Science and Engineering Programs: On Target for Women? (1992)

by Linda Skidmore Dix

Linda Skidmore Dix is the study director for the National Research Council's Committee on Women in Science and Engineering. Prior to her appointment to this position, size served as staff officer for a variety of studies undertaken under the auspices of the National Research Council's Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel. Among those studies relevant to her current activities are Engineering Labor-Market Adjustments and Education and Employment of Engineers.

As staff officer for the initial phase of the Research Council's study of scientists and engineers employed by federal agencies, she co-edited with study chair, Alan K. Campbell, the report Recruitment, Retention, and Utilization of Federal Scientists and Engineers (1990), from which much of the following information is drawn.

Approximately 202,300 social scientists, computer specialists, biological scientists, agricultural scientists, engineers, physical scientists, and mathematical and computer scientists are employed by the federal government in a variety of work-activity classifications, including research, data collection, management, and testing and evaluation. The major employers of federal scientists and engineers are the Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, Department of Agriculture, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Department of Transportation, and Department of Health and Human Services. Yet, despite the opportunities and variety of employment offered by federal agencies, some people feel that a host of factors negatively affect the agencies' ability to recruit and retain the most capable scientists and engineers (Dix, 1990). Some of those problems can be addressed in various ways (see Table 8-1). However,

Compounding the effects of negative perceptions of federal employment is the fact that women and minorities have not been prime targets of past recruitment efforts, although their increasing numbers in the U.S. talent pool generally make them a viable source of our future technical work force. While employment of women and minorities by federal agencies almost doubled during the 1977–1987 period, only 10 percent of the S&E Ph.D.s employed by the federal government in 1987 were women (White House, 1989). Across all degree levels, the employment of women scientists and engineers by the federal government varies by discipline, from a low of 3.0 percent in agronomy to 50.5 percent in sociology. But, in general, the rate of employment of women scientists and engineers is much lower than that of men (Figure 8-1; CWSE, 1991). However, OPM data indicate larger percentages of women in trainee positions in some occupations—engineering (25 percent), physical science (34 percent), and mathematics and statistics (46 percent)—and increased percentages of women hired in these occupations by federal agencies during the past three fiscal years (Gowing, 1991).

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), established as the successor of the U.S. Civil Service Commission with the passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, has undertaken several initiatives to assist in the successful recruitment of individuals to federal agencies.¹ Some of those efforts are described below.

SOURCE: U.S. General Accounting Office,  Federal Affirmative Employment: Status of Women and Minority Representation in the Federal Workforce  (GAO/T-GGD-92-2), Washington, DC: GAO, 1992.

Figure 8-1. Distribution of work force in key jobs for 25 executive agencies, by grade, as of September 30, 1990.

In March 1990 OPM organized job fairs in Washington, DC; Boston; Chicago; Denver; and San Francisco. Their purpose was to alert the public to the kinds of jobs available in the federal government and to enable federal agencies to publicize the type of work that they perform. As a result of this series of 2-day activities, approximately 87,000 individuals applied for federal positions. Since March of 1990, there have been four Federal Career Fairs for scientists and engineers. The dates and pertinent information regarding each are listed in Table 8-2.

Developed by OPM's Office of Affirmative Recruiting and Employment, a series of professionally designed brochures describes employment opportunities within federal agencies. In addition, a series of

videotapes has been created to "enhance the image of Federal service with the 'MTV [Music Television] generation' " (Gowing, 1991).

Because many students do not know where they might apply and how to find a federal job, in September 1989 OPM set up a college hotline. By calling 1-912-757-3000 and answering a series of questions about one's specialties, degrees, and college(s) attended, a person learns how to apply for a job and is sent the appropriate federal forms for applying. A pre-recorded voice explains the process and the basics of the system.

For some shortage occupations, OPM has replaced the SF-171 with an automated form processed within 24 hours at its Macon, Georgia, facility. The rest is left up to the individual agencies. For example, if an agency wants to recruit an engineer, it uses a specific code to hook into this automated system; after specifying the series, grade, and specialty wanted, within 13 minutes the agency will receive a referral of candidates who qualify for that job.

OPM has developed a 2-day course, "Recruiter's Interviewing Techniques," to begin in the fall of 1992. When the training becomes available, it will be announced through the Regional Training Centers and the Office of Personnel Management Training Guide. In addition, all Personnel Directors will be contacted and informed of the program.

An automated career information system, FOCIS can be used by individuals to assess their skills and interests and then, based on their college majors and scores on the skills assessment, to determine the federal occupations for which they are qualified. In addition, FOCIS contains a listing of federal job openings and the addresses of 1,500 federal personnel offices.

