Diversity report suggests opportunities and challenges

Mary James Legatski
Center for Leadership & Diversity

As a global organization, ASME's strategies to enhance and promote an inclusive membership, as well as provide programs that address current and future member needs, will rely on a sound understanding of the state of diversity conditions within engineering. The Center for Leadership & Diversity's Committee on Diversity Metrics serves as an informational and analysis resource that facilitates implementation of the "diversity as a strategy" philosophy throughout ASME and for the larger engineering community.

The Committee on Diversity Metrics accomplishes this goal through a series of specific activities and deliverables, including the assessment and analysis of the current state of ASME membership diversity metrics.

The report "An ASME Membership Profile of Diversity," which was presented at the ASME Congress last November, contains a full longitudinal cycle of membership data analysis based upon data derived from ASME's monthly demographic reports. Two time points were included in the analysis: data from the September 2005 report and data from the September 2006 report.

The primary objective of this analysis was to analyze diversity statistics related to exactly what types of members are leaving ASME and, alternatively, to determine the demographics of new members. Secondly, this type of analysis identifies where, from a diversity perspective, ASME needs to place emphasis on retaining existing members, re-enrolling lost members, and attracting new members.

Among the report's findings are the following:

• In the period from September 2005 through September 2006, ASME lost membership from the younger categories (under 49), and increased in the 50 and above categories. In fact, 100 percent of all net lost members during the time period from September 2005 to September 2006 were in categories under the age of 49.

• The largest single increase in membership numbers during this time period was the age group 70 and above, which continues to represent the largest percentage segment - 14.36 percent of ASME membership. Many of these members are retired or Life Members of ASME.

• The average age of a female ASME member is 37, while the average age of the male ASME member is 51. Average years of membership for female members is 9.2, while for male ASME members it is approximately 20 years. Almost 19 percent of all female members are in their first year of membership compared to 10 percent for male members. However, for both sexes, the membership attrition in the first years of membership is dramatic.

• Of ASME's female membership, 41.68 percent are under the age of 35, while only 16.64 percent of ASME's male members are under the age of 35.

• Countries outside the United States are an integral source of membership for ASME and also constitute an important diversity component for the organization. From September 2005 to September 2006, membership from countries outside the U.S. increased by almost 1,000 members, thus significantly compensating for the lost U.S. ASME members. Peru and India represent more than half of the non-U.S. member increase, with 564 new members over the same period.

In conclusion, it is clear from this analysis that there are significant differences in the demographic profiles and membership patterns among ASME members by age, sex, and country affiliation. These differences present both opportunities and challenges for ASME with respect to "diversity as a strategy," and the programmatic as well as financial objectives of the organization.

To read the entire report, go to www.asme.org/Communities/Diversity.

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