This week I had the privilege of sitting in on 51 presentations given to the Technical Committee of the DoD's ESTCP (Environmental Security Technology Certification Program) Program. The presenters came from private industry, non- DoD federal agencies, and the Department of Defense and compete for grant money. The point of the program is to fund innovative alternative energy research to benefit the DoD and, if successful, the American public at large.
As the presenters came up, I noticed a trend rather quickly. When the presenters were women, few were married and the ones that were tended not to have children. These are bright and dynamic scientists and engineers. As a country, can we not figure out a way to keep women from dropping out of the R&D world if they decide to pursue a family?
There is a tendency to view America as falling behind in scientific research relative to the rest of the world. We could go a long way in addressing this concern if we found a way for female scientists and engineers to combine a career with raising a family.
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