FIRST LADY OF PHYSICS

FIRST LADY OF PHYSICS
FIRST LADY OF PHYSICS

Chien-Shiung Wu  (1912-1997)

Chien-Shiung Wu was born May 31, 1912, in a small fishing village just north of Shanghai, China, the second of three siblings.  Her father was an engineer; her mother a teacher.  Both her parents valued education and encouraged her to follow her passions.  Although it was not common for girls to be educated during this time, Wu got her early education at the Mingde Women's Vocational Continuing School, a school started by her father who believed strongly that girls should receive an education..  Instead of playing outside like other children Wu spent her time listening to the newly-invented radio for knowledge and pleasure.  She also enjoyed Chinese classics, poetry and western literature.

At the age of ten Wu moved from her hometown to go to the Suzhou Women's Normal School No. 2, which was a boarding school with classes for training teachers as well as for regular high school.  The subjects in science slowly became a passion for Wu.  In 1929, she graduated at the top of her class and was admitted to National Central University in Nanjing.  Because government regulations required college students to work as a teacher for one year before beginning college courses, Wu spent her year  teaching at a public school in Shanghai.

In 1934, Wu graduated from the University with a degree in physics.  After graduation she became a researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Academia Sinica.  Her supervisor  Gu Jing-Wei, a female professor who had earned her PhD in the U.S., encouraged Wu to do the same.  With the financial help of her uncle, Wu Zhou-Zhi, she sailed to the U.S. where she enrolled in the University of California Berkley in 1936.  In 1940, Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu graduated with a PhD in physics.  She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

While she was studying at Berkley  Dr.  Wu met  Luke Chia-Liu Yaun, whom she married May 30, 1942.  They then moved to the east coast where Dr. Wu taught physics at Smith College in North Hampton, Massachusetts and at Princeton University in New Jersey.  She was the first woman to be hired as faculty in the Physics Department at Princeton.  Shortly afterward Dr.  Wu took a job at Columbia University in New York City and joined the Manhattan Project's Substitute Alloy Materials (SAM) Laboratories..  Project researchers were working on the creation of the atomic bomb.  Dr. Wu's research included improving Geiger counters for the detection of radiation and the enrichment of uranium in large quantities.  Like most physicists in the Project  Dr. Wu distanced herself  from it in later years because of its' destructive outcome.

After the end of World War II, Dr. Wu accepted a position as an associate research professor at Columbia where she would remain for the rest of her career.  In 1952 she became an associate professor, making her the first tenured physics professor at the university.  Dr. Wu became a full professor in 1958 and was named the Michael I. Pupin Professor of Physics in 1973.  Her discoveries were important in physics but even crossed over into biology and medicine.  Her contributions became important to certain studies on the molecular changes in red blood cells that cause sickle cell anemia.  Dr. Wu was considered to be the top experimental physicist in the world.  She also became renowned for her promotion of teaching STEM to all students regardless of gender.

While the list of  Dr. Wu's honors and accolades  is pages long, she never received the Nobel Prize.  Many in the scientific world believe this is the greatest mistake ever made by the Nobel committee.

Dr. Wu died February 16, 1997, in New York City.  In accordance with her wishes, her ashes were buried in the courtyard of the school founded by her father and which she attended as a girl.

 

Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

 

A LEGACY OF LIFE IN JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS

A LEGACY OF LIFE IN JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS
A LEGACY OF LIFE IN JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS

War internee and artist, Miné Okubo is well known for her representations of daily life and humanity. She is most famous for her drawings depicting Japanese and Japanese American internment during World War II.

Born on June 12, 1912, Miné Okubo was Japanese American and grew up in Riverside, California. Her parents were both born in Japan, but came to the United States in 1904 to represent their country at the St. Louis Exposition of Arts and Crafts. Okubo’s father was a scholar and her mother was a calligrapher who graduated with an honors degree from the Tokyo Art Institute. However, in the US, Okubo’s father worked first at a candy shop, and then as a gardener and landscaper. Her mother was a housewife and had little time for her art work. However, her mother encouraged Okubo to pursue her interest in art.

Okubo attended Riverside Junior College in 1931. She gained a scholarship to study art at the University of California Berkeley and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in art in 1935. Okubo continued studying at Berkeley and completed a Master of Arts degree in art and anthropology the following year. While attending university, Okubo held a series of different jobs to earn a living. She worked as a seamstress, maid, farm laborer, and tutor.

