Trends in Federally Employed Women and Minorities in STEM at the Leading U.S. Science Agencies

Management Directive 715 (MD-715) requires agencies or bureaus to report annually on the status of activities undertaken pursuant to their equal employment opportunities under Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act. Each agency report must include a plan to identify steps that will be taken to correct deficiencies or barriers found in the preparation of their MD-715 report. This presentation reviews MD-715 data for 2004-2016 from federal science agencies (e.g., NASA, NOAA, NIH, NSF, and DOE) to highlight gains and declines in federally employed women and minorities working in the reported major occupational job series related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Comparisons are made to federally employed white male populations and similar groups in the civilian labor force. The goal is to identify key factors and policies underneath the fluctuations in the employment and advancement of women and minorities in STEM in the federal science enterprise and to highlight details of the MD-715 connected to these variations.