Collaborative Research: Diversifying the STEM Labor Force: Are Women and the Foreign-Born Complementary or Additive?

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

The need for STEM workers is expected to grow at or above the national growth rate over the next decade (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2012). In recent decades the U.S. government has focused a good deal of attention on increasing the presence of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM fields. The science and technology labor force has already diversified in important ways over the past few decades. Women's representation in science and technology education and employment has increased significantly, though their representation remains considerably smaller in fields such as engineering and computer science. This research explores whether the particular components of the STEM labor force - such as the representation of women in particular fields, or the share of coworkers of a particularly nativity or race - are associated with retention in the STEM work force or the gender wage gap. In fields where women account for a larger representation of STEM workers, for example, is the gender wage gap narrower? How is that relationship influenced by the group size of foreign-born workers, and does it matter whether these workers received their education and training in the United States or abroad? There are several social scientific views that can be evoked in seeking to account for the dynamics involved in occupational sex composition and occupational wage rates. These perspectives are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but each focuses on distinct ways in which employers may exhibit preferences by gender or ethnicity. Our project will utilize Queuing theory and Devaluation theory to explore how the changing composition of the STEM labor force promotes (or retards) the retention and earnings of women in STEM. Such an approach will enable us to move beyond a simple gender dichotomy (men/women) to assess variation within gender (native-born/foreign-born). Data come from pooling six waves of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT), covering years from 1995 through 2008. SESTAT is comprised of three ongoing surveys designed to create a nationally representative sample of science and engineering college degree holders (Kannankutty & Wilkinson, 1999). The restricted SESTAT data include detailed information regarding labor force participation, occupation categories, educational attainment, and demographic characteristics. The proposed project will include three sets of analyses, including descriptive analyses establishing trends in STEM employment by gender and nativity, as well a time since degree; multivariate logistic regression models incorporating predictors of employment in a STEM profession, by sex, and how group representation of the foreign-born moderates these associations; and OLS regression of women's and men's logged wages on observable characteristics.