Women in mathematics,Science,and Engineering Essay

Women in mathematics,Science,and Engineering - Essay Example In this paper, the status and role of women in math, science, and engineering in Canada will be reviewed in order to determine how successful one of the most developed of such societies has been in its efforts. Canada was chosen as a focus for study because there is sufficient evidence in that nation’s research literature to make good comparisons between women’s standing and men’s standing in the relevant career fields. The paper will review the professional opportunities and challenges that women face in math, science, and engineering, as well as the political, economic, and social issues that impact on the role women play. The resource that will be used to review the relevant data will be a comprehensive report titled Women in Science and Engineering in Canada, produced by the Corporate Planning and Policy Directorate (CPPC) of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Following the review of the information, a conclusion and recommendati ons will be offered regarding how successful Canada has been in promoting participation among women and what the nation can do to improve in its efforts. The CPPC indicates that only 3% of women in Canada have careers in the technological fields including sciences and engineering, while 10.5% of men have such careers (p. 29). Further, the workforce in those fields was made up, in 2004, of only 22% women, despite the fact that women hold approximately 40% of the Bachelor’s degrees given in appropriate fields of study (p. 30-31). Women have equal to higher unemployment rates than men, despite the fact that their overall numbers are less than a third of men’s within the relevant fields (p. 31). They are less likely to hold management positions, even among groups with similar levels of degree attainment (p. 32). In private and corporate enterprise research and development careers, their numbers of participation range from lows of less than 20% to highs of 25% regardless of degree levels achieved (p. 41). In the government research and development sector, where great efforts have been made to increase participation in the last three decades, women’s overall rates of participation have increased from 3% of the workforce in 1980, but they still stand at just 20% by 2009 (p. 42). Even in the public world of the higher academies, where the CPPC notes that â€Å"employment equity programs† have resulted in women’s participation rates growing at levels up to five times higher than that of men in recent decades, the highest level of women making up any particular discipline’s overall numbers of full professorships or associate professorships is less than one third. Most fields show that women hold less than 20% of such positions (p. 37). These figures hold across all age groups and degree groups, indicating that lower participation rates among women are a system-wide problem (p. 39). The CPPC summarizes that for the academies part icularly â€Å"the hiring statistics present a rather slow and steady improvement for women. There has been progress over the last decade according to the data†¦ but gender equality remains a distant possibility† (p. 39). Overall rates, including both public and private career groups, support these conclusions. The employment facts for women in math, science and engineering in both the public and private sectors, as shown in these and other figures, indicates that women are underrepresented. The CPPC considered a number of possible reasons why this occurs. One