Okubo’s excellence in art earned her Berkeley’s distinguished honor, the Bertha Taussig Traveling Art Fellowship. The award was given to her so that she could study, travel, and paint in Europe for a two-year period. She received the award in 1938. During the fellowship, she studied in Paris under artist Fernand Léger. However, in September 1939, war broke out in Europe. Okubo, who was in Switzerland at the time, was stranded. But eventually she was able to obtain a pass through France, which enabled her to board the last ship leaving Bordeaux for the United States. Okubo’s return to America meant that she could not complete the last six months of her fellowship.

After Okubo came back to the United States, she began working with the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. In this role, Okubo worked on a number of mural projects, including those at the Oakland Hospitality House and Fort Ord. During the period 1940-1941, she also curated two exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which showcased the artwork that she produced while studying in Europe.

December 7, 1941, changed the course of MinéOkubo’s life and the lives of the entire Japanese and Japanese American communities living in the United States. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 in 1942, which banned people of Japanese descent from living on the West Coast. Okubo and her family were forced to vacate their home and were separated for relocation. Okubo and another brother were sent to the Tanforan relocation center, a former racetrack, in San Bruno, California. They shared a 20’ x 9’ horse stall that smelled of manure, and they were forced to sleep on sacks made of hay. They were later transferred to the Topaz internment camp in Utah.

Despite the difficult living conditions, Okubo continued to pursue her art. In conjunction with Berkeley art professor Chiura Obata and other fellow artists, who were also detained, Okubo helped to found the Tanforan Art School and later the Topaz Art School. At both locations, Okubo taught art lessons to children, adults, and senior citizens. She worked as an illustrator for the Topaz Times. Okubo also helped produce Trek, a literary magazine that was created at Topaz. She drew the covers for the magazine and acted as its art editor.

In 1944, Fortune magazine noticed Okubo’s drawings in Trek and asked her to come to New York City to work as one of their illustrators. She agreed and was able to leave the internment camp to take up residence in New York City. Her first assignment for Fortune was to provide illustration for an article they were writing on Japan.

While Okubo was in the internment camp, she made over 2,000 drawings in charcoal, watercolor, pen, and ink, depicting her everyday experiences. Often these drawings showed her observations of women and children in the camp. After the war ended, she was encouraged to compile her drawings into a book. In 1946, her book, entitled Citizen 13660 was published. It contained 206 drawings from her time in the camps. It was the first published account of the experience from an internee. The title of the book refers to the number assigned to Okubo by the US government during her internment period.

Okubo worked as a freelance and commercial artist until 1951, when she became a full-time painter. She produced a number of illustrations for newspapers and magazines, including Time, Life, and The New York Times. She also provided drawings to accompany children’s books such as Where the Carp Banners Fly by Grace W. McGavran, Ten Against the Storm by Marianna Nugent Prichard, and The Seven Stars by Toru Matsumoto. From 1951 to 1952, Okubo moved to California to work as an art lecturer at UC Berkley, before returning to New York City.

In 1981, the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians was created to seek an apology and restitution for the injustices carried out against Japanese and Japanese American communities by the US government during the war. Okubo appeared before the committee and testified about her experiences and how her artwork connected with internment. Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 to recognize the illegal removal of people of Japanese ancestry from their homes in World War II. Internees were also awarded financial compensation in the amount of $20,000. Okubo used the money to pay off debts.

In 1984, Okubo’s book Citizen 13660 won the American Book Award. In 1991, Okubo’s work was recognized with an award from the National Women’s Caucus of Art. She continued painting until her death in 2001.

By Dr. Kelly A. Spring | 2017

MLA – Spring, Kelly. "Mine Okubo." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago- Spring, Kelly. "Mine Okubo" National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mine-okubo.

PHOTO: Library of Congress 

 

THE LAST QUEEN OF HAWAII

THE LAST QUEEN OF HAWAII
THE LAST QUEEN OF HAWAII

QUEEN LILI'UOKALA   (1838-1917)

Growing up in a royal family, Queen Lili‘uokalani was trained to be a monarch. Even though becoming queen was probably not a surprise to her, she may not have known that she would also become the last sovereign monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Unfortunately, she was only able to reign for three years because the United States overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy. However, Lili‘uokalani published her side of the story in a memoir that became the only autobiography written by a Hawaiian monarch.

