1. Introduction

Abstract

This introductory chapter provides an overview of women in the science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. During the last three decades, the overall percentage of women receiving degrees in STEM has increased dramatically. This increase tends to mask at least three aspects of the demographics of the science and technology workforce. First, when data represent U.S. and immigrant scientists only, and are not disaggregated by gender, they mask the decrease in the number of U.S. white men in STEM. Second, the aggregated data mask the wide variance of women's participation among fields in STEM. Finally, aggregated data mask the disintegration of women at every phase of the educational and career STEM program. Thus, this book argues that unless more men of color and women enter the science and engineering workforce, the United States will not produce the number of scientists and engineers it needs to sustain its workforce without importing them from other countries.