the brain drain reduced attrition by just 25 percent, there would be 220,000 additional highly qualified female STEM workers (Hewlett et al., 2008).

Williams (2015) posits that it is bias that pushes women out of STEM jobs, rather than pipeline issues or personal choice accounting for their absence. Based on a survey and in-depth interviews of female scientists[13] (Links to an external site.) (557 survey participants and 60 interviewees), Williams makes the following observations:

• Two-thirds of women report having to prove themselves over and over; their success discounted and their expertise questioned.
  • Three-fourths of Black women reported this phenomenon.
• Thirty-four percent reported pressure to play a traditionally feminine role, including 41 percent of Asian women.
  • Fifty-three percent reported backlash from speaking their minds directly or being outspoken or decisive.
  • Women, particularly Black and Latina women, are seen as angry when they fail to conform to female stereotypes
• Almost two thirds of women with children say their commitment and competence were questioned and opportunities decreased after having children.
• Three fourths of women surveyed said that women in their workplace supported each other; one fifth said they felt as if they were competing with women colleagues for “the woman spot.”
• Bias functions differently depending on race and ethnicity. Isolation is a problem: 42 percent of Black women, 38 percent of Latinas, 37 percent of Asian women and 32 percent of white women agreed that socializing with colleagues negatively affect perceptions of their competence.