Policies enacted to retain all federal workers tend to benefit federally employed scientists and engineers, both men and women: these include a generous leave program (including leave for parental and family responsibilities), comprehensive health benefits, flexible and compressed work schedules, part-time employment and job sharing, employee assistance programs, dependent care referral programs, and child care centers (OPM, 1988).

In addition to initiatives aimed at recruitment and retention of federal workers in general, other programs implemented by OPM to enhance recruitment and retention of scientists and engineers by federal agencies include flexible examining procedures, direct-hire authority, and special salary rates.²

The Civil Service Reform Act authorized OPM to delegate examining authority to individual federal agencies. According to the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), "OPM is delegating examining and hiring authorities to agencies at an accelerated rate and for a wider range of positions than previously.... 534 delegated examinations are in effect" (MSPB, 1989a).

If individuals are qualified and agencies are satisfied with their qualifications, OPM has authorized agencies to hire those individuals directly. As a result of decentralization, 95 percent of scientists and engineers (essentially, all of the engineers, "hard" scientists, medical specialists, mathematicians, and computer scientists in the federal government) are employed through direct-hire authority—that is, the agencies find potential employees and hire them on the spot in order not to find themselves in the situation whereby desired individuals have taken employment elsewhere.⁴ More widely implemented by OPM since July 1989, these changes appear to offer increased opportunities to hire entry-level candidates and may afford agencies a more competitive position in the college recruitment arena.

In addition, OPM has instituted special salaries for scientists and

engineers in some shortage occupations. Special rates can be granted based on occupation, grade, and geographic location.⁵

Besides interventions targeted to scientists and engineers in general, several OPM-sponsored, government-wide leadership programs provide for development of women scientists and engineers:

• Women's Executive Leadership Program: This program is designed to provide both formal and informal training as preparation for future opportunities in federal management. Of the women high-potential nonsupervisory employees participating each year since this program began in 1984, about 15 percent are scientists and engineers.

• Executive Potential Program: Over 50 percent of the enrollees in this program designed for scientific and technical specialists moving into management are women.

• Legis Fellows Program: Participants in this program receive special assignments in congressional offices and attend congressional briefings and seminars as part of their management training. About one-third of the participants are women, of whom half are scientists and engineers.

Increasingly important to women are "training and development initiatives in the federal government, among the most powerful interventions available in the federal government for retaining highly skilled workers" (Budd, 1991). Numerous studies have documented the increased requirements for scientists and engineers in the federal government, the increasing number of women entering the U.S. work force, and the increased "economic importance of human resource development," according to Budd. OPM has addressed these work force trends through the creation of a set of Human Resources Development Policy Initiatives in three major areas: (1) agency management of human resources development, (2) career development of federal employees, and (3) supervisory, managerial, and executive

development. Through these initiatives, OPM is directing agencies to develop long-term strategic plans for human resource development and to prioritize training investments to meet true organizational, mission-related needs.

Speaking to participants at the CWSE-sponsored conference at Irvine in 1991, Marjorie. L. Budd, chief of the policy and curriculum initiatives division in OPM's Office of Employee Development Policy and Programs, emphasized five ''cross-cutting characteristics of successful programs in the federal government":

1. The programs are part of an organization's strategic business plan, designed specifically by the agency to meet its mission and goals,

2. Scientific leadership and human resources leadership are involved,

3. Programs are developed to create career paths and to prepare routes for women and minorities to rise in the organization,

4. Programs are located in areas of critical need where project work creates a sense of accomplishment, and

5. Flexibilities are built-in to provide for two-career families and domestic considerations (Budd, 1991).

Each federal organization employing scientists and engineers has a responsibility to pursue initiatives that will enhance its recruitment, retention, and utilization of that work force. Some agencies have undertaken a vigorous recruitment strategy, recognizing that recruitment is a significant part of a manager's responsibility. Some attempt to reach more potential employees by increasing the number and types of college campuses visited, no longer concentrating their efforts at the major research universities but pursuing candidates at other institutions such as the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Another recruitment activity is the Career Day held at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, designed specifically to show promising college seniors the diversity of work performed by Goddard's scientists and engineers. The results were job offers to more than half of the 45 participants, with over 75 percent accepted (OPM, 1989).

While the aggregate data on retention of scientists and engineers are quite promising—showing that, on average, less than 5 percent leave government employment, about half as resignations and about half as

retirements—each agency manager must be concerned within the context of his/her own operation, since turnover varies at the agency level. Some agencies conduct their own research and definition of the problems of turnover by their employees. At least four federal organizations—Naval Research Lab (NRL), Department of Defense (DoD), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the Public Health Service (PHS)—have designed their own data collection systems in order to learn more about their own personnel (Campbell and Dix, 1990).

