Only five jobs on the list of 66 about 7.5 percent are currently held by women. That 7.5 percent showing trails even the low 10 percent rate of top-level federal jobs in all fields held by women, according to Constance Newman, director of the Office of Personnel Management. All those elements, they say, come together to form a glass ceiling that women science administrators have found hard to crack. Women at NSF, as well as other government offices and agencies, need the experience of sitting on committees to be thought of for higher-level jobs, according to Mary Clutter, NSF's assistant director for biological, behavioral, and social agencies. At NSF, NAS, NRC there are always lots of studies for policy decisions, Clutter says.
Men never think about women in that connection.
They think about Joe and Bill. In congressional offices, and in some parts of the executive branch, some staffers say that efforts at equality are skewed by a feeling that lobbyists and outside contractors may look down on women in scientific and technical fields. Few women say they meet with discrimination within their own organizations, but many point to what one aide terms the little lady syndrome outsiders' assumption that female staff members are support personnel or that they won't be knowledgeable about the most complex scientific and political issues. And then there's the assumption, stemming from what is perceived as their divided attention as wives and mothers, that these women can't be counted on in difficult times. And even though some federal departments offer part-time opportunities and temporary leaves to have children, that kind of flexibility ends when you reach the management level, as one woman manager says.