Queen Lili‘uokalani was born on September 2, 1838 in Hawaii to a wealthy and high-class family. Her full birth name was Lydia Lili‘u Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamaka‘eha. According to Hawaiian customs, Lili‘uokalani was adopted by extended members of her family. She started attending the Royal School and learned English at the age of four. Lili‘uokalani and all of her classmates were seen as contenders to one day take the Hawaiian throne. In addition, she was often surrounded by royalty because her mother was an advisor to the King of Hawaii. After finishing her exams at the Royal School in 1853, Lili‘uokalani traveled with the royal court and was sometimes referred to as the “the highest unmarried woman in the Kingdom.” However this changed by 1860, when Lili‘uokalani and American royal aide named John Owen Dominis got engaged. The couple got married two years later, but Lili‘uokalani wrote in her memoir that they had an unhappy marriage. They never had children together, but Lili‘uokalani adopted three children, while Dominis had a child with one of her servants.

Lili‘uokalani and her family remained in the inner circle of the royal court and frequently worked on charity projects with the king and queen. In 1872, the King of Hawaii died without naming a successor. This king was the last of the Kamehameha kings, so according to the Hawaiian constitution, a new king would be elected by the legislature. King Lunalilo became the next royal to take the throne until 1874. Unfortunately, he also died without naming a successor, a year after becoming king. Lili‘uokalani’s brother David Kalākaua was elected as the next King of Hawaii and won against the former Queen Emma (wife to Kamehameha IV). Supporters of Queen Emma protested the results of this election, and many of them had to be imprisoned. This was only the beginning of the political unrest. While Lili‘uokalani’s brother was the king, settlers and sugar planters from the United States wanted to control more of Hawaii. They used their power and influence to force Kalākaua to sign a new constitution that took most of the power away from the monarchy. By the time Kalākaua died in 1891, royal officials had very little power.

When Lili‘uokalani’s brother died, she was the next rightful heir to the Hawaiian throne. On January 29, 1891, Lili‘uokalani was sworn in as queen. One of her main goals was to reestablish the power and sovereignty of the monarchy that her brother had to give up. First, she successfully fought for the resignation of her brother’s former staff. When they initially refused, she took it to the Hawaii Supreme Court, and they ruled in her favor. She also restored her supporters to positions that they lost due to the political changes. Lili‘uokalani’s next step was to re-write the constitution and restore the monarchy to its former glory. Unfortunately, this posed a threat to American businessmen, so they organized a coup d'état and overthrew Queen Lili‘uokalani. Although she tried for several years to regain her throne through the United States court systems, Americans had a different plan in mind. With the Queen overthrown, the militia was able to seize Hawaii and it was officially annexed as a territory to the United States in July of 1898.

That same year, Lili‘uokalani published her memoir entitled Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, which became the only autobiography written by a Hawaiian monarch. She discusses several monumental events including her rise to the throne, the overthrow of the monarchy, and her arrest and trial in 1895 for suspected treason. She spent the rest of her life fighting for native Hawaiians to regain power and autonomy over their land. On November 11, 1917, Queen Lili‘uokalani died in her bed at age seventy-nine.

MLA – Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Queen Lili‘uokalani.” National Women’s History Museum, 2020. Date accessed.

Chicago – Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Queen Lili‘uokalani.” National Women’s History Museum. 2020. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/queen- liliuokalani.

Photo: Library of Congress

She Was A Visionary & She Persisted

She Was A Visionary & She Persisted
She Was A Visionary & She Persisted

PATSY MINK (1927-2002)

In 1959 when Hawaii became a U.S. State, Patsy Mink knew she wanted to run for a position in government. Little did she know, she would become the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. In addition to writing bills like Title IX, the Early Childhood Education Act, and the Women's Educational Equity Act, Mink was the first Asian-American to run for U.S. President.

Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born on December 6, 1927 in Paia, Hawaii. One of two children, her father, Suematsu Takemoto was a civil engineer. When she was a junior at Maui High School, she won her first election as class president. She graduated in 1944 as the valedictorian. After graduation, she went on to attend Wilson College in Pennsylvania and the University of Nebraska but transferred after facing racial discrimination. All students of color were not allowed to live in the same dorms as white students. In addition, Mink was diagnosed with a thyroid condition that needed surgery. She decided to move to Honolulu to finish her schooling at the University of Hawaii with hopes of becoming a doctor. At her new school, she became a member of the varsity debate team, and was elected president of the Pre-Medicine Students Club. She graduated in 1948 with majors in zoology and chemistry. She applied to several medical schools after graduating but none of her applications were accepted. Instead, Mink decided to apply to law school and was accepted at the University of Chicago Law School.

