Despite efforts to diversify the fields of science, technology, engineering and math, new research from the University of Georgia suggests that women remain underrepresented in STEM fields in federal jobs.
They also quit those jobs at a disproportionately high rate.
But one factor seemed to make a difference in women’s STEM employment levels: more women in supervisory positions.
“These positions are important, and we are not making a great deal of progress in bringing women into STEM jobs in any sort of equitable numbers,” said Edward Kellough, lead author of the study and a professor in UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs. “The key takeaway of our study is that one way to help improve the representation of women in STEM jobs is to increase their presence amongst STEM supervisors in those organizations.”
The researchers isolated the effects of women STEM supervisors to determine the impact of having female supervisors.
The study is the first to examine departmental and agency variation in female employment in STEM jobs in U.S. federal service.
Employment of women in federal STEM jobs stagnant since 2005
The researchers analyzed employment at all 15 Cabinet-level departments in the federal government and two agencies with substantial STEM employment — NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency — from 2005 to 2018. Additionally, the researchers separated the Air Force, Army and Navy from the remainder of the Department of Defense to determine differences across branches of the military.
On average, fewer than one in four STEM jobs were held by women in the Air Force, Army, Navy, the departments of Energy and Transportation, and NASA. Women account for less than 30% of STEM jobs in the departments of Veterans Affairs, State, Interior, Homeland Security, Defense and Commerce.
“You might expect that employment of women in federal STEM jobs would have gone up since 2005, but there’s been virtually no change,” Kellough said. “It’s…
Read the full article here