Term paper online on The progress of women in the USA

This paper is meant to follow the progress of women in the USA and critically analyze the impacts of legal system, societal norms and professional practice in a relative field of Math, Science, Engineering, and Technology. I will also elaborate on the most crucial matters, barriers and opportunities that women face today as they plan their careers. Also, I will make some recommendations concerning the way women’s prospect in work environment in the USA may be improved.

Barriers for Women in STEM Fields

There is an increasing disproportion among girls based on ethnic, economic, racial, and regional dissimilarities. Young ladies are usually not ready for novel spheres, for instance, computer science, environmental science and biotechnology. And females are either not entering these spheres or leaving them too rapidly. The quantity of ladies entering computer science courses has dropped for the last 10 years (Bystydzienski, Bird, 54-80). Teacher preparation programs provide insufficient concentration to gender fairness, with an unenthusiastic influence on girls and boys. Young girls deserve to have a choice. And choice comes from having necessary skills and knowledge. They may get to college and believe math or computer science sounds interesting. But the path is set. If young ladies are not grounded in the fundamentals in elementary school and high school, they will be cut out of a career in STEM fields. They will not possess the skills and it is extremely hard to catch up at the point.

Today governments of many nations create different programs to establish commissions to study the obstacles that females and also minorities, and human beings with disabilities face in STEM fields (National Science Board, Science and Engineering Indicators, 3-22). These commissions have to classify and examine the quantity of females, minorities, and human beings with disabilities in the fields to determine the certain areas in which they are underrepresented. All these programs assist in achieving greater diversity throughout the scientific and technical work force of nations (Goroff, 6).

Nowadays, females, minorities and human beings with certain disabilities symbolize 2/3 of the US workforce, yet are merely a small part of those working in science. It means the biggest part of the workforce continues to be separated from these job opportunities. If ladies, minorities, and individuals with disabilities took part in the American science, engineering, math and technology labor force in equivalence with the percentages in the entire workforce populace, it would provide the USA with practically all the qualified employees it will require (American Council on Education, Office of Minorities in Higher Education, Minorities in Higher Education Twenty-First Annual Status Report, 15-29).

Statistics demonstrates the circumstances are not likely to get better in a little while (Wyer, 1-16). In 1996, ladies corresponded to less than nineteen percent of undergraduate students, seventeen percent of graduate students, and slightly more than twelve percent of people in various doctorate programs. The latest report demonstrates the illustration of females in college-degree computer researches has lessened in the last 2 decades, from 37% of student degrees being awarded to ladies in computer field in 1984 to merely 20% in 1999.

If the USA carries on failing to organize populace from all populace groups for contribution in the novel, technology-driven economy, the entire country will risk losing the intellectual and economic supremacy.

I believe the main factor of the trouble is that when females enter college, lots of them don’t have adequate science and math backgrounds to major in the sphere. The grounds are many, counting serious deficiency in educational sources, social pressure appearing from the unenthusiastic societal image of scientists, a lack of encouragement, the shortage of out-of-school science, and the shortage of female role models in the professions. Too many extremely competent young girl students don’t obtain adequate science education, or drop out of science studies in high school or between a college and high school. The resolution is aggressive, concentrated intervention attempts at every educational level (Are Women Being Scared Away From Math, Science, And Engineering Fields).