WOMEN CONTINUE TO RISE IN THE PROFESSIONS

A generation ago, women were insignificant as a professional manpower resource, particularly in engineering and the sciences. Today women are a very significant and rising proportion of the nation's newly trained professional resources. Tomorrow women may well be a majority force in U. S. professions. They are already so in some elite fields. This paper reports on the dimension of this revolutionary change in women's status and considers some of the implications of this change. Statistical information is given as to the enrollment of, and degrees earned by women in the fields of science and technology. Special emphasis is placed on various engineering disciplines, including chemical engineering.