ABSTRACT
Almost 60 years ago, Dr. Vannevar Bush, the de facto science advisor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, responded to the president’s request for advice on how the lessons learned from the World War II organization of science and engineering could be applied in peacetime (National Science Board, 2000). Bush’s 1945 report-“Science: The Endless Frontier”— became the blueprint for the long-term U.S. national investment in scientific research and education through research universities, industry, and government that led to the establishment of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Almost four decades later, the Science and Technology Equal Opportunities Act of 1980 mandated that the NSF collect and analyze data and report to Congress on a biennial basis on the status of women and minorities in the science and engineering professions. In 1982, NSF published the first congressionally mandated reports documenting trends in the participation of women and minorities in science and engineering. These biennial reports on Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, to which Persons with Disabilities were added in 1984, provided the data documenting that science and engineering have lower representation of men of color and women compared to their proportions in the U.S. population overall (NSF, 2000, p.xii).