In addition to the many education interventions supported at the precollege and postsecondary levels, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has demonstrated its commitment to the retention of its scientific employees, particularly those who are members of groups that underparticipate in the technical work force. It was stated at the CWSE conference that, "although there had been no programs aimed specifically for women in the Department of Energy, there has been an awareness that women, as well as underrepresented minorities, are an underutilized source for future employment needs in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology" (Verell, 1991).

This awareness led, in 1990, to the first review of programs undertaken by DOE labs to lower the turnover rates of their female scientists and engineers. In the report outline of the DOE program review, it was noted that "to be effective, student education programs designed to encourage young women to enter careers in science and engineering must be accompanied by programs that enhance career development opportunities for those R&D women already pursuing careers in science and engineering. Only by the coupling of these two types of programs will progress be made in the effective and fair utilization of the talents of women in the R&D work force" (DOE, 1990).

The review enabled women scientists and engineers throughout the laboratory system to share their knowledge and experience and to address concerns that permeated many of the labs. The focus was on educational outreach (recruitment) and career advancement of those employed in DOE labs (retention). Participants examined programs implemented at the individual laboratories to help their women employees "who are trying to be successful as scientists" (Bhattacharyya, 1991). During this review it was found that "effective programs for women scientists and engineers employed in DOE laboratories have four major characteristics: they (1) ensure effective

recruitment of qualified female candidates, (2) maintain strong networking and mentoring programs, (3) facilitate movement of women into management and senior scientist positions, and (4) encourage the expression and discussion of areas of concern" (DOE, 1990). As a follow-up to the 1990 review, DOE conducted a second examination of laboratory programs for women employees in February 1992.

To recruit and retain the technical work force necessary to fulfill its mandate, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), operated by the University of Chicago for DOE, has created a standard ladder of career progression. Scientists and engineers are hired at one of eight grades (703–710). Both initial employment and retention are determined by nine criteria related to one's science and engineering education, experience, job-related skills, and work responsibilities (see Table A-6).

A survey of Argonne's practices in employee hiring, promotion, and employee development was commissioned by the ANL director and completed in 1988. The survey not only asked opinions of its 1300 R&D employees on how the lab was doing, but also developed data on what the lab had done as an objective measure of the lab's policies. Among the survey's findings were the following:

• Eight percent of ANL's R&D employees are female.

• Two-thirds of the females are located in 3 of the 23 divisions (biology, chemical technology, and energy and environmental systems).

• Between 1983 and 1988, 355 permanent R&D staff were hired, including 43 percent of the current female staff.

• When both males and females were interviewed for a given position (24 out of 150 evaluated positions), about half of those hired were women (Bbattacharyya, 1991).

Based on this survey, areas of action were identified with respect to recruitment, retention, promotion, management positions, committee representation, and the importance of networking for R&D women.

The establishment of a Women in Science Program Initiator at ANL gives formal recognition to the lab's Women in Science Program. Financial backing from the office of the ANL director provides visibility and a means for the women in science to have input into the laboratory program. Many parties were interested in the role of the Women in Science Program Initiator—the Affirmative Action Office, the Division of Educational

Programs (which was dealing with the outreach programs), the Office of the Director (which was providing funding), and the Office of Human Resources (which was interested in recruitment). According to Maryka Bhattacharyya, the first appointee to this position, her office is involved in educational outreach; recruitment, retention, and upward mobility of ANL's R&D women; identification of funding sources for Women in Science initiatives; and communication regarding the ANL Women in Science program. Measures of the significance of the program are the changes that have been instituted within ANL. These include continued development of an outreach program, including an annual "Science Careers in Search of Women" conference; increased sensitivity of managers due to presentations at meetings of division directors, operation managers, and group leaders in the different divisions; assistance on recruitment, such as helping staff locate viable candidates for a managerial position in nuclear engineering; development of programs promoting upward mobility, and identification of potential funding sources for a proposed re-entry program in waste management and environmental engineering.

Still other federal agencies have implemented programs targeting both students and employees, potential and current (see Appendix A). For instance, the Department of Defense (DoD) supports a wide variety of programs to attract and retain U.S. citizens to careers in the sciences and engineering, beginning at the precollege level. In addition,

Some of these programs are listed in Table 8-3.

In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has studied the cultural diversity of its work force to address the impact of the changing demography on its ability to accomplish its mission. At present, women comprise about 48 percent of EPA's total work force but only 25 percent of its S&E work force. However, recognizing that the net new entrants to the total U.S. work force will include more women and ethnic/racial minorities during the next decade, EPA is expanding its efforts both to recruit and to

retain members of these traditionally underrepresented groups in S&E positions (Campbell and Dix, 1990). Additional actions are expected in response to the report of an expert panel convened by EPA administrator William K. Reilly, which found that

Among the recommendations of that panel are the following:

Programs such as those recommended above could serve as interventions to recruit and retain both women and men.

