Study: Women, Minorities Discouraged From Entering STEM

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 08:38:00 -0500

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (12/9, Toland) reports, "American women have the ability and educational preparation to graduate from college with a science, technology, engineering or mathematics degree, but women are still underrepresented in" STEM undergraduate fields, according to a survey from the Bayer Corp. "The survey, which queried professors and university chairs from 200 American research schools and was released Wednesday, also said women and underrepresented minorities -- in other words, non-Asian minorities -- are often weeded out of STEM-related fields early on because of the rigor of the introductory courses."
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (12/9, Olson) reports, "According to the Robinson-based company's poll of department heads at those schools, 37 percent gave their institutions a 'C' or lower grade for how well they retain and graduate black, Hispanic and Native American students. Twelve percent ranked majority male recruiting/graduating records as poor, and only 14 percent said the same regarding females." Among factors deterring minority students from pursuing STEM studies in college, according to the survey: "32 percent of faculty heads cited 'limited quality' college-prep in STEM fields; 17 percent cited a 'lack of role models'"; and "10 percent said 'their cultural background doesn't value science (and/or) the pursuit of science.'" Although 84 percent of the respondents "found minority and female recruiting and retention to be a key issue for their universities, only one-third of them said their universities had comprehensive plans to recruit and retain minority and female students in STEM studies."

The State (WV) Journal (12/9, Bonnstetter) reports, "STEM chairs said the number of women in their STEM courses has stayed steady." The respondents "also said they believed women came to college most prepared to tackle STEM subjects, while minorities came the least prepared." Preparation aside, the Journal reports, "one-third of survey participants said they believed that minority students were less likely to graduate with a STEM degree than women or majority students. Women were considered as likely to graduate as their male counterparts."

Pennsylvania's Essential Public Radio (12/9, Song) reports Dr. Mae Jemison, the first female African-American astronaut, "said that some schools are overcoming the obstacles to diversity by changing the introductory courses, by eliminating confidence-eroding situations, by exposing students to role models in their particular group, and by challenging stereotypes."