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Ruina, Edith, Ed.Women in Science and Technology.Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge.Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, New York, N.Y.; CarnegieCorp. of New York, N.Y.; General Electric Foundation,Ossining, N.Y.May 7343p.; A Report on the Workshop on Women in Scienceand Technology Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology, May 21-23, 1973)Room 10-140, Workshop on Women in Science andTechnology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 ($2.00)

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.75 HC-$1.85 PLUS POSTAGEDESCRIPTORS Adult Education; *Career Planning; Counseling

Programs; Employer Attitudes; Employment; Females;Labor Force; School Industry Relationship; *ScienceCareers; Secondary Schools; *Technology; *WomensEducation; *Working Women; Workshops

ABSTRACTThe ultimate aim of the Workshop on Women in Science

and Technology was to stimulate parents and daughters to exploretechnical and scientific careers. Approximately 100 men and womenfrom diverse organizations (industry, governmental agencies,non-profit institutions, Federal and State agencies, public schools,special vocational schools, advisory committees, women'sorganizations, and universities) attended the forum. The focus of theprogram was primarily on secondary schools and eluploying institutionsin that they seemed most directly related to women's occupationaldecisions and opportunities. The employer's contribution to thesupply of women in technical and scientific occupations was perceivedas the attraction and retention of women employees and communicationand interaction with educational and other institutions. Participantsemphasized that the secondary schools' objectives are not and shouldnot be limited to occupational preparation; students need to becomeaware of manpower projections, demographic factors, combiningfamily/work roles, women in the labor force, and continuingeducation. Specific suggestions are directed to schooladministrators, teachers, counselors, parents, and peer groups. Thereport includes a summary of the remarks of workshop speakersrepresenting the areas of: employment (management viewpoint), laborforce, education, and psychology and counseling. (EA)

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Challenges to Secondary Schoolsand Employers

Copies of this report are available fortwo dollars each. Mail Address:Room 10-140Workshop on Women in Scienceand TechnologyMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Women in Science and TechnologyA Report on the Workshop on Womenin Science and Technology. heldMay 21, 22, and 23, 1973, at the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge, Massachusetts

Sponsored byCarnegie Corporation of New YorkGeneral Electric FoundationAlfred P. Sloan Foundation

Prepared byEdith Ruina, Staff DirectorWorkshop on Women in Scienceand Technology

ContentsEditor's Note 2

Introduction 4

1

Women and Work Today

2The Format of the Workshop 7

3The Challenge to Change

The Challenge to Employers

The Challenge to SecondarySchools

Employer/EducatorCooperative Efforts

9

10

12

16

4Can We Get There from Here? 18

5How the Experts See It 20Speech Summaries

Employment 20

Labor Force 24

Education 27

Psychology and Counseling 30

6Information Rr sourcesand References

34

7Workshop Participants 37

Editor's Note ,High school is the last formal educationfor most women. Regardless of whetherthey go directly to work after high schoolor pursue further education, they arelikely to choose "women's jobs." Relativelyfew girls carefully consider their futurecareers and the full range of options. Unlessthey do so before the end of high school.women will continue to settle for lowerstatus and achievement than men, and thesituation will be worse for women from poorfamilies who have little formal education.

In the spring of '73, several issuesconverged to lead MIT to organize theWor..stiop on Women in Science andTechnologyconcerns about women'seducation and their role in the workforce, students "turned off" by technologywhen major societal problemsassociated with energy, transportation, andhealth care required a continuoussupply of skilled labor, and the recognitionof the need for better linkages betweeneducation and work. The focus was primarily on secondary schools and employinginstitutions because they seemed mostdirectly related to women's occupa-tional decisions and opportunities. But eachindividual and each institution has todo "her thing" and the particular emphasisof this Workshop certainly relates toonly a piece of the total context thatinfluences girls' aspirations andachievements. Fathers and mothers,elementary school teachers, peers,the media, all of whom sometimes purveythe traditional restrictive attitudesthat they learned, can become change agentsalso.

The Workshop did not consider specificoccupations in any detail, but theultimate aim was to stimulate parents and

2

daughters to explore technical andscientific careers. Just as it was possible toadd dimension by artful design tothe cover portrayal of the female symbol, soshould it become increasingly possiblefor women to add depth to their lives byconsidering careers in technology orscience, many named in the Wick type onthe white ground. Women rnig;,t wantto combine such work simultaneously withtheir work as wives and mothers.Detailed information about occupations canbe obtained from some of the reliableorganizations listed here in Section 6.Since people with varying amounts ofeducational preparationhigh school,technical schools, college, professionalschoolsare essential to perform the fullspectrum of work in our technologicalsociety, we have included an array ofresources.

I think that by now there is considerableconsensus on developing greateropportunity for women. Everyone of us hasbeen touched by some manifestationof the needwives' or daughters' conflicts,the media, the political activityassociated with the women's movement, thelarge number of women already in thework force, personal experience as women.What reservations persist often arisefrom genuine uncertainty about how toevolve strategy and tactics that willnot adversely affect othersthe rearing ofchildren and family relationships,for example, or members of the currentwork force who must include new entrants.There is no such thing as a solution to suchfundamental questions; rather theycall for a continuous process of accommodation among individuals, institutions,and societal values. The Workshop was one

example of a way to join forces withan ongoing process of change. It broughttogether people whose worlds do notgenerally intersect and their suggestions,summarized in this publication, dea!largely with how to stimulate and expandinteractive among educators andemployers. Even when personal attitudesabout equal opportunity lag, indivi-duals can be expected to cooperate in theirinstitutional behavior.

My own feeling is that people are beingasked to grow and to modify their altitudesand behavior in ways that they would wantto anyway. They may resist initially, as Idiscovered when I was telephoning invitations to the Workshop. Almost automatical-ly, I ihquld be referred to the senior womanin the organization if she existed. It waseasier to interest women than stout-heartedmale executives in schools and incorporations. But when the men came, theyseemed to do so not for philanthropicreasons, but because they were worriedabout their own relationship to this pressinghuman resource problem and appreciated acomfortable atmosphere where theycould argue about and work on in-provingwomen's lot in their institutions.

Lava Wiesner provided the original inspire-tion for the Workshop and continuedas an equal partner in virtually everyaspect of its planning and execution. Herprevious experience with educationalissues and her insights into the problemsof women and of organizationalprocesses were reflected in the evolutionof this project. Throughout, shedemonstrated her will to exercise and toexpand the creative potential of herwork in the role of wife of the presidentof MIT.

3

This report constitutes the only tangibletoken of our appreciation to partici-pants in the Workshop, to the generouspeople at MIT, secondary schools, .corporations, and government agencieswho cooperated in defining itssubstance and constituency, and to theCarnegie, General Electric, and SloanFou ndations.

My deepest personal gratitude goes toNadine Rodwin for her intellectualcontributions, hard work, and her friend-ship; to Chancellor Paul Gray for hisquiet confidence in this endeavor; toJack Ruina, who husbanded myresources; and to Rachel, our eleven-year-old daughter, who bore her latch keywith grace from January to June of 1973,and who promises to grow up to be acompassionate liberated person.

Edith Ruina

Introduction-- - -How can a girl grow up to he atechnician, engineer, or ascientist? Providing girls with theguidance and incentives totake skilled positions in scienceand technology is a majorresponsibility of educators andemployers. How can teachers.human resource experts,government, universities, andwomen's organizationscontribute to increasing careeroptions for women?

The reasons for the virtually tokenrepresentation of women inthe skilled trades and professionsare numerous and complex.To consider them, and to developsome tactics for promotingmore opportunities for women, aboutone hundred men and womenfrom diverse organizations, invitedby the Massachusetts Instituteof Technology, participated in aWorkshop on Women inScience and Technology, heldMciy 21. 22. and 23, 1973.on the campus.

