Congressional briefing focuses on need for more women in the STEM workforce

Melissa Carl
ASME Government Relations

On Sept. 26, ASME's Center for Public Awareness and Center for Leadership and Diversity co-sponsored a Congressional briefing convened by the Society of Women Engineers on the need for more women and diversity in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce.

Semahat Demir, SWE's Director of External Affairs, served as moderator for the Congressional briefing.

Women now make up nearly 60 percent of all undergraduate college students and nearly half of all master's, doctoral, law, and medical students. Yet women remain under-represented in engineering and the physical sciences, earning only 20 percent of those bachelor's degrees.

Semahat Demir, SWE's Director of External Affairs, moderated the 90-minute session featuring two distinguished speakers: Johanna Levelt Sengers, Scientist Emeritus at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and co-chair of the new InterAcademy Council publication, "Women for Science," and Stephanie Johnson Monroe, Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights.

Sengers addressed why the under-representation of women and minorities in STEM fields is both a national and international concern, referencing the InterAcademy report as well as the recently released National Academy report, "Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering." Assistant Secretary Monroe discussed the action plan from the First National Summit for the Advancement of Girls in Math and Science, and encouraged attendees to get involved in the next steps from the Summit.

(From left) Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., addressing briefing attendees with moderator, Semahat Demir, and speakers Johanna Sengers, Scientist Emeritus at the National Institute of Standards and Technology; and U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Stephanie Johnson Monroe looking on.

Reps. Rush Holt, D-N.J., and Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., both Ph.D. physicists and Congressional champions on the need to improve STEM education, also made short remarks to attendees.

Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., co-chair of the House Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Caucus, addresses attendees at the briefing.

This briefing was held in conjunction with Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla., and Hilda L. Solis, D-Calif., co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues, and the House STEM Education Caucus. Other briefing co-sponsors included the American Council on Education, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-conditioning Engineers, the IEEE-USA, the National Center for Technological Literacy, the National Science Teachers Association, and the SAE Women Engineers Committee.

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