Women in the Natural Sciences

An increasing proportion of US scientists are women, but they continue to be underrepresented, underemployed, underpromoted, & underpaid relative to men. Participation rates, employment levels & earnings of women & men are compared for several science fields. These comparisons indicate that despite the traditional social & cultural barriers & the shortage of role models which discourage participation of women in science, higher proportions of young women are entering these fields than in the previous 2 decades. However, a slowdown in growth of employment opportunities, affecting both women & men, has dampened the effects of affirmative action efforts & made equal opportunity for women more difficult to achieve. Discrimination in job opportunity, advancement, & salary continues to be evident, & is shown in a number of examples. AA.