While at the University of Chicago, she met John Mink playing the card game bridge at the International House. The two married and remained in Chicago. Patsy graduated from Law School in 1951 but kept her job at the University of Chicago Law School library. The next year, they moved to Hawaii after having their daughter Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn would grow up to be an author and advocate for women’s issues. While in Hawaii, Patsy Mink registered for the bar exam to be able to practice law in the territory. Unfortunately, even after she passed, Mink was unable to find a job because of her interracial marriage. She decided to start her own practice instead and founded the Oahu Young Democrats in 1954. She became the first Japanese-American woman to practice law in her home state of Hawaii. Mink also worked as a private attorney for the House of Representatives in that territory. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, Mink immediately began campaigning to be elected as a congresswoman. Although Mink’s first attempt was unsuccessful, she returned to politics in 1962 when she won a seat in the Hawaii State Senate. She continued to campaign for a seat in the U.S. Congress even after the Democratic party decided to support another candidate.

In 1964, a second position was created in the U.S. House of Representatives. With the help of her husband and several unpaid volunteers, Mink won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, making her the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. As a congresswoman, Mink fought for gender and racial equality, affordable childcare, bilingual education, and became a supporter of Title IX. She was one of the authors and sponsors of the Title IX law that stated that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”[1] While she worked in Washington, D.C., she also traveled back to Hawaii every other week to make sure she was connected to the issues and concerns of the Hawaiian people. She successfully served on many committees while in congress including; the Committee on Education and Labor, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and the Budget Committee. Through these committees, she was able to voice the concerns of groups that were discriminated against. In 1974, she was able to pass the Women’s Educational Equity Act to promote gender equality in schools.

Recognized for her work, Mink was asked by the Oregon Democrats to run for United States President with the support of their party. Their focus on the anti-war movement attracted Mink, and she decided to run for president. Unfortunately, she only received 2 percent of the vote. After this, Mink remained active in politics and served as the president of the Americans for Democratic Action. She also served as Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. In 1990, Mink was reelected to Congress and served six terms in the House of Representatives. During this time she also formed the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. In August of 2002, Mink was hospitalized for pneumonia. A month later, Patsy Mink died in Honolulu, Hawaii. Due to the upcoming election, her name was still on the ballot in November even though she passed away a month before. She won the election by a landslide but was replaced by Ed Case. After her death, the Title IX law was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

[1] US Department of Education. "Title IX and Sex Discrimination."
September 25, 2018. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html

PHOTO: Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/mink/mink-about.html. 

 

Asian Women in STEM Careers

Asian Women in STEM Careers
Asian Women in STEM Careers

An Invisible Minority in a Double Bind

In the effort to increase the participation of women and people of color in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, a common assumption is that Asian men and women are doing fine, that they are well represented in STEM and have no difficulty excelling in STEM careers. This belief is supported by the easy visibility of Asian faces on campuses, in STEM workplaces, and in government laboratories. Indeed, Asians are generally considered to be overrepresented. Data from the 2009 Survey of Earned Doctorates from U.S. universities show that 22% of the 2009 doctoral recipients planning to work in the United States were individuals of Asian descent. With so many entering the workforce, it is easy to assume that Asians women are progressing nicely and that they can be found at the highest levels of STEM industry, academics, and government institutions. The data tell a different story.

The advancement of Asian female scientists and engineers in STEM careers lags behind not only men but also white women and women of other underrepresented groups. Very small numbers of Asian women scientists and engineers are advancing to become full professors or deans or university presidents in academia, to serve on corporate board of trustees or become managers in industry, or to reach managerial positions in government. Instead, in academia 80% of this population can be found in non-faculty positions, such as postdocs, researchers, and lab assistants, or nontenured faculty positions, and 95% employed in industry and over 70% employed in government are in nonmanagerial positions. In earning power they lag behind their male counterparts as well as behind women of other races/ethnicities in STEM careers.

