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Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson today announced a series of actions to help the Energy Department attract, retain and develop highly qualified candidates, particularly women, in science and technology fields. He emphasized using the department's national laboratories for hands-on science education and producing an annual "report card" to monitor progress made in breaking down barriers to equal opportunity.

"America's unprecedented prosperity is fueled by science, engineering and technology enterprises but only 9 percent of current jobs requiring engineering skills and 10 percent of jobs requiring physics background are filled with women," said Secretary Richardson. "The Department of Energy, as a leading scientific and technical employer, has an opportunity and an obligation to do better and help build the workforce our future demands."

The Department of Energy (DOE), employs approximately 120,000 contractor and federal employees across the country. Its current federal workforce in technical areas includes 15 percent women and 17 percent minorities. The contractor workforce has a slightly higher percentage of professional women in its ranks.

Among Secretary Richardson's education, recruitment and promotion initiatives, to be implemented at both the Department's headquarters and throughout its complex of laboratories and field offices, are:

• Collaborating with the National Science Foundation to use the Energy Department's national lab facilities for hands-on science education and working to modify the teaching culture to bring real applications of science to life;
• Partnering with the Office of Personnel Management and the Congress to obtain the authority needed to cut bureaucracy and better compete for highly qualified technical personnel at DOE;
• Undertaking aggressive outreach and recruitment while filling key technical positions, including 50 DOE Research & Development managers;
• Establishing formal training of scientists and managers to serve as volunteer mentors; and
• Creating a data base system – or report card – for lab directors, contractors and departmental managers to monitor progress made in eliminating barriers to equal opportunity across the entire DOE complex.

Today's forum speakers, which included Rep. Connie Morella of Maryland, who chaired the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology, Janice Lachance, Director of the Office of Personnel Management, and Dr. Rita Colwell, Director of the National Science Foundation, addressed recent reports of lack of diversity in the science labor market. Women managers from DOE's laboratories, field offices and headquarters also participated.

Secretary Richardson has worked to foster an atmosphere of inclusion by redoubling efforts to identify, promote and retain the most talented individuals including women, minorities and people with disabilities. Since coming to the Department in August 1998, two-thirds of political appointees hired or promoted have been women or minorities; in all, 45 percent have been women. Of the ten career field managers named during the Secretary's tenure, six have been women and Dr. Lura Powell was named as the first woman to lead an Energy Department national laboratory.

• Accomplishments: Women in Science Event

• Advancing the Status of Women

• Prepared Remarks of Secretary Richardson
  from "Women in Science" Event

• Women in Science: Ensuring a Strong Scientific Workforce for the Future, Secretary Richardson's Initiatives (PDF Format)

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