Ranking Member Johnson Attends United State of Women Summit Workshop
(Washington, DC) – Today, Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson attended a United State of Women Summit workshop hosted by the Department of Energy, “Crafting the Big Picture: Empowering Women and Girls in STEM.”
Ranking Member Johnson’s prepared remarks are below.
“Thank you to the Department of Energy and to Amber Haggins for inviting me to participate in your Forum this morning.
“I am so pleased that you are having this gathering. You all understand how important it is for us to continue to discuss and find ways to empower girls and women and young people from all backgrounds to pursue studies and careers in STEM.
“It is an economic and national security imperative in addition to a moral imperative. We cannot afford to continue to discourage half of our population from the STEM workforce.
“I have spent my entire career in public service working to expand opportunities for women and minorities to participate and succeed in STEM. I have introduced amendments to many bills that would require that science agencies like DOE and EPA put a priority on conducting outreach to girls and women, and to students and scientists of color, to make sure they know about opportunities for federal programs and federal funding, and can receive advice on how to strengthen their applications for competitive grants.
“But agencies must look inside their own four walls and not just at the university community and K-12 system to address disparities in opportunity and participation in the STEM workforce.
“Over the last several years, and with significant input from the stakeholder communities and the agencies, I developed legislation to address many of the hurdles that women face in pursuing STEM research careers at both universities and in our federal labs. The bill is called the STEM Opportunities Act.
“The federal government cannot solve this problem alone, but as the major source for research funding in this country and the employer of a large STEM workforce, we can certainly make a big difference.
“I won’t go into all of the details of the bill. What I will talk about further is the need for better data, which is a core part of my bill.
“In addition to including data requirements in the bill, I joined two of my colleagues, Reps. Slaughter and DeLauro, in asking the GAO to look at how science agencies currently collect data on their grant-making. We learned that 3 of the agencies GAO looked at – NSF, NIH, and USDA – already collected demographic data on their grant-making. But 3 additional agencies – DOD, NASA, and DOE – did not.
“I am pleased that these last 3 agencies, including DOE, are now instituting new policies and procedures to collect such data on their grant-making. Good policy starts with good data.
“If it’s the case that all 3 of these agencies have proposal success rates that are equivalent for women and men, that will be very good news. But if we identify disparities, we can start to ask why there are disparities and what we might do to address them, including implicit bias training that has been been proven effective elsewhere.
“Speaking of data, it is also essential that we have data on our own federal STEM workforce. The DOE National Labs employ tens thousands of scientists and engineers. Yet we have no information that I’m aware of on the demographics of that workforce.
“I understand there have been requests by advisory groups and others to collect such data, but the agency has not yet taken that step.
“The pathway into good research careers in our national labs often begins through student research opportunities and postdoctoral fellowships. And students and postdocs are recruited and recommended for such opportunities through what we still might call the “old boys” network.
“While it may not be a result of intentional bias, this old boys network disadvantages women and students of color. As a result, the pool of young talent that DOE Labs recruit from is much too narrow. This may be an old story, but so far I’ve seen no evidence that it isn’t as valid a concern today as it was 30 years ago.
“Until we see the data, the truth is we don’t really know what’s going on. And until we know what’s really going on, we can’t develop effective policies to deal with the hurdles that women and minorities face in pursuing STEM research careers within our own national labs.
“This is a challenge that we can address if we are willing to open our eyes and take the necessary steps to gather the data and implement proven policies.
“I hope Department of Energy officials will work with me to ensure that we gather the demographic data we need on the DOE workforce. This should also apply to EPA and every other federal science agency.
“For each of our Federal agencies, the hard work to address disparities in the STEM pipeline should start at home.
“Once again, I want to thank everyone in this room for the work you do to empower girls and women in STEM. And thank you to the organizers for inviting me to participate in this important event.”
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