The challenges faced by women of color in STEM fields were clearly articulated 35 years ago when the term double bind was first used in reference to challenges unique to the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity that are faced by women of color in STEM fields. At the time these challenges were, and still are, commonly thought to apply less to Asian women than to black, Latina, and Native American women.

This data presented here point to the existence of a double bind for Asian women, facing both a bamboo ceiling because of Asian stereotyping and a glass ceiling because of implicit gender bias. The scarcity of Asian women in upper management and leadership positions merits greater attention, more targeted programmatic efforts, and inclusion in the national discussion of the STEM workforce.

Academic faculty

The percentage of Asian women employed by colleges and universities who are tenured or who are full professors is the smallest of any race/ethnicity and gender.

Percentage of doctoral scientists and engineers employed in universities and 4-year colleges (S&E occupations) who are tenured, by race/ethnicity and gender (2008)

Source. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of Doctorate Recipients: 2008. Table 9-26 “Employed doctoral scientists and engineers in 4-year educational institutions, by broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and tenure status: 2008” Accessed July 16, 2011

Note: Data of American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander is suppressed for data confidentiality reasons.

Percentage of doctoral scientists and engineers employed in universities and 4-year colleges (S&E occupations) who are full professors, by race/ethnicity and sex (2008)

Source. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of Doctorate Recipients: 2008. Table 9-25 “Employed doctoral scientists and engineers in 4-year educational institutions, by broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and faculty rank: 2008” Accessed July 16, 2011

Note: Data of American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander is suppressed for data confidentiality reasons.

Academic leadership

A 2006-7 survey of 2,148 presidents of two-year and four-year public and private colleges published by the American Council on Education (“The Spectrum Initiative: Advancing Diversity in the College Presidency”) found that only 0.9% of all college presidents were Asian. By comparison, 5.8% were black and 4.6% were Hispanic.

Asians holding science and engineering (S&E) doctorates comprise 34% of postdocs but only 7% of deans and department chairs. A similar bamboo ceiling for being Asian emerges in Table 2 when the data are disaggregated by academic rank; the higher the rank the smaller the percentage of Asians in the position. And we find the largest proportion of Asians fall in the “rank not available” group which includes mostly post-docs but also non-faculty researchers and staff or administrators who do not have a faculty rank.

Percentage S&E doctorate holders employed in universities and 4-year colleges who are Asian, by type of academic position (2008)

Academic Position Total employees Non-Asians Asians percentage Asian
Post doc 18,500 12,200 6,300 34.1%
Teaching Faculty 179,600 157,700 21,900 12.2%
Research Faculty 115,200 96,900 18,300 15.9%
Dean, Department head, Chair 28,700 26,700 2,000 7.0%
President, Provost, Chancellor 3,300 Over 3,200** D* N/A

Source. National Science Foundation. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Table 9-22 “S&E doctorate holders employed in universities and 4-year colleges, by type of academic position, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2008” Accessed July 16, 2011.

Notes: * Refers to data suppressed for data confidentiality reasons. **Includes 2,900 White, 200 Black, and 100 Hispanic.

The same pattern is found among Asian females. For Asians in S&E occupations, the percentage of females steadily decreases from 35% of assistant professors to 28% of associate professors to 12% of full professors. Furthermore, at each of these professorial ranks, the percentage of females in the Asian population is consistently lower than the percentage of females in the non-Asian population. (This is true for all occupations and S&E occupations.)

S&E doctoral holders employed in universities and 4-year colleges, by broad occupation, sex, and rank, for Asians and non-Asians (2008)

S&E Occupations Total Total Asians Asians:
Female /Total		 Total
Non-Asians		 Non-Asians:
Female /Total
Total 210,700 32,400 29.9% 178,300 31.1%
Rank Not Available 38,200 9,800 39.8% 28,400 39.1%
Other Faculty 10,400 1,300 46.2% 9,100 45.1%
Assistant Professor 44,000 8,100 34.6% 35,900 40.4%
Associate Professor 46,200 5,800 27.6% 40,400 34.4%
Professor 71,800 7,500 12.0% 64,300 18.4%

Source. National Science Foundation. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Table 9-25 “S&E doctorate holders employed in universities and 4-year colleges, by broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and faculty rank: 2008”. Accessed July 16, 2011.

Government

Disaggregating NSF government workforce data by gender and race/ethnicity reveals that the same pattern of under-representation of Asian women in management positions. American Indian/Alaska Native women are less well represented in management.

