WASHINGTON \u2014 The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to hear testimony Monday afternoon arguing that the H-1B visa program, which covers highly skilled temporary foreign workers, often in high-tech fields, discriminates against women.<\/p>\n
Karen Panetta, the vice president for communications and public awareness for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in the United States of America, will testify that \u201cthe vast majority of H-1B workers are men,\u201d according to her prepared remarks.<\/p>\n
Ms. Panetta\u2019s testimony points to \u201ca serious gender imbalance in science, technology, engineering and math\u201d as part of the reason that these H-1B visas in high-tech fields skew disproportionately toward men. But she also adds, \u201cIf a major immigration program effectively discriminated based on race or national origin, would that be O.K.?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe I.E.E.E.-U.S.A. represents more American high-tech workers than anybody else, so we have sources,\u201d Ms. Panetta says in her remarks. \u201cOne from inside the industry, looking at the offshoring companies that dominate the H-1B program, is that their global hiring is 70 percent men.\u201d But in the United States, where outsourcing companies get more than half of the limited number of H-1B visas, she says, \u201cthe ratio is more like 85 percent men.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said in an e-mail statement Sunday that the hearing would seek to make sure that women are not being hurt under the H-1B visa program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know the H-1B program is rife with fraud and abuse, so it\u2019s still unclear where exactly these visas are going and what they are being used for,\u201d Mr. Grassley said. \u201cIt would be a real shame if the H-1B program was also shutting women out of hi-tech fields and hurting families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Panetta, whose organization has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Homeland Security to get data on the gender breakdown of H-1B visas, will also accuse the government of agency of \u201cstonewalling\u201d on their request.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a simple question: how many women get H-1B visas?\u201d she will say, according to the prepared remarks. \u201cWhen you think about it \u2014 why doesn\u2019t D.H.S. already know exactly how many women get H-1B visas?\u201d <\/p>\n