Jerome Wiesner, ?resident of MIT.summarized some of theWorkshop's objectives in his welcomingaddress to the participants:

"You've come bare toddy from a widerange of organi!ations. probablyas wide a range- as has everbeen repreyinted in such a forum.from industry. governmentalagencies. nonprofit institutions,federal and state agencies.public schools, special vocational

schools, advisory committees,women's organizations. and universities.I'm sure you ,ill have differentperspectives on the issue of women inscience and technology, and youwill return to responsibilities which touch

issue in a very different way.It has been our experience in the pa.'and our hope for these few daysthat your perspectives can be shared andthat together you can shed light onthe ways in which many kinds oforganizations acting together can change,can increase and open up opportunities,for women in science andtechnology.

"MIT has rich experience in bringingtogether people from government,industry, and the academy totake the first steps in developingthat quality of understandingand communication andcooperation which can ultimatelyresult in a commitment tonew programs and the creation ofnew and more adaptableinstitutional forms and practices,as well as facilitating theall.impot tant per sonal relationshipsbetween individuals particularlyconcvned with the problem at hand.MIT is working within its ownstructures to develop the human resourcethat women represent, and we hopethis Workshop can help expand effortsin secondary schools and inemploying institutions to encouragewomen's participation in everyaspect of our technological society.This is another front in thealmost universal battle for equalityof opportunity."

. ._......._. . .

President Wiesner emphasized thatthere should be "concern notjust for the vocational (tspects ofeducation, science, andtechnology, which are the dominantfocus of the Workshop butfor the general level of scientificand technological literacy inour nation which would be wellserved if these activitiesbecome customary academic andcareer choices for largenumbers of women."

This report describes the Workshopand summarizes its nroceedings.

1 Women and Work Today--

"The average woman worker today is marriedand 39 years old. Over 50 percent ofwomen aged 45-54 are now working."

"Physicists, mathematicians, and engineersare expected to be in short supply bythe end of the decade, and the Departmentof Labor predicts an oversupply oflife scientists in the making. However, thelife sciences are the most popular ofalt scientific careers women pursue."

A bare three percent of the people inthe skilled trades are women,though they comprise nearly fortypercent of the paid work force,about thirty-two million workers.Only about one percent ofthe engineers are women. Overseventy percent of womenare in traditionally female occupations:clerical, sales, and teaching. Theyare seldom in management positionseven in fields where they arerepresented in greater numbers thanmenin education, for example.Although about eighty percert ofelementary teachers arewomen, most principals are men.

These two issuesthe meagerrepresentation of women in the skilledtrades, science, and engineering,and the infrequency with which womenadvance to managementdescribemany aspects of the problem facingeducators and employers whoseek to expand career choices forwomen. Before taking askilled job, a girl must be trainedfor it; but most vocationalprograms, for example, have enrolledonly boys, and girls do not eventhink of training for these "men's jobs."The level of seniority womentend to achieve in the professionaland managerial hierarchiespoints to much the same problem,though in a different way.It is common practice for employersto "groom" young men forleadership positions, while overlookingan equally well-educated andcompetent woman.

.......Economic forces, el.ication, family, andother social factors all have animpact on women's perception ofcareer opportunities for themselvesand society's utilization ofthem. These reinforce each other andoften become self-fulfillingprophecies that restrict opportunities.Perhaps part of the current prohlemstems from one of the most commonapproaches to solving it:isolating and studying individualfactors. Consequent analysesand actions often reflect the interestsof one social group and fail toelicit cooperation from other sectors.Hence, it becomes very difficultto develop comprehensive plans to changethe education and employmentsituation for women. There is growingrecognition of contradictorycultural messages to girls that do adisservice to their full humanityby structuring role expectations toonarrowly. Elementary andsecondary schools must scrutinizetheir environments for directand indirect ways role assignmentsare made and vocationalcounseling is offered.

The urgency of diversifying women'sparticipation in the labor forcegroWs out of the rapid pace at whichchanges are taking place in ourtechnological era. Manpower projections,though not foolproof, indicate arising need for technically competentworkers at every level of educationand training. The homemaker's role andfamily structure are evolving sothat most women need to work for thesame compelling economic reasons

"We face 50 or 100 years of women stayingwhere they are if we don't face up tothe supply side of the equation."

"Women have to learn that they can't rely oniaw; that's only a beginning. There hasto be negotiation, monitoring, bargaining:lessons from the trade unions."

"Most women in the labor force will wo: k25 years or more."

as dc men. Families are getting smaller,and women have less to do athome. Divorce is much more commonthan it used to be, and womenoften need to support their childrena:, well as themselves.

Men as well as women are set iouslyquestioning the roles theygrew up believing they would assume.This trend is part of a nearlyuniversal thrust toward greaterequality for all people,socially, economically, and politically.It emphatically provokesreassessment of the preparation ofwomen for contemporary life.

Many employers, however, questionthe benefits to them of equalopportunity plans for women, andtend to comply just minimallywith legal requirements. Few employersare persuaded of the need forchild care services and for modificationof work schedules and employeebenefits to meet the needs of workingwives and mothers. Also, therearc few incentives for employers tointroduce such changes; somost do not. In fact, employers tendto react in the opposite way:in a tight economic situation they layoff women before men. Thereverse should not be true, but thissituation is clearly unequal.

These circumstances pose seriousobstacles to women whocould otherwise choose to sustaintheir commitment to boththeir work and their families. If awoman has to leave work in

order to raise children, her professionalworth diminishes because home-based or volunteer activities are notconsidered credentials for paidemployment. Because most womenstill want families, and mostmer still want families, bosh are facedwith a complex problem neithercan solve alone.

Employers and educators now have theobligation and the opportunityto intervene in the cycle that restrictswomen's career choices. Programsdevised separately or through cooperativeefforts can increase women'sincentive to prepare for and committhemselves to any career at all,and to careers in science and technology,in particular. Increasingly, publicpolicy expressed in legislation and execu-tive action affirms the collectivedesire for equal opportunity for allindividuals, but designs forimplementation in varied institutionalsettings are necessary to effectthe kind and quality of change that iscalled for.

9 The Format of the Workshop"Cohesion, friction, energy, and lassitude ebb Many participants felt the format of the

and flow in these circumstances." MIT workshop contributed toits success and might suggest a modelfor other workshops designedto stimulate thought and action ...routnew career options for women.To accommodate the heterogeneity ofthe group, which was one of itsmost outstanding features, some plenarysessions were held, and commongrounds for discussions were established.The moderators of the plenary sessionswere Elting Morison, MIT; MichaelMaccoby, Institute for Policy Studies; andJoan Wofford, Organization for Socialand Technical Innovation.

"Workshops such as this are a special effortto meet contemporary needs and shouldbe out of business in 15 years."

The first day plenary session includedbrief presentations by eight speakersfrom industry, research, education, andcareer counseling. Frank Toner andJohn Kingsbury described the effortsbeing made by two major employersof the technically trained labor force toeliminate the sex bias traditional inmany jobs. Phyllis Wallace and BettyVetter focused on some laboreconomics perspectives on women'sparticipation in scientific andtechnical employment.Myron Atkin and Robert Worthingtontook opposing positions on howmuch leadarsh ip the education systemcan take in correcting theinequalities women experience in thelabor market. Speaking aboutgirls' self-images, Helen Astin describedsome research activities on theformative influences on ways girls makecareer choices, and NormanFeingold highlighted some specific waysthe counseling profession couldchange to help girls consider nontradi

tional careers. Summaries of theeight speeches are gives in Section 5.

For the second day, eachparticipant was assigned to a discussiongroup that met during most ofthe day. Two groups, moderated byBernard Kramer, Chairman ofthe Psychology Department in College I Iof the University of Massachusetts,Boston, and Mary C. Potter, AssociateProfessor of Psychology and UrbanStudies at MIT, focused on the socializa-tion of women. Another two, moderatedby Joan Wofford, President of theOrganization for Social and TechnicalInnovation, and Elizabeth C. Wilson,Consultant in Curriculum, MontgomeryCounty Public Schools, addressedwhat secondary schools might do toexpand women's career choices.The current-Ad potential impactof the employment sector wasthe subject of the other two work-shops moderated by Elaine Bond,Director of Computer Programming atIBM's Armonk offices, and RuthShaeffer, Senior Speci. list, OrganizationDevelopmcit Research, NationalIndustrial Conference Board. The groupswere asked to delineate relevantproblems and suggest action. Since eachmoderator was expert in thediscussion topic, she (n.b., Kramer)could help maintain the group'sfocus on the assigned subject.

The luncheon on the second day had asguest speaker Betsy AnckerJohnson,Assistant Secretary for Scienceand Technology, U.S. Departmentof Commerce. The audience all had anemerging awareness that solutions

"What does someone in an ivory tower knowabout what happens in high schools?"

"We need groups in all geographic areas toallow for healthy cross-fertilization.People on the eastern seaboard are alwaysforgetting about the rest of the country."

If India and Israel can find women leaders,why can't we find women managers?"

to current problems such as pollution,transportation, and the energyshortage will require that many moreresources be devote:I to researchand technology. Her discussion ofnational policy directions inrelation to these issues providedparticipants with a frameworkin which to see the need the labor forcewill have for scientists andtechnologists in the coming years.

The plenary session on the third day wasmoderated by Arvonne Fraser, Women'sEquity Action League. This was a forumfor collective consideration of therecommendations of the small discussiongroups.

The participants' involvement with theproceedings was demonstrated inpart by the high response rate (more thanfifty percent) to the post-Workshopmailing. Participants were sent the minutesof their discussion group and wererequested to edit them, comment, andmake suggestions for follow-up activities.

8

3 The Challenge to Change"Girls look at me like I'm nuts whenever I

ask 'Have you thought about being adentist or about being an engineer?' YetI hear now that those are the goodopportunities."

"Too much credence has been given to'further study' before changing anything.It's just a pigeon-hole for action programsand masks lack of real commitment bypeople in positions of influence."

"As long as jobs can be classified as 'men'sjobs' or 'women's jobs,' women willstay at the low end of the totem pole."

"In our school system, you're judged by howmany kids you get into collegeso whatif most jobs don't require college"

The premise of the Workshop was thatif improvements in the status ofwomen are to be a'ceptable and durable,they must arise from a clearunderstanding of the realities of thesocial and economic environment.Approaches to this understanding de-manded considerable effort from theparticipants to perceive how their ownroles and perspectives affectedtheir reactions to those of otherparticipants. A few examplesshow the kind of tensions participantsexperienced.

Women who were keenly aware of theobstacles in their scientific andtechnical careers tended to feel extremelyimpatient about the pace at whicheducational and employment systemscould permit change, even inoptimal circumstances. Researchersfrom academic institutionscautioned against acting withoutgreater knowledge of causesand effects, while others in the groupsconsidered concentrating onresearch an excuse for inaction.Participants from the fieldof early education and those workingwith the problems of maturewomen entering or re-entering thelabor force wanted more emphasison these populations. Someof the teachers and counselors representinglarge urban schools fearedelitism in the attention given thecollege-bound girl and wantedmore focus on vocational opportunitiesfor women high-schoolgraduates. Business leaders wereconcerned about construc-tively combining their necessary profit

making with corporate socialresponsibility.

Despite these tensions and objections.participants indicated thatconfining the discussion to theassigned topic and a relatedaction agenda was more productivethan detailed considerationof every individual's concerns wouldhave been. The feeling wasthat global approaches were likely toresult in global disappointments.

As the second day progressed,participants in the six discussion groupshad the common experience ofseeing the extent of the bias with whicheach institution, each discipline,each social group has seen women'sissues. Although some of themost obvious inequities in the employ-ment and education of womenhave been modified, subtle and profoundhindrances to women's equalparticipation in society still exist.Participants agreed thatcontinuous interaction among avariety of people is requiredto expose and overcome these. Forexampl.:, legislation is anecessary stimulus but, by itself, itis inadequate to design therange of implementation measuresrequired to enlarge women's options.

Through concentration on the roles ofemployers and educators, Workshopparticipants arrived at some recommenda-tions on how these sectors couldseparately and cooperatively contributeto women's career opportunities.The following three sections, culled fromthe records of the discussion groups

"If variations in schedule will do such things and the subsequent plenary session,as cut down turnover or absenteeism, summarize participants' recommendationsit would pay us to try it" for activities that employers and

educators could undertake.

"I'd hate to see part-time work permittedfor women only; it should be for menand women."

"The quickest way to bring about change isto get more women and minorities intoresponsible positions as fast as we can andlet their performance demonstratethat thay are effective."

"No matter how good a policy employerscome up with, the central personneloffice is often only a marginal participantin hiring, and the policy gets distortedby the people in the offices making theactual selection."

The Challenge to Employers

Now can the employment sector increasethe supply of women in technicaland scientific occupations? 7.e employ-er's contribution to the supplyproblem was perceived to fall into twoareas: 1) attraction and retentionof women employees, and 2) communica-tion and interaction witheducational and other institutions.

An employer's recruitment and internalpolicies, as well as publicrelations, can have considerableimpact on attracting andretaining women employees as wellas on extending their careeropportunities. Affirmative action bysenior officials calls for themto develop objectives, to design systemsfor effecting and monitoringchange, and to make employees through-out their organizations aware ofthese efforts. Some of the Workshopparticipants' suggestions forspecific changes follow.

Recruitment should be broader and moreactive. Keeping an open mindabout the wide variety of ways skillscan be acquired would assistemployers in finding women qualifiedfor positions traditionally heldby men. Women often develop synthe-sizing, analytic, and otherabilities, even though they may nothave followed traditional

career patterns. Groups of womenwho are recruitment resources thatmore employers might consider include:

Women without training beyondthe secondary school level but withinterest in and aptitude forscientific and technological pursuits.These might be current high-schoolstudents, housewives, or employedwomen who want to move out ofthe traditional women's jobs.

Women with college training and/or paidor volunteer work experiencethat could be transferable to technicaland scientific occupations. Forexample, there is a surplus of teachers,and those with training in mathor technical subjects might readilytransfer into other settings.Some teaching or volunteer workexperience might be adequatepreparation for a manapement careertrack in a scientific ortechnological organization.

Women with scientific training whowish to reenter the laborforce. Workshop participants felt absencefrom the paid work force is tooreadily assumed to have rendered awoman's skills obsolete. Theyfelt more experimentation with jobplacement and moreencouragement could be given womento participate in training programs.

Many employees, once hired, know littleabout what they can do if theybecome dissatisfied with either their workor the treatment they are receiving.Orientation programs, often very limited

"Girls and their mothers ought to havean intimate experiencetouching, feeling,wiring computers, learning to repair acar. This kind of experience would changewomen's feeling that technology is a bigmale monster."

"If men needed day care centers to work,organizations would provide them."

"Women surely have to recognize that theyhave responsibilities to society as wellas rights, just as men do."

in scope and duration, shouldroutinely include information on equalemployment legislation, grievanceprocedures both within the employingorganization and outside togovernmental agencies, companyregulations, benefit programs,advancement plans, etc. Also, thoroughorientation to a work place needsto be an on-going process; employersmust continuously disseminateinformation about options and oppor-tunities at every managementlevel.

To bring about the changes that willinvite women to nontraditionalcareers, committees of employers, maleand female employee groups, ,and resource people should be estab-lished to discuss and evaluatecompany programs. These committeescould also design strategies forattracting and retaining women employees.Outside these committees, allemployees should have occasions todiscuss and monitor company-sponsored programs, such as job training,job assessment, and benefits,for conformity with company policy.

Career plans for women, jointlyarrived at by management and the womanemployee, are also essential.Women employees, including those insuch traditionally female rolesas secretaries, should be given knowledgeof and opportunity for verticaland horizontal mobility within anemploying organization. T,lisinternal mobility has, by and large,belonged to men only.

Workshop participants felt that thenegative image much of thepublic has of science and technologywas another problem thatemployers coula work to correct. Partof this image certainly stems frommisunderstanding these fields and thenature of work in them. Manyparticipants agreed, however, thatemployers in these areas couldrevise internal policies and practicesto improve the attractivenessof scientific and technical occupationsfor women and men. Havingdone so, an organization's publicrelations, both formal andinformal, could begin improving thepublic's image of these occupations.

Other changes Workshopparticipants thought employers couldmake need turther experimer.-tation and study of their value and cost(especially since there tends tobe more reluctance to accept changesthat are perceived to benefitfemale employees rather than maleemployees). Some of thespecific suggestions for stu.iy aredescribed below:

The definition of equal work. Equal payfor equal work is essential, butwhat is equal work? Won:en often carryresponsibilities that are definedas being typical of lower job categoriesthan would be the case if a manhad essentially the same responsibilities.Better methods of equating jobresponsibilities should be devised so that

"substantially equal work" does infact entail substantially equalresponsibility.

- -

"Mathematics ought to be part of everysubject in the curriculum. It's tooimportant to be left to the math teachers."

"How can I counsel kids about their futureswhen I have to spend half my time talkingto probation officers?"

"We can't leave it all to the high school.We have to do more while kids are young."

Methods of personnel assessmentDetermination of how wellan employee's demonstrated skills wouldapply to a new work assignmentis complex and difficult. Given theabsence of dependable measures,women should be treated withthe same flexibility as men, whoare often permitted to experiment withnew assignments. Similarly, asemployers select men for special programsof education to improve their workperformance, to change it, or to preventthem from "burning out," they shouldseek to identify female workers for suchprograms.

Women and labor market fluctuations.Studies are needed todetermine the impact of both tight andloose markets on female employ-ment. Women and men will of coursefare better in a strong economy,but women should not be unduly subjectto labor market fluctuations.

Financial aid program& Employers mightfind training and/or retraining womenfor technical and scientific occupationswould justify the kind offinancial aid programs that are oftenavailable to men. Employersmight also examine the costs andbenefits of providingeducational opportunities for thefemale employee who wishesto stay home temporarily with a youngchild and yet remain a viableemployee.

The Challenge to Secondary Schools

In coming to specific suggestions for

activities secondary schoolscould undertake to increase girls'participation in science andtechnology, Workshop participantsexplored the broad issues relatedto the very influential general educationalenvironment. Participantsemphasized that the education system'sobjectives are not and should notbe limited to occupational preparation.

I n educating students for citizenship, theeducation system needs to communi-cate to all young men and women thecentrality of science and technologyin contemporary life, as well as the rami-fications of this fact. Participantsstressed repeatedly that educators mustalso help both boys and girls tosee the likelihood that most of them willbe combining family and work rolesin various ways throughout their lives.Hence, students must be aware ofthe manpower projections, demographicfactors, and other influences on thequality of their adult lives.

Among the important influences will bethe increasing attachment of womento the labor force and the likelihood thatboth men and women will return toschool periodically as their interests andvocational needs change. Thesehighly relevant "quality of life" issuesneed to be incorporated ineducational programs in various formats:in courses such as home economics,industrial arts, social studies, and science-oriented courses; in individual andgroup counseling sessions; and throughconversation with adult male andfemale role models.

"I think that humanities and literatureteachers ought to use some of thescience literature written by and aboutscientists and technologists."

"We manufacture sophisticated electronics;we can't possibly run day care programsthat would be good for kids."

"If a principal like myself is to have a schoolthat helps girls to see their careerhorizons differently, I need help."

No matter what else educators do toincrease career choices for female students,they can and must consciously andactively encourage girls to challenge thewidespread and ill-founded beliefthat they cannot or need not learn to workwith numbers. In addition to its power-ful impact on career choices, educatorsneed to stress the relevance of mathe-matical skill to daily life even in the homein investments, tax paying, mortgages,and in getting credit. Mature women nowin the work force too often bemoanpoor mathematical competence that frus-trates them and limits the quality oftheir performance in preparing budgets,drafting funding proposals, or under-standing and negotiating pension plansand other employee benefits.

The minutes of the two Workshop groupson education convey the sense thatthe participants were acutely aware of the

"marvelous complexities" of schoolsand the myriad small steps necessary tochange attitudes and behavior. Mostof the recommendations for ways tobroaden girls' options seem unlikely torequire large finencial expenditures;instead, they depend on leadership tocommunicate conviction about theimportance of designing ways to raisegirls' career expectations andenlarge their opportunities. Schools canjoin with many other institutionsin confronting an already articulatedneed.

The boards of education, school superin-tendents, and principals comprise themanagement of school systems, but thosewho have most direct contact withgirlsteachers, counselors, and other

personnelare in a position toenhance or subvert the stated policies.Parents and peers also are extremelyinfluential. Hence all these groups need totake actions that will ensure that boththe institutional and the subtleinfluences on girls are modified so as toenlarge girls' career options.

Some ideas participants had about actionsschool administrators could takeare given below:

Encourage the formation of citizens'committees, composed ofparents and occupational groups, thatwould act as resources and stimulifor change and would ensure that theavailable educational resourcesare fully utilized by girls.

Hold principals and staff accountable toschool superintendents for providingequal opportunity for girls, for eliminatingbarriers, and for developing specificmeasures that enlarge girls' choices inathletics, shop, home economics,math, science, etc.

Undertake systerl-wide collectivethinking about the curriculum, possiblydirect intervention in the selectionof courses and major concentrations atevery age and grade level. Theimportance of girls beginning tounderstand at an early age howthe study :fence, mathematics, andtechnical is can affect theirfuture life ...ces has to be recognized.Primary and secondary schools havean enormous impact on the competenceand confidence with which girlspursue these subjects.

"We need coed counseling all through theschool years so that boys and girlscan share aims and aspirations and learnnew roles, new modes of accommodationto each other."

"Science and technology may not bebasically unattractive to girls, but theattitudes of male science teachers certainlymake a difference."

"Teachers colleges and in-service trainingprograms for teachers and counselorshave to change since there just isn't goingto be much turnover to provide newideas."

Experiment with methods that wouldattract girls to mathematics, science,shop, and technical courses.

Assume a major role in developingcoherent approaches among elementaryand senior high personnel thatguarantee girls at all grade levels ahospitable environment in whichto persevere with mathematics, science,and technical subjects.

Actively recruit girls for vocationalprograms that have traditionally enrolledonly males. Nondiscriminatoryregulations are necessary but notsufficient.

Develop incentives for teachers,counselors, and administrators to acquirebetter understanding of the worldof work.

Establish inter-institutional communica-tions mechanisms so that schoolscould utilize the personnel, environments,resources, and programs of colleges,post-secondary vocational schools, andlocal employers to expose teachersand counselors to technology andscientific fields.

Avoid sex stereotyping in hiring practiceswhenever possible. Nurses, busdrivers, office personnel, cafeteriaworkersthe entire group ofmen and women who comprise the schoolstaffare role models for the students.

Take account of the significance of schoolphysical education programs in formingmale and female attitudes about sex rolesand relationships. To equalize programs

14

for boys and girls, it is important to revisebudgets and utilization of schoolpersonnel.

Integrate existing courses in shop andhome economics, or develop new curriculaso that both male and female students areexposed to family managementcourses that encompass child rearing,nutrition, consumerism, finance,administration, and maintenance of homeand equipment. Such an approachshould take account of the technical andscientific dimensions of these issuesas well as emphasize the dignity andappropriateness of work in the home andin the marketplace. Both boys andgirls should develop competence to changetires and change diapers.

The groups that interact on a daily basiswith girlsteachers, counselors,parents, and peershave a very significantinfluence, perhaps a more subtle onethan do school administrators, on girls'attitudes toward themselves andtheir careers. The issues on which Work-shop participants focused include:

The importance of teachers' recognizingthat they have a significantinfluence through their transmissionof curriculum, their attitudesabout male and female roles, and theirown examples as role models.Especially teachers in social studies,English, the humanities, andlanguagessubjects girls have tended topursue most oftenneed to under-stand the ramifications of science andtechnology as well as the changingroles of women in society. Teachers inmathematics and sciencecoursesthat frequently have the reputation of

"Perhaps every teacher should be obligatedto devote one session a week to hersubject's relationship to the world ofwork. But teachers don't have muchexposure to the outside world."

"Counselors are more likely to attendconferences about psychology than aboutthe labor market. So they often don'trealize that the jobs of the future for girlsmight be electronic technicians, engi-neers, dentists, and accountants."

"Girls seem much less likely than boys to seewhat the devil is the connection betweenscience and math in school and their reallives."

"Employers may recognize they haven't doneall they could and that they need to bereminded of what to do and how to do it."

being difficult and narrowshouldactively encourage girls to take thesecourses and assure the girls thatthey are capable of coping with all suchsubjects.

The relationship of a teacher's subjectto employment All teachers needto know this relationship; to learn it theycan plan field trips and/or invite menand women in technical fields to meet withstudents.

Guidance personnel's need for continuousand extensive experience with theworld of work, and a good understandingof manpower projections. This isessential if counselors are to help girls toweigh their interests and abilities inrelation to "real world" possibilities.

The workload of counselors. Often sooverburdened with crisis situationsor disproportionately involved with collegeapplications, lounselors fail toprovide the early counsel and support forall girls who might be candidates fortechnical or scientific careers.

Counselors' potential to have a positiveinfluence on breaking down sexstereotyping of certain jobs. By encour-aging female interest in areas otherthan stenography and clerical work, andby encouraging boys to pursue theseoccupations, counselors wouldencourage the removal of barriers

Ignorance by girls and their parents aboutavailable financial aid programsCounselors can inform them of theseopportunities, and do whateverpossible to ensure that girls are equallyconsidered by grantors.

15

Parents' impact on career choices and thefuture economic welfare of theirdaughters, in particular, and their sons.Life experience, including occupa-tional frustrations of some mothers andfathers, will have sensitized childrento such issues. It's all too rare that parentsspeculate about careers with theirdaughters as they do with sons. Schoolscould help parents become awarethat their daughters are taking importantsteps toward careers while in school.

Career education programs and parentalinvolvement The PTA might sponsorprograms that educate parents aboutcareers for girls. In addition to includingparents as parts of career educationprograms, schools can use parents workingin technical and scientific fields asconsultants and resource people.

Peer groups are a major socializinginfluence, particularly in theadolescent years. High-school studentsthemselves are the parents of thenext generation, and they have, in recentyears, demonstrated a powerfulcapacity for personal change as well asfor influencing others. Because maleattitudes strongly affect female decisions,boys as well as girls must understandthe importance of eliminating sex barriersto free choice of education andemployment. These life style issues canbe presented and discussed invarious formatssocial studies courses,home economics, "rap sessions," inindividual and group counseling by profes-sionals and peers, by participation inconferences, and in meetings with men andwomen in technical and scientificfields.

. . .

"I teach science to tenth graders and this isthe first time I ever met anyone fromindustrythe only jobs I knew about forgirls were lab technicians and nurses."

"We want to work with high schoolsbecause that's one way we can competefor our potential labor force."

"A good many managers are very forwardthinking, but whatever industry doesultimately has to be translated to dollarsand cents, or the industry won't bethere to supply any jobs."

"Our profit margin just isn't high enough toafford a continuous work program formore than a few school teachers andstudents. Short-term and temporaryemployees generally cost more than theyproduce."

Employer/Educator Cooperative Efforts

Employers and primary and secondaryschools need to cooperate indeveloping ideas and programs that willaffect the future labor supply.It makes good business sense foremployers to work with theschools to increase the supply ofqualified scientific andtechnologically oriented personnel,with special emphasis on women.Such activities by employers also can beviewed within the broad frameworkof corporate social responsibility and goodpublic relations. Some models ofcooperative efforts are available andmentioned below; others could,of course, be developed.

At the local, community level, theeducation and employment sectors couldcreate a variety of exchange programsto provide channels for direct contactamong their members. Teachersand counselors, who rarely have directexposure to work in scientificand technological organizations, could beinvited by these organizations forinternships, summer employment,seminars, and open houses. Similar pro.grams should involve students. Theenhanced understanding of work in theseareas that would ensue from suchprograms could have considerable impacton the education and counselingof girls and expanding work opportunities.Such exposure should, for example,alert school personnel and students to thenecessity for mathematical competence in almost every work role so they donot continue to take it lightly ifgirls do not Ou'elop such competence.

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Even at the primary level and certainly atthe secondary level, skilled workers,technologists, and scientists could beloaned to schools to serve asexperts in a particular subject and to aidin career guidance. These expertsshould be men and women; many studieshave shown that women whopursue nontraditional careers havebenefitted from a man's encouragement,usually a father or a male teacher.However, girls, boys, and parents as well,need contact with women actingin nontraditional roles. To extend parentalinvolvement, schools could includeparents with their children in programswhere workers act as consultants.Informal occasions such as open housesfor parents, students, teachers,and workers would usefully complementcareer guidance activities.Employer policies that permit releasedtime for participation in schoolprograms would help make possible thiskind of interaction.

Part-time and summer employment inscientific and technologicalfields would provide girls with excellentopportunities and motivationto undertake a career, Such workexperience would not onlyprovide the employed students withexamples of the practicalapplicability of their scientific andtechnical knowledge, but wouldalso communicate to other students theacceptance of girls and women inthese occupations.

Financial support for these undertakingsshould not be the sole responsibilityof either the schools or the employers. Toemphasize the joint commitment of

"I wish I could get some training in how toteach compensatory mathematics toninth-grade girls so they wouldn't y3through life thinking they can'tunderstand taxes, pension plans, thestock market...."

"A survey by one feminist group of 134elementary school readers in use across thenation found that boys outnumbergirls as main characters, 5 to 2; men wereportrayed in 147 different jobs,women in only 26, and frequently asunintelligent, nonadventurous.one-dimensional human beings who rarelymade decisions and almost neverworked outside the home."

both sectors, funds should be sought fromboth. as well, perhaps, as fromgovernment and foundations.

While the above efforts could easily bemounted at the communitylevel, given strong leadership convictionand negligible new mechanisms,much needs to be done at the state andnational levels, and the formationof new groups will be necessary. Industryand occupational organizations,individual employers, and educationalpolicy makers and school systemsat all levels need to maintain on-goinginteraction. To achieve this,intt --institutional committees can beestablished, composed of varyingcombinations of employer and educa-tional organizations, occupationaland professional organizations, women'scaucuses and unions, mediarepresentatives, civic p:..nning groups, etc.

As one participant put it, "If youare going to reach employers, teachers,parents, and students now and inthe future, you must have a visible placeto identify withcenters that couldbe regional, state, or national, and thatwould facilitate cross-fertilizationof ideas and cooperative planning."Workshop participants sawpossibilities for a central agency thatwould serve as a catalyst for someof the following activities:

Convening conferences, workshops,seminars, and other programsthat would provide opportunities foremployers, educators, and othergroups to consider together such issuesas recruitment, selection,guidance, and retraining women for

17

careers in science and technology.Continuous liaison among these groupsshould also be encouraged.

Facilitating in among diverseoperating and research groups.For example, the most effective ways todeliver guidance and educationalservices to women throughout their livesneed to be explored, as do systemsfor establishing institutional accountabilityfor progress of women withinorganizations.

Giving technical assistance to schools andemployers in designing programsthat will increase the supply of women inscientific and technological occupations.

Working with state and federalagencies and private foundations to fundcase studies of model programs.

Stimulating and monitoring the mediatextbooks, career materials,magazines, newspapers, television, radio,filmsso that they present scienceand technology and women's relationshipto these fields accurately andencouragingly.

An effective central agency of this typewould require a regular staff,and perhaps a new professional role: thatof an education/work liaison consul-tant. This person would function as an

"honest broker" between the employ-ment and education sectors and wouldcontinuously monitor and work withthem to adapt creative ideas to enlargewomen's opportunities to theirinstitutional settings and to develop andevaluate implementation procedures.

4

"A male chauvinist like myself has alwaysbeen partial to females, but slowly, my wifeand daughter are making me a convert tofeminism."

"Good wishes, good intentions, and goodgoals aren't enough. You have to forcemanagers, who have the greatest controlover the future of employees, torecord promotions, wages, etc. ofindividual employees."

Can We Get There from Here?Yes, but there are no magical prescriptions.The Workshop's suggestions can hesummarized in large part by saying thatinstitutional change calls forleadership commitment to it, bettercommunication within institu-tions, between institutions, and greatersensitivity to the subtle ways inwhich females are guided by their parents,teachers, peers, and employers. Thesolutions are simply stated, and even whenfew new institutional mechanisms arerequired, they are nonetheless difficult torealize.

Everyone agreed that responsibility forchange must be shared, and thataction itself is a powerful teacher of newattitudes. But since individuals andinstitutions procrastinate, despite sincereintentions to promote equalopportunity, schemes and structuresmust be devised that hold peopleaccountable for implementing andmonitoring activities that willfacilitate th, removal of traditional sexrole expectations. The task ofchanging institutions to deal with equalopportunities for women will oftenbe relegated to women only. This isunfortunate on many counts, not theleast of which is that leadership ineducation and employment is still largeiymale. Section 3 of this reportsuggests ways educators and employerscar. orchestrate the responsibility.

Some questions will come to mind aspeoplt read this report. Couldn'tmuch of it be equally applicable to issuesinvolved in the education andemployment of males? Obviously, boystoo could benefit from better

_ . . .

understanding of the world of work,better counseling, etc. However,for the time being, institutional changewill be unlikely to benefit girls andwomen in substantial ways unless it isconsciously and deliberatelydirected at them. Given specific emphasison including females, it would bequite feasible to incorporate these suggested institutional changes intoon-going teacher centers, in-servicetraining programs, and managementcommittees without excluding males.

Does the emphasis on expandingoccupational options for women meanthat work in the marketplace isvalued more then work in the home?Implicitly, the participants agreedthat individuals should be free to choosethe allocation of time between homeand work throughout their lives.Institutional behavior should not "loadthe dice" so that women's freedomof choice is in fact restricted. Everythingpossible should be done so that thedestructive effects of the dichotomybetween work in and out of thehome are minimized for both men andwomen.

A number of participants feared thataction might be taken beforesufficient knowledge and understandingare achieved. In general, peoplefavored learning not only from academicresearch but also from empiricalexperience with different approaches.Attempts certainly should be madeto audit and monitor efforts and to utilizeresearch results in planning. However,the actions needed to enlarge women'sparticipation in society are dynamic,

-

"Unless we get subsidies or substantial taxincentives, day care and retrainingprograms just can't get high priority.Perhaps they could be inclu ied ina benefits menu all employees would get.Benefits would have equal dollar valuebut would be different in kind."

"Women don't enroll in the kind ofcurriculum that would prepare them formanagerial positions in high technology."

"We should remember the whole range ofjobs, not just the upper crust of scienceand technology."

should be observed over a period of time,and may not be subject to quantification.

Are we urging the creation of moremassive unemployment by flooding thelabor market with a heretoforeunemployed segment of the population?No. Fortytwo percent of womenare already in the labor force, and aretending to remain for more years(the average woman worker will spendtwenty-five years in the labormarket). Our argument is that they areentitled to a more equitable shareof the benefits and opportunities paidwork today confers mostly on men.Obviously, the ideal economic situationwould provide as much paidemployment for all men and women asthey want. Already a large part ofthe labor force, women are in need ofearned income and status just asare men. More constructive bases forallocating available market andnonmarket work have to be devisedthen those based on sex or race.

The many points of view expressed byWorkshop participants showedvividly that change efforts must includerecognition and respect for the realitythat neither the education nor the employ-ment sector is monolithic. Therefore,the proposals coming from the Workshopcan serve to provoke other individualsand organizations within these sectors tomake adaptations consistent withtheir own needs. priorities, and possibili-ties. Those who share interest andconcern about the full developmentof the human resources that womenrepresent are urged to enrich these suggestions with their own modifications.

The magnitude of the problem of expandingoptions for women is great; itsdimensions are so pervasive that no lessthan simultaneous, varied, andcontinuous efforts on many fronts bymany individuals will suffice.

5 How the Experts See ItEmploymentFrank J. Tonerand John Kingsbury

A major purpose of the Workshop was tohelp the participants understand therealities and constraints of the employmentworld. Frank J. Toner, Manager,Employees Relations Management andPractices, General Electric Company,New York City, spoke from the manage-ment point of view about theproblem of training and employing morewomen in science and technology.

"I am taking the time to tell you about ourexperience not because any onecompany merits that much attention, butbecause I think it may be useful foryou to see the perspective of an industry-management team that is under therigorous disciplines of a competitivemarketplace, but is also chargedby society with correcting a long-standinginequity and must try to do sowithin a business setting."

By way of background, Toner describedGE as employing 360,000 people inmore than 200 plants and 100 laboratoriesaround the world. GE is one of theworld's most diversified companies,making over 200,000 different products,and all of the goods and services

"spring from technology."

GE employs many women trained inscience and technology. Whilesome positions, especially those in research, development, production, andmanagement, require college degrees, therehave been and will continue to beopportunities for women who are not

college graduates but who aretrained in some technical area. "Forexample, women will be neededto service and sell our appliances. Therewill be demands for electronic,chemical, and mechanical technicians;draftsmen, detailers, and designers;machinists and machine operators;mathematicians and medical technolo-gists; tool and die makersthe listgoes on and on. Today some of thesekinds of positions are filled bygraduates of our apprentice programsthat include women, and other womenwho have been trained within the com-pany to work at these technical tasks."

"We are interested in results that notonly meet the government's explicitrequirements, but also open upopportunities for us to utilize the talentsof women and minorities more fullyand at progressively higher levels ofresponsibility. Further, wr, recognize thatthe results won't flow automatically,and that managers need exposure to newprocedures and decisions in an areawhich many of them find difficult andunfamiliar.

"Moreover, as businessmen, we must beconstantly aware of women'sconsumer clout. After all, women are theprincipal regular buyers in mostfar', :- ..... This gives us added incentiveto a leadership role in the areaof employment opportunities for women.. In fact, it is a major thrust for1973."

In discussing women's small participationin scientific and technological

positions, one factor that ought to beconsidered is the supply side of theequation. "We at GE are undertaking aneffort that involves a longer time-range frame. This is to build the supplybase back at the high schoc' andthe college level. We believe the realproblem is not so much one ofdemand, but rather of supply. So let'sexamine the problem."

"It takes a special education and specialtraining to qualify for manypositions in our highly complex andtechnically oriented industrialsociety. No matter how hard a womanmay be willing to work, no matterwhat her native talents may be, she cannotdo competent engineering workwithout a knowledge of engineering. Norcan she analyze a chemical formulawithout the necessary education andtraining in chemistry. We mustavoid the problem of raising expectationswithout proper preparation, as thisonly leads to frustration.

"Until industry can get large numbers ofqualified women trained inengineering and hard sciences, womencannot become a significant elementin top professional and managerial ranks.Thus, we welcome the opportunityto work with schools and colleges onbeginning to correct that situation,long range.

"It will take a multi-sectored effort. Thebusiness and industrial community,the educational establishment, includingthe primary and secondary schools,and the government all have to be enlisted

this effort....

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"GE and all of industry have aresponsibility to include women in ...training programs, and theeducational institutions have a parallelresponsibility either to train womenfor these kinds of jobs and/or to providethe counseling and guidance thatwould motivate young women to seek outthese opportunities." That is the firstchallenge: building the supply base.

The second challenge has to do withimage. In many foreign countries,the idea of women in engineering andother technological fields doesnot seem to be unusual. "In Russia, forexamrle, about a third of theengineers are female. (And seventy-fivepercent of the doctors and twenty-eight percent of 311 construction workersare women.) ...There has been a lack oftrue information about the scope ofcareers in science and technology.... Themajority of scientific and technicaljobs are perfectly suitable for women,although admittedly a few men maynot readily agree with that. But techno-logy presents no more problems to awoman than any other male-dominatedprofession such as law, business, ormedicine.... And finally, there has beena genuine lack of realization thatthese choices are available to women, andthat it is a field of wide-open oppor-tunity for them. Probably the only limita-tions are ability and willingness toaccept the challenge."

