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Earlier this year, the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, a division of the National Science Foundation, released the 2017 Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering report. This formal report, now in the form of a digest, is issued every two years and examines the degree to which women, people with disabilities, and people who identify as black, Hispanic and American Indian or Alaska Native are underrepresented in Science and Engineering (S&E) education and employment. 

The digest is best read online, where an interactive format invites readers to explore trends in greater depth through detailed data tables and graphics. Technical notes and other online resources aid in interpreting the data. Data tables are also available as both PDFs or Excel files, allowing for easy viewing, printing or downloading for further analysis.

Key findings suggest that women have reached a state of relative parity with men in academic achievement, but not as part of the S&E workforce. As the digest indicates, since the late 1990s, women have earned about half of S&E bachelor's degrees. However, their representation varies widely by field, ranging from 70% in psychology to 18% in computer sciences, for example. In addition, at every educational level, underrepresented minority women earn a higher proportion of degrees than their male counterparts. White women, however, earn fewer degrees than their male counterparts.

Findings also indicate that underrepresented minorities account for disproportionately smaller percentages in both S&E education and employment. White men constitute half of the S&E workforce today but make up only about one-third of the overall U.S. population. Blacks, Hispanics, and people with disabilities are consistently underrepresented in the S&E workforce. A similar pattern emerges in education. Despite twenty years of progress, there is still a wide gap in educational attainment between other minority groups and whites and Asians, two groups with a higher representation in S&E education than in the larger U.S. population. 

This report is a valuable information resource for those of us in the ATE community working to expand access and retention of underrepresented groups. For more information, please see this press release from NSF.