LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, Washington, December 22, 1947. SIR: I have the honor of transmitting this introduction to a series of bulletins on the outlook for women in science. The extraordinary demand for women with scientific training during World War II and the resulting questions which came to the Women's Bureau prompted us to undertake this study. The paucity of published information on women in science and the encouragement of the scientists and educators who were consulted in the course of this study confirmed the need for the information here assembled and synthesized. The study was planned and directed by Marguerite Wykoff Zapoleon and completed with the assistance of Elsie Katcher Goodman and Mary H. Brilla of the Employment Opportunities Section of the Bureau's Research Division. Other members of the Bureau staff who helped to broaden the coverage of this study through interviews in the field were regional representatives Margaret Kay Anderson, Martha J. Ziegler, Rebecca G. Smaltz, and another member of the research staff, Jennie Mohr. Corinne LaBarre, Research Assistant, of the Western Personnel Institute, Pasadena, Calif., furnished the information obtained from western colleges. The part of the study here transmitted was written by Marguerite Wykoff Zapoleon with the assistance of Mildred Dougherty and Elsie Katcher Goodman. FOREWORD Much has been written about science and scientists, but little has been told about the work women trained in science have done and can do in the future. Although these women are few in number when compared to men in science or to women in such occupations as teaching and nursing, their contribution to the national welfare, so strikingly demonstrated in World War II, goes forward daily in the laboratories, classrooms, offices, and plants in which they work. The every-day story of where these women work, of what kind of work they are doing, and of what other young women who join their ranks in the future may do has been the subject of this report on the outlook for women in science. Unlike the usual monograph which describes an occupation in detail at a particular point in time, this study, like the Women's Bureau series on occupations in the medical and health services which preceded it, is concerned primarily with changes and trends. Although more than 800 books, articles, or pamphlets were culled for background information, the principal raw material for the entire study of which this bulletin is a part came from such primary sources as scientific organizations, employers and trainers of women scientists, and men and women scientists themselves. Principal sources were as follows: Scientific organizations: The National Federal agencies: Unpublished information on personnel in scien- The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, The United States Office of Education, The United States Civil Service Commission, and In addition, 52 separate bureaus, offices, or other operating employed on jobs requiring scientific training and the type of work they were doing. Detailed statistics over a period of years were available from some agencies, while only fragmentary data were obtained from others. The women's military services likewise supplied information on the wartime use of women trained in science in the WAC, WAVES, and the Marine Corps. Private industry: One hundred industrial firms were visited in 1945 and 1946 to obtain information, usually by interview with the director of research or the personnel director, on the women employed by any part of the organization in any capacity requiring scientific training of college level. Prewar, wartime, and postwar statistics were obtained where available, as well as suggestions and comments. In many instances, some of the women in scientific work were interviewed on the job. The firms visited included: Seventy-eight firms listed in the National Research Council's 1946 directory of 2,443 firms having research laboratories. The firms visited are listed in the directory as employing 24,816 persons as scientific or technical personnel in their laboratories. This number represented 28 percent of the total personnel of this type estimated as employed in all the laboratories listed. In addition to this numerical coverage, an attempt was made to include among the 78 firms visited small as well as large firms, plants in all parts of the United States, and a variety of industries. However, the intricate industrial organization, inter-relationships, and variety of research revealed in the directory, added to the fact that some firms did not report personnel statistics and none reported women separately, made the selection of a true sample complicated beyond its value for this purpose. The firms visited were chosen rather as a clue to industrial firms most likely to be engaged in the type of work in which women trained in science are used. In all firms, information was requested for the entire organization rather than for the research laboratory only. Eighteen commercial laboratories which offer testing services to industry and individuals and which employed women were also visited. Seven others contacted did not employ women. These 25 laboratories represented 10 percent of the 244 commercial testing laboratories listed in the National Bureau of Standards' 1942 Directory of Commercial Testing and College Research Laboratories. Since personnel is not reported in the Directory, there is no clue to the coverage of workers. Three large additional industrial firms which employed women in laboratory work but were not listed as having research laboratories were visited, as was one biological supply house. Research institutions: Eight research institutions or centers, some of them identified with a particular college or university, also supplied information on women members of the scientific staff. Colleges and universities: Statistical information on the number of women graduated with degrees in science, mathematics, and engineering over a period of years from 1939-40 to 1946 was obtained from 30 colleges and universities and from 9 engineering schools. Again an attempt was made to obtain wide geographical coverage and to cover different types of institutions, such as women's colleges, State universities, and small liberal arts colleges. The information available from these sources, too, varied. Placement bureaus and heads of science departments as well as deans of women at these institutions and at 6 other colleges contributed reports on the demand for women trained in the sciences. The Western Personnel Institute made possible the inclusion of data which it collected for the Bureau from its affiliated colleges and universities in the far West. Since no recent data were available on the number of women teaching science in the colleges, a count was made in 1947 of the women identifiable by name who were listed on science faculties in the catalogs of 330 institutions of higher learning which were then available in the United States Office of Education Library. These institutions were selected because they are believed by the United States Office of Education to be representative in their enrollments of the 1,749 institutions of higher education in the United States and, therefore, are likely to have faculties equally representative. Other sources: In addition, 97 individuals not included in the afore-mentioned sources, most of them women scientists, contributed information, suggestions, or helpful criticisms of the preliminary manuscripts circulated before revision for publication. While every effort has been made to obtain wide coverage, there remain some dark corners still unexplored because of the range and variety of these fields and the difficulty of obtaining information from widely scattered sources. Perhaps this beginning will result in further additions to our so-little knowledge. 792277°-49-2 |