Cameron M. Kieffer
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Doctoral Degrees in the US House of Representatives

7/19/2019

1 Comment

 
Recently at brunch someone made a statement about there being only one person with a PhD in the US House of Representatives. This did not seem probable to me and after some Googling, I found that the House Library conveniently maintains a list of doctoral degree holders in the 116th House.
Picture
Though there is only one hard science PhD in the house (Bill Foster, D-IL; Physics), there are also other STEM doctorate holders in the House including two psychologists, a mathematician, and a monogastric nutritionist. There are also obviously quite a few other doctorate holders, most of which are in political science (obviously), but also a Doctor of Ministry from Alabama (Guess the political party!).

Overall 21 is a small fraction of the House (only 4.8%), especially compared to the 157 members that are lawyers. Given the wide-reaching and technical nature of the government and the laws that regulate it, it may be advantageous to increase the number of scientists represented in Congress. While that is a decision ultimately for each state's voters, there are a number of programs aimed at increasing the involvement of scientists in government policy. 

As an infographic making exercise I would consider this a mixed success. I think it conveys the information effectively, but lacks a certain je ne sai quoi in the aesthetics department. My little emoji heads especially could use some work. Any graphic designers out there please reach out with tips.

The House Library maintains lists of lawyers, military service members, medical professionals, as well as other specialties in their membership profile. I am going to download these lists as a baseline for the analysis of future Congresses.
1 Comment
Jason
11/7/2020 11:50:31 am

Well, isn't the argument that the House of Representatives should be representative of the American populace, or rather, the electorate? Therefore, PhD holders in the House have overachieved since they are only around 2% of the population have PhD degrees (https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/326995-census-more-americans-have-college-degrees-than-ever-before).

Then again, assuming that the House of Representatives mirrors society is a false. Obviously there are not homeless House members. People are not equally likely to become House of Representative members. For example, there are only 56 members of congress who are black (10.4%) while 13.4% of Americans are black.


I am not really making a point, just throwing out some thoughts. I think it would be interesting to look at the degree percentages including staff members to really get a feel for who is developing laws. However, I am sure that data may be harder to obtain.

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