The American Telephone and TelegraphCompany (AT&T) is the largestservice industry in the United States; itspolicies and activities have significant

ramifications both within and outside ofits structure. John Kingsbury,Assistant Vice President for the HumanResources Department, New YorkCity, presented a summary of a compre-hensive plan, generated in part bygovernment action on equal rights inemployment, for revising theemployment practices of AT&T. Thecompany's response to the problemof the distribution of women in employ.ment offers a valuable and provocativeexample to educators preparinggirls for employment and to employersconfronted with the need toimplement equal employment practices.

Kingsbury restricted his remarks to "howthe Bell System is struggling with theproblem of finding more women fortechnical jobs on the professional level,and increasing the flow of womeninto skilled craft jobs, such as centraloffice maintenance personnel,installers, repair workers, and otheroutside craft workers." The BellSystem companies represent a broadgeographic, occupational, andorganizational range. The operatingtelephone companies comprisingthe Bell System include 20 companiesacross the continental U.S., employingalmost 800,000 people. Thesecompanies employ slightly more women-53%than men, and occupationsin the company have portrayed the sameclassic sexual profile that ischaracteristic of most parts of industryand government. There are occupa-tions virtually dominated by womer. andothers comprised of practically allmen. "We have ueen wrestling for sometime with precisely the same problem

22

that is the subject of the Workshop: howto increase the participation ofwomen in scientific and technical jobs....land) a corollary of the problem ...how to increase the participation of menin jobs formerly seen by them as'female' jobs."

"The Bell System is relying on certainhistorical data and theories informulating a course of action. In thisprocess we were fortunate in havingthe advice of two women: one was Dr.Leona Tyler, Dean Emeritus ofthe Graduate School at the University ofOregon, and President of theAmerican Psychological Association;the other woman was Dr. ValerieKincade Oppenheimer, Research Sociolo-gist at UCLA, and a pioneering .researcher it the field of the fema'- laborforce in the United States.

"For the past seventy years, women havenot been randomly distributedthroughout the occupational system inthe United States.... For example,in clerical occupations, women compriseseventy-four percent of all workers,and almost twenty percent of all womenemployed are clerks.

"Analysis of occupational data shows thatwomen tend to be clerks, telephoneoperators, retail sales workers, waitresses,household domestics, and assemblersin manufacturing plants. On a professionallevel, they tend to be nurses, teachers,home economists, and dieticians. Furtheranalysis of data shows that thepredominance of women in certainoccupations is found in education,government, and industry alike....

"The entire fabric of society tends toreinforce the tradition of sex roles,including television and motionpictures, guidance and career counseling,advertising, textbook picturesandeven pictures in the Occupational OutlookHandbook of the Department ofLabor."

In addition to the factors cited above,AT&T has relied on two otherfundamentals, aided "in all candor, inmaking our decisions, by what thecourts have said in various cases." One :s

"the principle of individual differences,"which means that "while there aredifferences in general between men andwomen, there is an overlap ofpreferences, abilities, and aptitudes onwhich to build.... we are workinghard at looking at each person as a uniqueindividual. . . ."

"The other factor on which we are relyingis that society is undergoing a processof change. There is a broad shift in publicattitudes on job choices.... speed ofchange is uncertain. and the degree towhich youth is responding is slow....And, though I do not see it as primarilyour responsibility, we-are committedto participate in and aid this process ofchange in as many ethical ways as wecan."

During the past few years, Bell Telephonecompanies have taken significantsteps to increase the proportion of womenin technical work, both on a blue.collar and managerial level. On the manage-ment or professional level they tookthese actions:

Increased recruitment of femaleengineering graduates; not an easy taskin view of the well-known shortageof women entering the engineering andscientific disciplines.

Job analyses of the entry-levelengineering jobs, which showed that somejobs could be filled by women andothers with technical degrees in non-engineering, allied fields.

Development of an engineering earlyassessment program to identifyemployees, including women andminorities, who have thequalities for success in entry-engineering jobs.

On the nonmanagement level, theyfollowed a planned course ofaction aimed at increasing the number ofwomen who take technical jobs,which included:

Close scrutiny of recruitment materialsfor signals of sex preference:pictures, pronouns, drawings, and adsnow include both males andfemales.

Establishment of selection techniques toeliminate those adverse to women,such as height standards, child care stan-dards, and questions about maritalstatus and number of dependent children.

Development of sophisticated sextargets for each occupation for 1973, '74,and '75 that tell managers andinterviewers exactly !low many womenoccupy inside craft jobs, installerjobs, and others at the end of each year;

and what percent of anticipatedhires should be women.

Revision of upgrade and transferprocedures; anticipated openings for thesubsequent twelve months arepublicized to employees, and they canrequest transfers to any job theywish, and for which they are qualified.

Very effective industry-wide procedureswere adopted by AT&T to furtherensure an increase of women, and men,in nontraditional jobs:

Distribution to each applicant of abrochure describing the majorcategories of the jobs the companieshave, and the starting salariesfor these jobs.

Two full days training for interviewers onCivil Rights laws, regulations, andthe companies' affirmative action program,including "awareness" trainingdesigned to enhance interviewers'appreciation and enthusiasmfor affirmatively recruiting men andwomen in nontraditional jobs.

Modification of institutional advertisingto depict men and women in alljobs whenever employees are shown.

Production of a film for use intheaters, schools, and the general publicentitled, "All Kinds of Jobs," whichmakes liberal use of men and womenperforming nontraditional jobs.

Kingsbury was realistic in his assessmentof results so far and anxious to share

some plans for future application with theparticipants. "Of course we recognizemuch more needs to be done. We havefound that we have stimulated alarge flow of existing women employeesfrom traditionally female jobs intothe better-paying craft jobs in our dialingswitching centers. The flow frominside and outside the business intooutside craft jobsinstallers, lineworkers, and splicershas been small."

"We have also found that more men thanwe thought at one time are inclinedto take nontraditional jobs, such asoperator and clerical positions. Last yearseven percent of our operator andthirteen percent of our clerical hires weremale.

"Despite our efforts so far, the Bellcompanies face the same impasse all ofyou are facing. When men andwomen seeking jobs with our companiescontemplate the opportunitiesavailable to them, many of themstill reject certain jobs as undesirable.

"We have many plans that are designed towork on attitudinal factors thatoperate to inhibit youth from seekingnontraditional jobs. We are workingon a series of employment filmsportraying men and women activelyperforming our entry-level jobs.... Weare developing an affirmative actionbrochure for use in schools that will showmen and women performing non-traditional jobs.... We are planning modelads for use in high-school newspapersand in daily papers, and a lecture demon-stration for use in our speakers'bureaus around the country, all of which

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stress the theme of nontraditionaljobs and motivating men and women tostrike out for that which they havenot considered in the past."

Summer sessions for high-school guidancecounselors, and summer employmentfor students will focus on jobs notnormally considered by young men andwomen.

"And while it is perhaps not my role tocomment on this, the fact is thatthere is so much to be done with educa-tors and business people such asyourselves, on radio and television, withassociations and social groups, infact with every segment of society.Meetings such as these are highon our project list. Why not a similarvrorkshop on a local basis inevery major city in the country?"

Labor ForcePhyllis Wallace andBetty Vetter

Phyllis Wallace, Visiting Professor, SloanSchool of Management, MIT, wasasked to focus on the relationship betweenthe general economic situation andthe possibilities for women in the laborforce. She began by saying that "severalof the questions posed are thosegenerating considerable debate anddiscussion among economists."She suggested several areas that warrantfurther investigation in order todevelop the kind of knowledge basethat will advance the policy planning.

