|
Items in cart [0] |
Questions? Call 888-624-8373 |
| ||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2009. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Terms of Use and Privacy Statement |
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 66
CHAPTER 5
DOCTORAL WOMEN IN INDUSTRY
A previous report of this Committee examined the comparative
status of men and women Ph.D.s employed in industry, basing its findings
on 1977 data.) In the following section, we reanalyze the industrial
science and engineering employment patterns as of 1981.
Increase in employment of female Ph.D.s
. . .
In just four years, the number of doctoral women in the business
and industry sector doubled--increasing from 1,700 to 3,500 between
1977 and 1981. Growth during the previous 4-year period was at
nearly the same rate. Despite these increases, women scientists and
engineers represent only 5 percent of all Ph.D.-level personnel in
industry (Table 5.1~. The fields with the largest numbers of total
Ph.D. employment--engineering and chemistry--have relatively few
women, 1 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
In several fields, the proportion of women among industrial
scientists is lower than their presence in the Ph.D. work force. As
mentioned earlier, women are 4 percent of the doctoral chemists
employed in industry, but 7 percent of those in all sectors. Similarly,
in the biosciences, women account for 11 percent of the industrial
personnel, but 18 percent of the Ph.D. supply as a whole. The details
of work force availability by field are shown in Table 5.1. In compari-
son to the pool of recent Ph.D.s (Table 4.6), the underrepresentation
is even more marked.
Growth of Ph.D. Personnel
Total employment of doctoral scientists and engineers in industry
grew by 14,100 over the 1977-1981 period or at an average annual rate
of 5~3 percent. Women represented approximately 1,000 new job-holders
or 7 percent of the net growth.
_
Committee on the Education and Employment of Women in Science and
Engineering, National Research Council, Women Scientists in Industry
and Government: How Much Progress in the 1970s, National Academy of
. .
Sciences, 1980.
5.1
OCR for page 67
TABLE 5.1 Percent doctoral women employed in industry and percent available,
1981
Total
Ph.D.s in No. women % Women
Field
% Women
industry industry industry
in Ph.D.
labor force
All fields
Engineering, math & physical
sciences
Mathematics
Computer sciences
Physics
Chemistry
Earth sciences
Engineering
Life sciences
Agricultural sciences
Medical sciences
Biological sciences
Behavioral & social sciences
Psychology
Social sciences
75,629 3,496 5%
61,102
1,117
4,448
4,189
19,266
4,042
28,040
9,947
2,545
3,241
4,161
4,580
2,362
2,218
1,932
116
331
109
829
167
380
802
67
267
468
762
550
212
3
10
7
4
8
3
8
11
17
23
10
12
4
8
7
3
7
l
15
18
18
2
27
16
SOURCE: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council
5.2
OCR for page 68
Job choices for recent women doctorates
. . .
The latest cohort of female doctorate recipients are planning
industrial employment at roughly the same rates as their male counter-
parts. (See Figure 2.3 on page 2.10) This is in contrast to the
pattern five years earlier as shown in Table 5.2. For both sexes, an
increasing proportion of the Ph.D. graduates are taking jobs in
industry but this is more true for women so that the male-female
difference has narrowed.
TABLE 5.2 Percent of Ph.D. graduates planning industrial employment
following receipt of doctorate by sex for selected fields
~ Q7 ~ PA ~ ~198O Ph.D.s
Women Men Women Men
Physics 11 14 25 21
Chemistry 20 30 33 41
Engineering 30 40 42 42
SOURCE: Doctorate Records File, National Research Council.
Type of position held
The available data do not indicate the job titles held by female
and male scientists, or the levels of their positions. We do, however,
have information on primary work activity and salary and these will be used
as a measure of the comparative status of men and women doctorates in
industry.
Women scientists are only half as likely as men to hold managerial
jobs--16 percent versus 29 percent (Figure 5.1 and Table 5.3~. This
difference is undoubtedly explained in part by the fact that the women
are generally younger. We also find that the relative number of
managers among Ph.D. science and engineering personnel has decreased
sharply since 1977.
Aside from the lower proportion of women in management, for the
most part male and female scientists are distributed similarly by work
function (Figure 5.1~. Women scientists, however, continue to be
relatively overrepresented in basic research and to report "other," not-
defined work activities at a higher rate than men.
5
,.3
OCR for page 69
TABLE 5.3 Percent of doctoral scientists and engineers in industry whose
primary work activity is management, 1973, 1971, and 1981
Women
Men
% Managers
1973
1977
1981
20.0
18~1
16.4
40.3
37.2
28.7
SOURCE: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council
FIGURE 5 . 1 Primary work activities of doctoral s cientists and engineers
in industry, 1981
WOMEN MEN
-
/ Other
/\ Activities
/ \ 16%
Consulting \
10%
Writing
2%
Ma nagement
of non R&D \ Development /
3% \~5% 1
-
-
\ ,
/
Ma nagem~
of R&D / \
13% / \
/ Basic \
/ Research
1 2%
Appl fed
Research
29%
-
Consulting
7%
Writing
1%
Other
/ \ Activities
>a \9%
r _~ \
/
/
/ Ma nagement \
of non R&D
5%
Devel opment /
19% /
\
Appl fed
Resea rch
28%
-
SOURCE: Survey of Doctorate Recipients, National Research Council
5.4
Ma nags
of R&D \
23%
Research I
~ /
-
OCR for page 70
Salaries
Median salaries paid to women industrial scientists and engineers
are lower than those for men even among the most recent Ph.D.s (Figure
5.2~. The sex differential in pay increases with years since doctorate,
amounting to $8,000 for those 25 or more years past the doctorate. For
the 1979-1980 Ph.D.s, the median female salary was $29,600 or $2,400
less than that for men.
The larger discrepancies for the older doctorates undoubtedly
reflect, again, a long past history of discriminatory practice which is
in some sense self-perpetuating because these women have not had access
to the same opportunities for professional growth. However, it is of
concern to find a large pay differential even for the most recent Ph.D.s.
We do not know to what extent this may be due to different field
distributions for women and men.
5~5
OCR for page 71
FIGURE 5 .2 Median salaries of doctoral scientists and engineers in
industry by cohort and sex, 1981
1938-
1957
1958-
1969
1970-
1972
1973-
1974
1975-
1976
1977-
1978
1979-
1980
1 1
Women
Men
1. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
$ IN THOUSANDS
5.6
Representative terms from entire chapter:
industry industry industry
