Who Will Do Science? Trends, and Their Causes in Minority and Female Representation among Holders of Advanced Degrees in Science and Mathematics. A Special Report.

This paper describes trends in and causes of minority and female representation among holders of advanced science and math degrees. The minority groups studied are Blacks, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, and Asian Americans, all of whom are compared with Whites. The degrees looked at include those in math, the computer sciences, physical sciences, biological sciences, engineering, and economics. Following the introduction, Section II assesses the current representation of minorities and women in post-secondary degrees in these fields, trends in that representation, and the extent to which underrepresentation is attributable to academic persistence/degree attainment as opposed to field choice at each degree level. Section III describes the talent pool from which the advanced degree holders come--when it first emerges during the educational process and how it changes over time. Section IV describes individual and institutional factors that produce the observed representational trends. Extensive tabular data is provided throughout the document. (CMG)