As a group, women are still the largest untapped talent pool for growing America’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, workforce. Women of color, in particular, remain greatly underrepresented in STEM disciplines despite a growing population of racial/ethnic minority groups and a growing number of women and minorities attending college.
In an effort to raise awareness of this issue, the Harvard Educational Review, or HER, highlights the plight of women of color in STEM in its summer symposium issue, Unraveling the Double Bind: Women of Color in STEM. The issue comprises a collection of papers (I also served as a contributor) ranging from the history of empirical work on women of color in undergraduate and graduate STEM programs to recent quantitative and qualitative evidence on the experience of women of color in STEM across institutional types.
According to one paper in the symposium issue, despite more than a 40-year research agenda, American scholars have produced only 116 empirical studies on women from racial/ethnic minority groups (including Asian American/Pacific Islanders) in STEM higher education and careers. Clearly, the field has under-examined this population, and it is only to our detriment as a nation.
The most recent U.S. Census data depict African-American, Hispanic and Native American women, when taken together, representing nearly 16 percent of the U.S. population ages 18- 44. However, they represent just 10 percent and 6 percent of the nation’s STEM bachelor’s and doctoral degrees, respectively. It is, therefore, right to recognize the untapped resource that women of color represent when it comes to increasing STEM degrees and, ultimately, innovation in STEM fields.
And yet, while many questions remain unanswered about just what works for women of color in STEM, contributors to the HER symposium issue echoed a number of cohesive, evidenced takeaways—all of which work to inform research, practice, and educational policy:
• First, environment absolutely matters. Researchers are wise to continue to examine sub-contexts such as campus and departmental climate at differing institution type (e.g., community colleges, HBCUs, Hispanic-Serving Institutions). So, too, the policy community cannot afford to under-invest or discount the role that these varied institutions play in conferring STEM degrees.
• Second, faculty support and involvement is not only desired by students, it is critical for their success. Faculty interaction at all levels (especially during graduate study) can be instrumental in keeping more women and women of color on a STEM career path. University leadership must put in place the supports that faculty need to make teaching and mentoring a priority and provide incentives to make the use of diverse pedagogies a lasting commitment within STEM departments.