She stated that "there is no simpleformula for full employment, (and)

the shape of the alternative futuresmay heavily depend on which assumptions, definitions, and methodologiesare used." She went on to quotefrom the 1973 Economic Report of thePresident (page 89): "Concern issometimes expressed that the increase inwomen in the labor force willreduce the employment opportunitiesfor men and raise their unemployment. There is no reason to think thatwould happen and there is no signthat it has happened. The work to uedone is not a fixed total." On theother hand, she pointed out the warningsin the Carnegie Commission Reporton Higher Education entitled CollegeGraduates and Jobs: Adjusting toa New Labor Market Situation (April1973), to the effect that anincreasing number of college-educated persons are not going tofind employment that coincideswith their academic quali-fications. These differing perspectivespoint to the need for "oneorganization, preferably in the privatesector, to undertake this criticallong-range analysis of economic potential,manpower requirements, andimplications of expanding employmentopportunities for women. Sophistcated models could be developed.. ."

She suggested further that there befuture workshops to deal withthe serious economic and social conse-quences of reduced populationgrowth during the last third of thiscentury.

In relation to employment directly, acontroversial issue will be how to

implement affirmative actions withoutconflict and disharmony in thework place. Longitudinal studies ofdevelopments within AT&T, forexample, might clarify some of thedeveloping issues in implementa-tion and their effects on the existing workforce. Cost and benefit studies for bothemployers and employees need to be doneon such accommodations as part timeor flexible schedules. The effects on thefamiy as a decision-making unithave not been subject to economicanalysis, though this researchmight be fruitful to understandinginfluences on the economicbehavior of men as well as women in thecoming years.

She emphatically urged acceleratingcooperative efforts and expandingmeasures within government at all levelsto advance possibilities for thediversification of women's labor forceroles.

Betty Vetter, Executive Director of theScientific Manpower Commission,Washington, D.C. (affiliated with theAmerican Association for theAdvancement of Science), spokespecifically about the employmentopportunities for women in thesciences and technology. stressedthat a major problem for bothsexes is that of "obtaining accurate andrealistic information on a continuingbasis from the time they are required tomake the first decisions that mayclose doors to a future career in thesefields, to the time of graduation,and even later. As early as seventh grade,

selection of the wrong mathematicscourses may close opportunities...."

"Young women need to be provided withone additional piece of informationnamely that fields of science and engi-neering traditionally dominatedby men are not only open to women todaybut are increasingly inviting interms of job opportunities and begin..ingsalary level."

Vetter insisted that "we are unlikely totrain more scientists and engineersthan we need, or even more than we canuse.... provided we encourage onlythose students who possess the triplerequirement of an aptitude forscience and engineering, an interest topursue it, and the ability to masterthe technology already created. . . ."

"While tve can readily perceive the needsfor people with technologicalbackgrounds to solve such nationallyrecognized problems as cleaningma the environment, producing adequateamounts of energy, solving transpo*-tation problems, etc., we have greatdifficulty in projecting beyond onepolitical administration what prioritieswill be given to these problems,and thus what level of financial supportmay be put into their solution."

It is easier to predict the supply of menand women trained for careers inscience and technology than to predictthe demands for them.

"The longitudinal research program of theAmerican Council on Education,

which asks freshman students about theirprospective majors, shows that fromthe fall of 1966 to the fall of 1972, theproportion indicating an interest inthe physical sciences andengineering fell from 13.1°/0 to 8.8%.Among women students, wherewe might have expected some increasedinterest, the proportion of thefreshman class in 1966 whose probablemajor was in physical sciences orengineering was 1.5%. By 1972, only1.2% indicated such an interest.There was a slight rise from 3.2% to3.8% who expressed interest in.he life sciences, while interest inmathematics fell from 4.5% to2.2% of the freshman women."

On the demand side, "Short-range demandprojections, made on an annual basisby Frank Endicott of Northwestern Uni-versity and by the College PlacementCouncil, show that while employmentopportunities for all new graduatesdipped sharply in 1970 and 1971 as theeconomy dropped across the nation,the 1972 graduates found a slight upturnin opportunities, and beginningoffers to the graduates of 1973 are upsharply, particularly in the scienceand engineering fields."

The Department of Labor projects ademand for 45,000 new engineersper year from now until 1980, althoughwe do not expect to have more than32,000 at the maximum by 1977.Mathematicians, chemists, and physicistsare also expected to be in shortsupply, although the Department projectsa substantial over-supply of lifescientists.

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In answer to a question, Vetter said:"Unfortunately, I don't knowanybody who knows what theemployment situation will be seventeenor twenty-one years from now, but never-theless the eighteen-year-oldyoung men and women startingcollege have to make decisions basedon the best information there is.We have to give them this information,but most important they have todecide on the basis of what intereststhem, and what they think theycan do well. Job security is notguaranteed in any profession that Iknow of. . . ."

"Every time I speak to a group ofcounselors I discover that not only arethey misinformed about careers,particularly in engineering becauseengineering isn't taught in highschool, but they are misinformed aboutthe demand. They are still tellingseniors in high school that we havetremendous unemployment prob:_tmsin engineering. That informationis not just incomplete, it is completelyerroneous. The April 1973 issueof Science Education News, publishedby the American Association forthe Advancement of Science, is totally onopportunities for natural scientists andengineers in the '70's. This is a quaff terlyfor high-school science teachers andcounselors. It could give counselors thepicture they don't have."

For the women who choose to interrupttemporarily a scientific career whiletheir children are young, the followingoptions are possible: "A woman whois sufficiently motivated and determined

may be able to keep up fairly wellwith new developments by reading thejournals, attending some professionalmeetings, and maintaining professionalcontacts. While her skills may getrusty, they will return quickly when againput to use.... Another choice is towork part time during the children's pre-school years, and hopefully thisoption will become increasingly available.The woman scientist or engineeralso can leave the field, planning to returnto school for refresher and updatework when she is ready to re-enter theworking world; or she may plan tomove into tangential areas such asmanagement, scientific writing or editingwhere her specific technical knowledgemay be much less needed than hergeneral technical background."

College majors in engineering or naturalsciences should be aware that "thesefields are excellent springboards to majorsin other fields including the socialsciences, business administration, andeven the humanities.... but scienceand engineering are extremely difficultto enter at any advanced stage if theprevious preparation has been inother areas."

EducationJ. Myroii Atkin andRobert Worthington

J. Myron Atkin, Dean of the College ofEducation, University of Illinois,was asked to talk about the potential ofthe educational system for assumingmajor responsibility in career guidance andeducation to accelerate the participa-tion of women in science and technology.

He stated that the organizers of theconference "seem to have assumed that theschools have considerable potential asa force in attracting and preparing a substan-tially larger number of women forcareers in the professions. My aim ... is tocomment on the schools as aninstrument for social change and to reflecta bit on the process of educationalchange itself. But to anticipate my conclu-sions a bit, the advice you'll hear fromme today is that you be realistic in yourexpectations, that you tailor yourstrategies to the possibilities, and, in fact,that you think small...."

"Let me remind you of the disappointmentswe've suffered during the past twentyyears as we've tried to utilize the school asa major instrument of socialTo improve our defense posture, it wasdecided that the federal governmentassume an aggressive role in improvinginstruction in science and mathematics.We passed a landmark piece of federal legis-lationlandmark in the sense of theintrusiveness of the federal government inschool affairsin 1958 with theNational Defense Education Act.

"The spotlight shifted a few years later toameliorate race relations, then toencompass all those living in poverty. Onthrough the decade we heard aboutenvironmental problems, the problems ofthe Indians, about sexism in the class-room, and joylessness, and the schools weregoing to help us solve them

"School people, I believe, tried to be respon-sive during each of these shifts inpublic concerns. Out of a sense of their ownimportance and out of a sense of thekey role of the school, plus perhaps a sense

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of guilt, the teachers who preparecurriculum materials tried to meet whateverit seemed the media were proclaimingas a prime social problem at the moment.

"However, as we enter the 1970's, we hearthat the educational policy initiativesof the 60's were failures.. .. Another viewof the 60's is that there was somesignificant modification in the schools, andfor the better ... we have created anatmosphere in which however responsiveteache