Diversity in Science

Inside Higher Ed has an article today on a study of career tracks that found markedly different results for different ethnic groups. This ought to be interesting data for the endless debates about diersity in science hiring, especially this tidbit:

Asian doctorates - 51 percent of them - are far and away the most likely to be employed in industry. White doctorates are the next closest at 29 percent, and blacks are the lowest at 19 percent.

Honestly, though, I don't have the foggiest idea what it means. That's a really big gap, though, and I'm sure somebody will come up with a theory of why it happens.

One problem with the data, though is seen in the parenthetical qualifier of this sentence:

Black and Hispanic people with science (including social sciences) and engineering doctorates are more likely than other ethnic groups to be employed in the education sector

If they include social science with science and engineering throughout the data set, then they're working from a definition of "science" that's probably too broad to be useful in the usual discussions of diversity issues in science hiring.

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