WOMEN AND MINORITIES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING - AT-AND-T PROGRAMS TO ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION

Public concern for the future vitality of United States' industry is receiving increasing emphasis in the press and on the agendas of professional society meetings (1-9). It is widely recognized that the availability of adequate numbers of talented and educated engineering and scientific people is a central issue and it seems clear that reliance on the traditional sources of technical personnel will not keep our enterprises afloat. While the popularity of engineering and the physical sciences as courses of study declines compared to medicine, business and law, white males (historically the group most attracted to science) will also decline to only 15% of the new entrants to the U.S. workforce in the period 1985-2000.