Immigrant Women Scientists: Their Labor Force Characteristics

This paper is the first systematic study of the labor force characteristics of women immigrant scientists in the United States. We use data from the 1990 Census 5 percent Public Use Microsample (PUMS) and the longitudinal 1982-1989 Survey of Natural and Social Scientists and Engineers (SSE) to examine (1) how immigration has contributed to the sex composition of the scientific population, and (2) how women immigrant scientists fare in terms of labor force participation, earnings, and promotions to management, as compared to immigrant men scientists and native-born women scientists. For our first inquiry, we find that although immigrant men appear to contribute more to the scientific population as a whole, within fields, men and women immigrants are almost equally represented in the scientific labor force. As to the second question, we find that immigrant women earn less and are less likely to be in the labor force, be employed, and be promoted than immigrant men and native-born women. Differences in labor force participation and earnings are explained in terms of factors such as segregation by field and employment sector, and family responsibilities; while discrepancies in employment and promotion cannot be explained by these same characteristics. We suggest that the migration path of immigrant women explains some portion of their lower likelihood of being employed and promoted. The results of this paper unambiguously highlight the importance of considering gender when studying immigrant scientists.

Dataset(s): Census 5% Public Use Microsample (PUMS):U.S., 1990. Survey of Natural and Social Scientists and Engineers (SSE):U.S., 1982-1989.