Breaking into the Lab: Engineering Progress for Women in Science

Why are there so few women in science? In Breaking into the Lab, Sue Rosser uses the experiences of successful women scientists and engineers to answer the question of why elite institutions have so few women scientists and engineers tenured on their faculties. Women are highly qualified, motivated students, and yet they have drastically higher rates of attrition, and they are shying away from the fields with the greatest demand for workers and the biggest economic payoffs, such as engineering, computer sciences, and the physical sciences. Rosser shows that these continuing trends are not only disappointing, they are urgent: the U.S. can no longer afford to lose the talents of the women scientists and engineers, because it is quickly losing its lead in science and technology. Ultimately, these biases and barriers may lock women out of the new scientific frontiers of innovation and technology transfer, resulting in loss of useful inventions and products to society.

Sue V. Rosser is the Provost Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Women and Gender Studies and Sociology at San Francisco State University. She holds a PhD in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author or editor of many books, including Diversity in Women’s Health and Women, Gender, and Technology.