I finished up a story this morning about two new reports looking at the barriers women and minorities face in entering the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
One, sponsored by the Bayer Corp., involved a survey of more than 1,200 female and minority chemists and chemical engineers. The professionals polled, on average, gave the nation’s K-12 education system a grade of D for encouraging minorities to pursue STEM careers, and a grade of D-plus for girls. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.
The other study, from the American Association of University Women, didn’t involve any original research, but pulled together findings from a variety of previous studies providing evidence that social and environmental factors contribute to the “underrepresentation” of women in science and engineering.