Many agencies are drawing upon the various programs available throughout the federal government to increase the retention of their S&E work force. Some of these same agencies have developed their own interventions, such as fellowships and scholarships for advanced training of their employees, leadership workshops and seminars, and a variety of benefit

packages to meet individual needs (with options, for example, regarding dependent care, continuing education, and insurance coverage).

In spite of these interventions and the commitment of OPM to "removing all barriers to the advancement of women and minorities once they have entered the federal work force" (Budd, 1991), women scientists and engineers employed by the federal government tend to encounter a glass ceiling, an invisible barrier that has kept them out of top jobs (see Figure 8-1 and Table 8-4). As noted at the CWSE-sponsored interventions conference,

Thus, actions must be taken to reinforce initiatives put into place by both OPM and individual agencies. Conference participants discussed a "glass-cutter" program targeted to federally employed women scientists and engineers and delineated its key elements:

• involvement of and open communication between all levels of staff,

• flexibility in job descriptions,

• delineation of the differences between job description and job performance,

• mentoring by senior executives as well as identification of the career patterns that those executives undertook to gain their current positions,

• continuous monitoring and evaluation of the specific intervention, and

• dissemination of the evaluation results throughout the organization.

The federal government has begun to be more proactive in its efforts to recruit and retain not only its scientific and engineering work force, but more particularly its employees who are women scientists and engineers. Many of the federal initiatives in this area can be traced to the establishment of the Office of Personnel Management in 1972. However, most have been implemented during the past five years, as attention has been drawn to the changing U.S. demography and its implications for employment policies. Nonetheless, change in the actual percentages of women scientists and engineers employed by federal agencies comes slowly, especially at the higher levels of the General Schedule of Salaries, partly because of the low turnover among members of the existing federal work force (MSPB, 1989b). It is heartening, though, to learn that some federal agencies are setting examples for their counterparts by addressing the situation and creating programs to enhance their recruitment and retention of women scientists and engineers.

The report of the National Research Council's Committee on Scientists and Engineers in the Federal Government (Campbell and Dix, 1990) noted two issues regarding recruitment, retention, and utilization that relate to interventions and require further analyses. In particular,

Although not knowing so at the time, conference participants proposed actions in response to that question:

• Assessments, similar to the DOE program reviews, should be undertaken by all federal agencies employing scientists and engineers in order to verify their recruitment and retention rates, particularly of women scientists and engineers; determine the extent to which glass ceilings and walls have become institutionalized; and develop a plan for eliminating barriers to the recruitment and retention of women scientists and engineers within a particular federal agency.

• Drawing on programs implemented in the private sector and in the Department of Energy, federal agencies should design strategies that facilitate networking and mentoring among women scientists and engineers.

• Model programs should no longer function in isolation but should be highlighted as efforts that other agencies might replicate.

• Consideration should be given to the strategy developed by conference participants for counteracting the glass ceilings and glass walls that women scientists and engineers often encounter in the federal government. The proposed process of starting a "glass-cutter program" has five steps:

1. Identify the problem (for example, the number of women in a particular federal agency or laboratory at a given level, when normalized to the actual distribution of women and men in that same category nationwide, should replicate their participation in the overall U.S. work force), gather data that confirms the problem's existence, and identify the audience who will receive and respond to such information.

2. Identify the stakeholders, those who will benefit from changes in policies or programs, and involve them in developing clearly stated goals and strategies for effecting change as well as the rationale for instigating change. Simultaneously, work with

others outside the organization, particularly those who have initiated similar programs.

3. Communicate the problem to management, presenting potential solutions and a timeline for achieving them, their benefits, and their costs.

4. Working with management, determine the details of the program to be established.

5. Be patient as the program is implemented and developed, recognizing that only small differences may be noticeable at first and that the "best chance for success includes both 'bottom up' and 'top down' efforts."

Bhattacharyya, Maryka. 1991. Focus an the End Point: Quality of Life of Women Scientists. Paper presented at the National Research Council conference, "Science and Engineering Programs: On Target for Women?," Irvine, CA, November 4–5.

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Dix, Linda Skidmore. 1990. Recruitment, retention, and utilization of scientists and engineers in the federal government: Results of a literature review . In Alan K. Campbell and Linda S. Dix (eds.), Recruitment, Retention, and Utilization of Federal Scientists and Engineers, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1990.

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Palguta, John M. 1990. Meeting federal work force needs with regard to scientists and engineers: The role of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. In Alan K. Campbell and Linda S. Dix (eds.), Recruitment, Retention, and Utilization of Federal Scientists and Engineers, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1990.

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____. 1989b. Who Is Leaving the Federal Government? An Analysis of Employee Turnover. Washington, DC: MSPB.

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____. Federal Staffing Digest 2(1: Fall 1989):7.

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