Write to Federal Officials and Urge Them to Enforce The Anti-Discrimination Laws

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A copy of your letter will be emailed to the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of Energy, the Director of the National Science Foundation and the Administrator for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  In addition, a copy of your letter will be sent to the National Women’s Law Center and to Women’s Prerogative.

Dear Secretary of Education:

Dear Secretary of Energy:

Dear Director of the National Science Foundation:

Dear Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration:

RE: Conducting Title IX Compliance Reviews of University Grantees

In July, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a new report examining women’s participation in the sciences and federal enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (the federal law that bars sex discrimination in all aspects of education).  In Women’s Participation in the Sciences Has Increased, but Agencies Need to Do More To Ensure Compliance With Title IX   the GAO found that the Departments of Education and Energy, the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have not done enough to enforce Title IX.  The GAO recommended, among other things, that these agencies conduct compliance reviews of university grantees to ensure that they comply with the law.   I am writing to urge you to follow the GAO’s recommendations.

Earlier this year, a landmark report showed that women are rare, and women of color all but invisible, in tenure and tenure-track positions in the nation’s top science departments,  The report, by Dr. Donna Nelson, a chemistry professor at the University of Oklahoma (A National Analysis of Diversity in Science and Engineering Faculties at Research Universities) , examined the fifty university departments that receive the most funding in each of several scientific disciplines and found deeply troubling disparities in each.  For example, at the top 50 computer science departments in the country, there are no African-American, Hispanic or Native American tenure-track women professors. In addition, there are only a few women who are full professors – nationally, in each discipline the percentage of women full professors ranges from 3 percent to a high of only 15 percent.  The GAO Report confirms that women’s participation on science faculties still lags behind that of their male counterparts.

These patterns of underrepresentation may signal violations of federal anti-discrimination laws, including Title IX and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Title IX regulations require that agencies that administer federal grants investigate complaints and conduct periodic compliance reviews of their grantees; Title VII further mandates that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigate sex-based complaints of employment discrimination. 

Yet, the GAO found that the federal government is not doing all that it can – and must -- to ensure that schools are in compliance with these laws.  For example, although the Departments of Education and Energy, along with NASA and NSF, awarded almost $5 billion in grants for the sciences in Fiscal Year 2003, they conducted no compliance reviews of sciences grantees in that year.  In fact, neither the Department of Energy, NASA, nor NSF has ever conducted a Title IX compliance review; it has been nearly a decade since the Department of Education last undertook such a review.

The Administration’s failure to adequately enforce these laws has a significant impact on female students, female professors, universities, and society as a whole.  First, female students are deprived of role models and mentors, and are sent a message that female professors are not wanted in the sciences.  Second, qualified women continue to face barriers both to getting, and advancing in, teaching jobs.  Third, universities and society as a whole are losing out on the talents and contributions of many individuals at a time when progress in the sciences is particularly critical.  

I want to thank you for your attention to this issue.  It is critical that your agencies fulfill their responsibilities to ensure that schools are complying with anti-discrimination laws.  The nation’s women – and men – deserve no less.