Early career retention among undergraduate degree holders in science and technology: A five-year follow-up of a national Canadian sample.

Abstract

Both government and private industry are concerned as to why young Canadians, particularly young women, hesitate to choose careers in the growing labour markets of science and technology (S&T). Aggregate data suggest that women not only enter into S&T-related endeavours in disproportionately lower numbers than men, but also exit from S&T careers at higher rates than do their male counterparts. This investigation's primary objective was to establish comparative rates of "loss" (non-retention) of highly trained young women and young men from the fields of S&T in Canada. Its secondary objective was to conduct a preliminary investigation into some potential social and psychological correlates of retention (and non-retention) in S&T careers. A national sample ($N=3158$) of Natural Science, Engineering, Life Science/Health Professions, and Mathematics/Computer Science (NELM) bachelor's degree holders participated. Statistics Canada surveyed 1212 women and 1946 men in NELM fields from the university graduating classes of 1986, two- and five-years after graduation (i.e., in 1988 and 1991). A set of four complementary hypotheses were tested in order to investigate the fundamental postulation that early career retention among undergraduate degree holders in S&T would be proportionately lower for young women than for young men. Findings at both the two- and five-year follow-ups showed highly similar retention-rates for women and men. Women had only slightly high non-retention rates than men ($\sim$5%) among Natural Science and Mathematics graduates; rates were approximately equal among Engineering and Life Science graduates. In direct and sequential logistic regression analyses conducted to predict the probability of retention (vs. non-retention) in S&T at post-graduation year-5, the main predictor variable of interest--sex--consistently failed to reliably predict retention (vs. non-retention) in S&T, even after controlling for the effects of the following antecedent variables: level of mother's and father's education; respondents' age; marital status at 2-years; number of dependent children at 2-years; intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for originally having enrolled in an N, E, L, or M program of study, further education at 2-years; income at 2-years; job satisfaction at 2-years; and, salary satisfaction at 2-years. Findings had two main policy implications, first with regard to the relative insignificance of sex in the prediction of persistence in S&T, and second with regard to the importance of further education and training in predicting this outcome. These are discussed in light of the inter-related issues of lessening the shortage of highly qualified S&T personnel in Canada and of eliminating the underrepresentation of women in Canada's S&T community.