Underrepresented Minority Women Research Articles

The myth of the glass ceiling: Evidence from a stock-flow analysis of authority attainment

It is apparent to even a casual observer of American society that women and minorities are underrepresented among managers, especially among top-level executives. Past studies, however, have failed to find a consistent pattern of female and minority disadvantages in actual promotions and hiring decisions to account for this underrepresentation. This study aims to resolve this incongruity. Drawing on panel data from a nationally representative sample of scientists and engineers, I analyzed transitions across authority levels for men and women of three broad racial groups: whites, Asian Americans, and underrepresented minorities. There are two main findings. First, downward mobility plays an important role in authority inequality, especially for Asian men and underrepresented minority men and women. Second, while women and minorities face lower rates of upward mobility than white men, their disadvantages are concentrated in the bottom to middle-level transitions. This pattern is inconsistent with the popular notion of a “glass ceiling,” which implies that women and minorities encounter an unbreakable obstacle in accessing top positions after they have made their way into mid-level management.

Longitudinal trends in the applicant pool for U.S. medical schools, 1974--1999.

To examine the pool of applicants to U.S. medical schools from 1974--1999 for changes in size and demographics and to identify factors that may be associated with such changes. Data on characteristics of the total applicant pools to U.S. medical schools for 1974--1999 were collected from the Association of American Medical Colleges' Data Warehouse. Data on undergraduates' receiving bachelor's degrees and unemployment rates were obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, respectively. Variables such as race/ethnicity, gender, age, and first time or reapplicant status were compared across the study period. The percentage of women applicants increased from 20% of the pool in 1974 to 45% of the pool in 1999, while the percentage of men dropped from 80% to 55%. The number of underrepresented minority (URM) applicants increased 45% during the period, from 2,890 to 4,181, but URM applicants represented only 11% of the total applicant pool in 1999. Between 1974 and 1999, the number of URM men applying to medical school dropped by 18%, from 1,984 to 1,629, while the number of URM women nearly tripled, from 906 to 2,552. The number of Asian/Pacific Islander applicants increased dramatically, from 986 in 1974 to 7,622 in 1999, and they now represent a fifth of all applicants. The proportion of reapplicants grew when the applicant pool grew and it shrank when the applicant pool shrank. No relationship was found between the size of the applicant pool and economic indicators, age, or geographic origin. Changes in the proportions of women and Asian/Pacific Islander applicants were the driving force in the expansion of the applicant pool between 1974 and 1999.

Specialty selection and success in obtaining choice of residency training among 1987 U.S. medical graduates by race-ethnicity and gender.

The authors developed baseline data on specialty selection and success in obtaining residency positions for the medical school graduates of 1987 who participated in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP), compared by gender and race-ethnicity. They focused on primary care specialties and obstetrics-gynecology versus all other specialties, and sought to identify group differences in (1) patterns of specialty preference, (2) evolution of specialty choice from before to after medical school, (3) success in attaining the first choice of specialty through the NRMP, and (4) patterns in switching from an alternate specialty (ranked second or lower) to the first-choice specialty between the first and second years of residency training. The results showed substantial intergroup and intragroup variations, both before and after medical school, for family practice, internal medicine, and obstetrics-gynecology. Examination of NRMP outcomes revealed that the underrepresented-minority (URM) graduates, particularly men, were less successful both in achieving any match and in matching to their first-choice specialties. Analyses of patterns in switching specialties revealed several important facts about those who were matched to alternate specialties: (1) over half entered their first-choice specialties in the second year; (2) women had more success in switching to their first-choice specialties than did men, particularly among the URMs; (3) among those who received alternate specialties, the URM women were more likely than the URM men to leave graduate medical education by the second year (reversing the trend for the other groups); and (4) individuals whose alternate specialties were in primary care were much less likely to switch to their first-choice specialties.