As the first Black woman astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison is used to breaking barriers. But like many accomplished women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, Jemison has experienced discriminatory treatment during the formative years of her training.
As a college student, Jemison encountered what a majority of female scientists reported in a new national survey as they pursue STEM careers: demoralizing discouragement by a college professor.
She distinguished herself early as a high-achieving student passionate about science and during grade school teachers nurtured her enthusiasm. But the college laboratory proved an unwelcoming environment, said Jemison, who earned a B.S. in chemical engineering from Stanford University and an M.D. from Cornell University.
“I never had a direct confrontation,” she said, adding that some professors “doubted my intellectual capabilities,” and tried to make feel “like I didn’t belong.”
In a survey of women and under-represented minority chemists and chemical engineers, 40 percent reported that they had been subjected to discouragement at one point in their STEM education and career. For 60 percent of respondents, college was where most of that attempted dissuasion occurred and college professors were often the source.
The Bayer Facts of Science Education series of survey looked at the root causes of underrepresentation in STEM fields by gauging the experiences of female, African-American, Hispanic and American Indian scientists from childhood through the workplace, said Greg Babe, president and CEO of the Bayer Corporation.
The survey, released Monday, found social and economic factors at the center of the disparity, noting that like other children, women and minorities showed early interest in the sciences but it was rarely nurtured or encouraged as they matured through their teen years.