Percentage of scientists and engineers employed in government who are managers, by race/ethnicity and sex (2006)

Source. National Science Foundation. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Table H 32, with additional detailed data provided by Joan Burrelli, “Scientists and engineers employed in government, by managerial status, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006.” . Accessed December 5, 2009.

Percentage of scientists and engineers holding doctorate degrees employed in government who are managers, by race/ethnicity and sex (2006)

Source. National Science Foundation. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Table H 32, with additional detailed data provided by Joan Burrelli, “Scientists and engineers employed in government, by managerial status, age, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006.” . Accessed December 5, 2009.

Note: Data for Alaska Natives/Anerican Indian women are not available

Industry

According to the 2003 report Advancing Asian Women in the Workplace by Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization working to advance women in business and the professions, Asian-American women in industry are most likely to have graduate education but least likely to hold a position within three levels of the CEO. Among the more than 10,000 corporate officers in Fortune 500 companies, there were about 1,600 women of whom 30 were Asian.

This trend has been borne out for scientists and engineers employed in industry and business as well. Disaggregating NSF industry workforce data by gender and race/ethnicity, we see that the percentage of Asian women scientists and engineers, including those with PhDs, who are S&E managers is the smallest of any race/ethnicity and gender.

Percentage of scientists and engineers employed in business or industry who are S&E managers, by race/ethnicity and gender (2006)

Source. National Science Foundation. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Table H 34. “Scientists and engineers employed in business or industry, by managerial occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006.” . Accessed Feburary 13, 2010. Note. Data for Alaska Natives/American Indians women are not available

Percentage of scientists and engineers doctorate degree holders employed in business or industry who are S&E managers, by race/ethnicity and sex (2006)

Source. National Science Foundation. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Table H 34 ,with additional detailed data provided by Joan Burrelli, “Scientists and engineers employed in business or industry, by managerial occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006.” . Accessed Feburary 13, 2010. Note. Data for Hispanic women, Alaska Natives/American Indians are not available

Industry leadership

The Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP) reported that in 2010 among the Fortune 500 companies there were only ten Asians, of whom three were women, with the position of chair, president, or CEO; of the 5,250 board members, only 2.08% were Asians or Pacific Islanders; and 80.4% of the companies hade no Asian and Pacific Islander board members.

A review of NSF data on the science and engineering business and industry workforce reveals a surprising under-representation of Asians at the managerial level. Only 6% of Asian scientists and engineers are managers, and only 2% are S&E managers. Again, the Asians are outpaced by all other ethnic/racial.

For the Asian scientists and engineers employed in industry, although women comprise 37% of the non-managers in this group, they are only 23% of the managers and 16% of the S&E managers. As in the other sectors, among all scientists and engineers who are employed in industry at the manager rank, the percentage of Asian females is consistently lower than the percentage of black and Hispanic females.

Scientists and engineers employed in business or industry, by managerial status, sex, and race/ethnicity (2006)

All scientists and engineers Non-managers Managers S&E managers
Total Female/Total Total Female/Total Total Female/Total
Total 9,024,000 35.60% 954,000 19.00% 241,000 21.60%
White 6,780,000 34.50% 790,000 17.60% 191,000 20.90%
Asian 1,179,000 36.60% 77,000 23.40% 25,000 16.00%
Black 407,000 47.70% 33,000 42.40% 11,000 45.50%
Hispanic 467,000 38.10% 38,000 23.70% 11,000 18.20%
American Indian / Alaska Natives 26,000 42.30% 3000 N/A 1,000 N/A

Source. National Science Foundation. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Table H 34 ,with additional detailed data provided by Joan Burrelli, “Scientists and engineers employed in business or industry, by managerial occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006.” . Accessed Feburary 13, 2010.

Note. D = Suppressed for data confidentiality reasons; *= estimate less than 100

 

Lilian Wu (wulil@us.ibm.com) is program executive, IBM University Programs World-wide, and chair of the National Research Council’s Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

Wei Jing (wjing@nas.edu) is a research associate in the Policy and Global Affairs Division of the National Academies.

Cite this Article

Wu, Lilian, and Wei Jing. “Asian Women in STEM Careers: An Invisible Minority in a Double Bind.” Issues in Science and Technology 28, no. 1 (Fall 2011).
https://issues.org/realnumbers-asian-women-stem-careers/#.YJX0IIQlwx8.link