Conclusions 



Over the past three decades, women have made substantial gains as 

 professionals in the sciences, particularly in the life sciences. A review of 

 their numbers and roles today in the educational pipeline suggests, 

 however, that women will continue to fall short of equal participation. 

 Their lower levels of participation also suggest that they remain a less than 

 well tapped resource in the nation's growing demand for scientists. 



Our review of federal science agencies' oversight for Title IX suggests that 

 much of the leverage afforded by this law hes underutilized in the science 

 arena, even as several biUion dollars are spent each year on federal 

 science grants. Although Energy, NASA, and NSF have carried out most of 

 the activities required of them under Title IX, the impact of their work may 

 be limited without comphance reviews of grantees and their practices. 

 Given the general lack of knowledge and famiharity with the reach of Title 

 IX and the disincentives for filing complaints against superiors, 

 investigations of complaints alone by federal agencies are not enough to 

 judge if discrimination exists. Without making fuU use of all comphance 

 activities available, agencies lack a complete picture of federal grantee 

 efforts to address occurrences of sex discrimination. On the other hand, a 

 more aggressive exercise of oversight on the part of agencies that wield 

 enormous influence in the world of science funding — Energy, NASA, and 

 NSF — would provide an opportvmity to strengthen the goal of Title IX and 

 enable this legislation to better achieve intended results. 



Recommendations for 

 Executive Action 



To fuUy comply with Title IX regulations, we recormnend the Secretary of 

 Energy and Director of NSF ensure that comphance reviews of grantees 

 are periodically conducted. 



To fxilly comply with Title IX regulations, we recommend the 

 Administrator of NASA continue to implement its comphance review 

 program to ensure that comphance reviews of grantees are periodically 

 conducted. 



Agency Comments 

 and Our Evaluation 



We provided a draft of this report to the Department of Education, the 

 Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, the National 

 Aeronautics £ind Space Administration, and the National Science 

 Foundation for review and comment. Officials at each agency confirmed 

 that they had reviewed the draft and generally agreed with its findings and 

 recommendations. Officials from all five agencies provided us with 

 technical comments, many of which we have incorporated into the report, 

 and formal comments from Education, Energy, NASA and NSF are 



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GAO-04-639 Gender Issues 



