[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 17, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PATSY T. MINK FELLOWSHIPS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 17, 2007

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Patsy T. 
Mink Fellowships Act. This bill continues the legacy of our dear 
colleague from Hawaii and is in honor of her work on behalf of equal 
opportunities in education.
  Patsy Mink faced many challenges as a woman in higher education and 
she was a leader promoting equal opportunities for all women. The 
situation is better today, but there is still a long way to go.
  Thirty-two percent of doctoral-age Americans are African-American or 
Hispanic, but only 11 percent of doctoral degrees awarded to Americans 
are awarded to African-Americans or Hispanics.
  In such critical fields as engineering and science, that number is 
nine percent.
  Women earn only about one-quarter of doctoral degrees in math and 
physical sciences and only one-sixth in engineering.
  Only 38 percent of full time faculty are women, and that percent 
decreases as women seek advancement.
  For example, only 30 percent of tenured faculty and 21 percent of 
full professors are women. In engineering, math, and physics, only 
about five percent of full professors are women.
  Similarly, African-Americans represent only four percent of full or 
associate professors and Hispanics represent only two percent.
  The Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation recently cited fewer 
institutional fellowships for minority students as a primary reason for 
the decline in the number of minority students pursuing doctorates.
  The lack of minority and women professors, especially in math, 
science, and engineering, is the result of fewer of these individuals 
studying those subjects in high school, college, and graduate school.
  The Patsy T. Mink Fellowships will increase diversity among college 
professors by authorizing fellowships for minorities and women doctoral 
students who agree to teach in higher education for one year for each 
year of their fellowship.
  I ask my colleagues to support the Patsy T. Mink Fellowships Act, 
both to keep America's promise of equal educational opportunity and to 
protect our economic and national security.

                          ____________________