Doing Engineering: The Career Attainment and Mobility of Caucasian, Black, and Asian-American Engineers

(Paperback)

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The first to systematically compare Caucasians, African Americans, and Asian Americans in engineering, this study of the career attainment and mobility of engineers in the United States tells how these three groups fare in the American engineering labor market and what they can look forward to in the future. The numbers of black and Asian engineers recently have grown at a much faster rate than the number of Caucasian engineers. With a projected steady increase in engineering jobs and demographic shifts, this trend should continue. Yet, recent writings on the engineering profession have said little about career mobility beyond graduation. This book identifies and explores key issues determining whether minorities in the US will attain occupational equality with their Caucasian counterparts. Highlighting implications for theory, policy making, and the future of the profession, Doing Engineering offers important insights into labor, race and ethnicity that will be of interest to anyone studying stratification in a wide range of professional occupations.

Reviews

A penetrating analysis of the effects of differential educational opportunities, racial prejudice, and labor market discrimination on Blacks, Asians, and whites in one of Americas most important professions. Dr. Tangs book makes a distinctive contribution to the sociology of occupations, race and ethnic relations, and minority studies. -- Stanford M. Lyman
Tang's book effectively challenges the conventional picture of extraordinary success among Asian-American engineers with a careful, rigorous analysis of national data. Doing Engineering contributes very useful factual information that helps to correct common misperceptions. * Industrial and Labor Relations Review *
The book will be required reading for anyone interested in the careers of engineers. * Contemporary Sociology *
Just as in her earlier work..., Joyce Tang continues to produce insightful analyses of the intersection of the worlds of work and of race/ethnic/gender relations. Doing Engineering is a carefully crafted study of the barriers that women and minorities face in a profession that can provide significant opportunities for upward mobility and the achievement of the American Dream. The study challenges such prevailing myths such as that Asian Americans are particularly advantaged in career mobility with engineering, or that minorities have an equal chance of gaining access to management positions in engineering. -- A. Gary Dworkin, The University of Houston

Author Bio

Joyce Tang is associate professor of sociology at Queens College, CUNY.