Committee on Capitalizing on the Diversity of the Science and Engineering Workforce in Industry
An ad hoc committee was organized to conduct a study on how to maximize the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and underrepresented minorities in industries that have a large science and engineering (S&E) component. The committee focused on the following questions which were used to plan this workshop:
(1) What is the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in the industrial workforce? Do women and underrepresented minorities hold significant leadership positions? Does this differ by sector? What is the rate of change? Is it sufficient relative to the overall workforce population of women and underrepresented minorities?
(2) What is the typical route of advancement in science and engineering firms? Do the routes of advancement for women and minorities in industry differ from majority men in industry? Have the efforts by industry to recruit greater participation of women and minorities been effective? Do the critical points for advancement in technical careers differ from that of nontechnical careers?
(3) What current challenges exist in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and underrepresented minority scientists and engineers working in industry? Do these challenges differ by S&E sector? Large and small corporations? Research and technical versus business and management? Do corporations and individual scientists and engineers hold the same view?
(4) How do workplace recruitment, retention, and advancement policies influence the competitiveness of individual firms in the marketplace? The competitiveness of industrial sectors? Are there exemplars that illustrate this?
(5) How can industrial policies encourage the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and underrepresented minorities? What works and what does not work? Does one type of policy work better than another (e.g., “push” vs. “pull strategies”)? What are the best practices? Are they distinctive for women? For underrepresented groups? For women of color?
(6) Are there best practices in industry that could be replicated in academia to increase the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women and underrepresented groups?
