Women on U.S. job market ‘discouraged’

Press, 30 December 1985, Page 13

Women on U.S. job market ‘discouraged’

NZPA-AP Washington Not only are female scientists and engineers paid less and givenfewer promotions than their male counterparts, they are discouraged from taking such jobs in the first place, a Congressional survey says. Sex discrimination and gender stereotyping in the job market direct men into the sciences and women into nursing, education and related fields, according to a report released from the Office of Technology Assessment. In a 1984 survey of college freshmen, 20 per cent of the men questioned listed engineering as their field of choice, while only three per cent of the women picked that career objective, said the office. By contrast, only four per cent of the men, but 21 per cent of the women, listed education, nursing or occuEational and physical lerapy .as their preferred major, it said. “As long as women expect to assume the major role in house-keeping and

child-rearing, and to sacrifice their professional interests to those of their husband, they will be less likely than men to select occupations like science and engineering that require major educational and labour force commitments,” the report said. The non-partisan analytical agency was asked by the House committee on Science and Technology’s task force on science policy to examine' the long term demographic trends on the scientific and engineering workforce.

In the process, the O.T.A. was asked to consider the barriers to, and future trends in, the participation of women and minorities in those occupations. < The O.T.A. report said that female scientists and engineers generally received lower salaries and had a smaller chance of promotion than men. Women’s salaries were significantly lower than men’s in almost all fields of science, in every employment sector and at comparable levels of experience, the report said.