UC San Diego sociology professor John Skrentny encountered a quandary when he examined research on college graduates with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.Educators, politicians, business leaders and industry moguls continually stress the need for more STEM graduates to meet the needs of rapidly evolving technologies in the U.S.
The cover of “Wasted Education: How We Fail Our Graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.” Image courtesy of University of Chicago Press The 230-page text, including 45 pages of notes detailing Skrentny’s extensive research, was recently published by the University of Chicago Press.The volume is available on Amazon books.
Chapter 3, “Burn and Churn”, explores how STEM employment isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Rather than long-term careers, many of these jobs are prone to layoffs due to the constantly shifting nature of the industries and employers’ needs. As a result, they experience negative reactions from their bosses, leading to possible demotions or dismissals.“These employers claim that there’s all these shortages, but then they allow a lot of sexual harassment in the work place they allow there to be workplace cultures that tolerate an unequal treatment of women and African-Americans, but especially women. So a lot of women with STEM degrees end up leaving STEM jobs as well.