Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have responded to seven questions regarding gender and racial diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The Association of Women in Science and the Society of Women Engineers posed the questions to the candidates earlier this summer.
Questions include, "As President of the United States, how do you plan to address the need for more women in STEM?" and "As President, how do you plan to maintain and/or strengthen existing NSF programs targeted to increasing diversity in STEM education?" Many of the questions mention specific programs, laws and initiatives already aimed at addressing these issues.
The questions follow Science Debate 2008's 14 key science questions for the candidates; see our earlier post on those. The new questions are more socially oriented than the previous 14. They help round out the picture of how the candidates view the state of science in the United States, and how that affects our position in the worldwide scientific community.
