The future looks techier than ever: Well-paying jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—professions such as computer programmer, lab technician, doctor, nurse, and engineer—are growing fast. Since 1990, STEM fields have added 7.6 million jobs in the United States. But women and black and Hispanic Americans remain underrepresented in these professions, with significant numbers reporting discrimination and harassment at work. In fact, women in STEM jobs are more likely to say they've experienced gender discrimination at work than American workers in non-STEM professions, especially if their lab or office is made up mostly of men.
That not-so-sunny picture comes courtesy of a new survey by the Pew Research Center. The new STEM workers' survey puts hard numbers to recent individual stories of sexual assault in science labs and Silicon Valley. (The survey was conducted before harassment allegations against men like Harvey Weinstein brought renewed national attention to gender discrimination in the workplace.) Beyond sexual misconduct, it also addresses other barriers women and minorities face in scienceand technology industries, including unequal pay and being "treated as if they were not competent" because of their gender or race.
Such discrimination may work to lock people out of industries that might otherwise work as gateways to prosperity and equity. In fact, one of the reasons for the pay gaps between men and women, and between whites and underrepresented minorities, is because these groups are less likely to hold STEM jobs, which tend to pay better than other fields at every education level.
[For more on this story by FRANCIE DIEP, go to https://psmag.com/social-justi...iscriminated-against]
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