In Science, Women Look for Better Career Chemistry

By Marsha Walton

WeNews correspondent

Monday, August 9, 2010

Women and minorities remain substantially under-represented in the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering. A survey by Bayer looks at the barriers and attitudes that stifle diversity and some possible fixes.

Science teachers play a crucial role in stimulating student interest in chemistry, according to a recent Bayer survey. (WOMENSENEWS)--Roxanne Bales vividly remembers the months she spent at a graduate program in organic chemistry in New England.

"There were three guys there, about to get their Ph.D.s, who ruled the roost. They were supposed to be mentoring me, supervising my experiments. They wouldn't even talk to me," said Bales, who has gone on to work for more than 25 successful years in the health science and pharmaceutical industries.

Bales left that program in a hurry and earned her master's degree at the University of California at Irvine instead.

Some things have changed since her experience in the late 1970s. Others have not.

An overwhelming majority, 83 percent, of women and minority chemists and chemical engineers recently surveyed said a diverse work force is beneficial to their company's success. Yet two-thirds of those scientists said their own workplace falls short of such diversity.

Comments from the March 2010 survey, conducted by the Bayer Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, indicate that gender stereotypes often start early and never go away.

"Our society prescribes to this stereotypical behavior. Only girls can play with dolls and only boys can play with Legos," said a Caucasian female scientist in the survey.

"Entrance positions are not a problem. But after the first 10 years of your career, women and minorities start losing ground with their peers. Small disadvantages and biases accumulate over time," said an American Indian female chemistry professor.

The survey questioned 1,226 female and underrepresented minority members of the nonprofit American Chemical Society, based in Washington. For the past 14 years, Bayer studies have gauged science issues in the United States. (Bayer Corp. is a subsidiary of Bayer AG, based in Leverkusen, Germany.)

A Threat to U.S. Competitiveness

Chemistry professor Julia Kubanek Some other survey findings: 77 percent said significant numbers of women and minorities are missing from the U.S. science, technology, engineering and math work force today because they were not identified or encouraged early on. Nearly two-thirds believe that under-representation of women and minorities in those fields threatens the United States' global competitiveness.

"I feel like I've been increasingly encouraged as the years have gone by, but I didn't always feel as actively encouraged," said Julia Kubanek, associate professor of chemistry at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

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