According to data collected by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, women are overrepresented among unpaid interns and underrepresented among paid interns.
The data was derived from the 2019 Student Survey Report published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
The study found women account for 81 percent of unpaid internships and 68 percent of paid internships, a statistically significant difference that is evidence of disproportionality, NACE said.
For the survey conducted from February 13 through May 1, 2019, a total of 22,371 students responded from 470 NACE-member colleges and universities. By class, 4,118 freshmen; 3,642 sophomores; 5,049 juniors; 6,475 seniors; 2,384 master’s students; and 516 doctoral students responded to the survey.
In addition, research conducted by NACE shows that Black students accounted for 6.6 percent of the nearly 4,000 participating graduating seniors, but just 6.0 percent of the paid internships went to Black students. At the same time, they accounted for 7.3 percent of unpaid internships—meaning they are underrepresented as paid interns and overrepresented as unpaid interns.
Key observations from this analysis:
