Thank you, Congress

by Lara Kaufmann, Senior Advisor
National Women’s Law Center

Ever wonder what Congress is up to while most of the country (or the media, at least) is focused on the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination? Well, the House Science and Technology Committee (the Research and Science Education Subcommittee) had a hearing this morning about the participation of women and girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) studies and careers. And we understand that Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson plans to introduce the Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Act of 2008, which provides for federal programs to address the institutional and cultural barriers to recruitment and retention of women faculty in science and engineering fields, including: workshops to increase awareness of implicit gender bias in grant review, hiring, tenure, promotion, and selection for other honors based on merit; extended grant support for caregivers; and improved demographic data collection on federal grant-making. We welcome and appreciate Congress’ attention to these important issues.

Women and girls have come a long way since the 1970s when Title IX was enacted, but they continue to be underrepresented in the STEM fields. And women and girls still face implicit biases about their abilities to succeed in these fields. Who can forget the extremely offensive comment made in 2005 by then-president of Harvard Larry Summers, that the paucity of women at the highest levels of math and science might be a result of innate differences between men’s and women’s abilities? In response to the outcry over Summers’ remarks, the National Academies reviewed the existing literature on gender differences in cognition and biology and released a report in 2006 entitled Beyond Bias and Barriers, Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering. The study concluded that, “if systematic differences between male and female scientific and mathematical aptitude and ability do exist, it is clear that they cannot account for women’s under-representation in academic science and engineering.” Instead, the panel focused on the need to fix institutional, social and cultural bias and barriers. It is the findings of that report that informed the legislation discussed today. It’s good to know that Congress is paying attention!