| NSF Org: |
DGE Division Of Graduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 30, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 30, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1432673 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Earnestine Psalmonds
DGE Division Of Graduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $749,441.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $749,441.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
110 INNER CAMPUS DR AUSTIN TX US 78712-1139 (512)471-6424 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
101 E. 27th Street, Suite 5.300 Austin TX US 78712-1532 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | ECR-EDU Core Research |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Cornell University are implementing a project to understand large gender differences in occupational retention among STEM graduates in early career, with a particular emphasis on investigating the roles played by employment conditions, alternative job opportunities, and workplace climate in retaining recent graduates or propelling them into non-STEM fields. Various studies report considerable attrition within the first few years of employment, even among those who successfully transition into the STEM labor force initially; exit rates from STEM occupations are particularly high among women. However, survey data are less able to provide in-depth knowledge of why individual STEM workers choose to exit their field and what processes are involved in making such a decision. This study will help explain the roots of the labor shortages now claimed by some employers and inform policy and practice so that more trained STEM graduates, especially women, are able to build successful careers in the STEM labor force. The general problem of high turnover in STEM employment, including diversion among women and men, is significant given political and economic claims made about the importance of a well-trained STEM labor force in ensuring U.S. competitiveness in a global marketplace.
The researchers will use a mixed-methods approach to study a cohort of 200 chemistry and chemical engineering graduates to interrogate the reasons for the low transition and retention rates in STEM employment following graduation. Their aims are to (1) collect and analyze prospective data on the work expectations of chemistry-related graduates, perceived barriers or obstacles to employment in STEM, and factors affecting decision-making in the choice of first job; (2) identify gender differences in the career and family plans of chemistry-related graduates, as well as gender differences in initial occupational placement; and (3) track the retention of women and men in the early STEM career and expose the sources of attrition, especially differential attrition among women. They will use comparison groups of chemistry-related graduates who never worked in a STEM field and those who begin but subsequently divert to non-STEM jobs to facilitate the comparison of post-graduation earnings, upward mobility, and job satisfaction of those in STEM and non-STEM employment. The ability to prospectively analyze gender differences in field retention in the four years after graduation allows the team to adjudicate different theories of gendered persistence in STEM employment.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project collected two waves of survey data (2015-16 and 2019-20) on the graduating cohorts in chemistry and chemical engineering at all degree levels from a large Northeastern private university and a large Southern public university. In addition, we completed over 70 qualitative interviews per year over the first four years following graduation to intensively follow the early career experiences of a subset of respondents stratified by gender, race, and field.
Contrary to expectations, women STEM graduates in chemistry and chemical engineering were MORE likely to have received a job offer by the spring of their final year than men. This was almost entirely the result of higher GPAs on the part of the women receiving offers. Yet women STEM graduates reported more difficulty in connecting with potential employers and making it through the interview process than men.
Women graduates exhibit no less occupational commitment to STEM than men and their retention expectations are only slightly lower than mens. However, women at career entry report both lower career confidence and more limitations in their job search for family reasons. Most problematic, women with advanced degrees in STEM (terminal MS or PhD) score significantly lower on career confidence than men with advanced degrees, while undergraduate women and men express similar levels of career confidence. Advanced training in other occupational fields (medicine, business, performing arts, etc.) strengthens career confidence and commitment to the occupation, so the opposite pattern for women in STEM graduate training is troubling.
Women and men graduates in STEM fields had sometimes large ideological differences on the level of meritocracy in employment decisions and the extent of gender discrimination in society. Women of color (with the lone exception of foreign-born Asian women) were most progressive on gender issues while foreign-born Asian men were most conservative. Open-ended survey responses show a significant minority of men in the STEM sample viewed men as the aggrieved gender in STEM education; voicing the opinion that women got advantages that men did not have in getting jobs, or that professors went easier on the women. These precursors in STEM education point to the origin of so-called climate issues in STEM workplaces that hamper efforts to diversify the STEM employment sector.
Last Modified: 11/30/2020
Modified by: Jennifer L Glass
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