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According to the 2000 Biennial Report of the
National Science Foundation’s Committee on Equal Opportunities
in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), “U.S. jobs are growing
fastest in areas that require knowledge and skills stemming
from a strong grasp of science, engineering, and technology.”
At the same time, the report states, “SMET workers remain
overwhelmingly white, male, and without disabilities, and
the available pool of talented women, minorities, and persons
with disabilities remains significantly underutilized.”
In fact, in 1998 African Americans made up only
3.2 percent of the SMET workforce, Hispanics 3 percent, and
white females about 15.5 percent, according to the report
of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women
and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development.
Native Americans were 0.3 percent of the SMET workforce and
disabled people about 6 percent. Meanwhile, the profile of
the overall workforce continues to change: the U.S. Census
Bureau projects that white males will account for only 26
percent of the American workforce by 2050, whereas Hispanic
and African American workers will jump from about 22 percent
of the workforce today to about 38 percent. Overall, currently
underrepresented groups will jump from about one-quarter of
the workforce to nearly half.
Traditionally, U.S. business and research institutions
have made up for the lack of women, disabled, and underrepresented
groups in SMET careers by recruiting foreign workers. However,
as the economies of China, India, Singapore, and other developing
nations grow stronger, many of those workers could be lured
back home. As a result, the U.S. SMET workforce is likely
to face a critical shortage of workers in the next decades
that could threaten the country’s predominance in technology
development and scientific research.
There are other practical reasons for diversifying
the SMET workforce and research ranks: a 1998 survey by the
American Management Association found that a mixture of genders,
ethnic backgrounds, and ages in senior management teams consistently
correlated with superior corporate performance in areas such
as annual sales, growth revenues, market share, shareholder
value, net operating profit, worker productivity, and total
assets.
“Diversifying is not only the right thing
to do from an ethical standpoint, it’s the smart thing
from a business standpoint,” says Sheril West, vice
president of the technical services division at Caterpillar
Inc. West began her career at Caterpillar in 1974 and was
often the only woman at management meetings in the early days.
Today she champions efforts at Caterpillar to mentor high
school and junior high school students, especially girls and
students from minority groups, to encourage them to pursue
careers in engineering, math and science.
According to Valerie Taylor, an associate professor
of electrical and computer engineering at Northwestern University
and one of the few African American women in her field, a
more diverse, more representative SMET workforce will result
in the development of better technology tools that are capable
of meeting the needs of an ever more diverse population.
She gives the example of PDAs, most of which
are designed to fit neatly into a man’s shirt pocket.
The interface on many PDAs is geared toward one individual
who divides his life into separate components for work and
personal business. Many working women, who often combine their
work and family lives, prefer larger PDAs with larger screens
that still fit nicely into a purse and that allow multiple
persons to enter data into a family-oriented calendar.
“If the research is only being done by
a small segment of the population—that is, by white
males—the results of the research will only be applicable
to white males. You will miss large populations,” says
Taylor. “If you want products that appeal to the masses,
you need diverse people involved in the design process. It
makes for a much richer research environment.” -->>
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