“Empowering Black Women in STEM” refers to attempts to increase Black women’s representation, visibility, and achievement in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Historically, Black women have been underrepresented and faced several challenges in STEM professions due to systemic issues such as discrimination, limited access to resources, and prejudices.
Increasing Representation:
Increasing representation in STEM entails actively striving to ensure that Black women are more prominent and proportionally represented in these disciplines. This includes creating targeted programs and activities that make STEM opportunities more visible and accessible to Black women. For example, outreach initiatives could include creating events, workshops, or mentorship programs that are expressly designed to engage and encourage Black women interested in STEM. These programs seek to inspire and motivate others to follow in the footsteps of Black women in STEM by recognizing their accomplishments and successes. Furthermore, giving resources such as scholarships, internships, and support networks can assist remove systemic hurdles to Black women’s involvement and development in STEM.
Creating Supportive Environments:
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Creating inclusive and supportive cultures in academic institutions and companies that encourage diversity, offer professional development opportunities, and address systematic prejudices.
According to the Article of Research out reach:
By employing modern theories of learning such as metacognitive skillfulness, agency, and inquiry-based learning, Dr Leyte Winfield, former Chair of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry and current Chair of the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, is creating an environment where African American women can gain critical thinking skills to thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Students learning chemistry at the college are being educated through authentic, culturally-relevant learning experiences.
African Americans make up almost 15% of the United States’ population. Despite this, in 2013, around 5% of PhD recipients in the US were African Americans, and fewer than 1% of PhDs were awarded to African American women. Whilst African American women are well-represented early on in higher education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, the proportion of this demographic drops at each point along the ‘STEM pipeline’ – the journey through STEM education into the workforce. The under-representation of black women in academia may not come as a surprise, but these statistics reveal a startling injustice: African American women face significant barriers to progressing in STEM careers.
Research often highlights this issue, but there is little information on successful measures for improving retention of under-represented groups in academia and into the labour force. Measures for broadening participation of African American women in STEM may be found amongst the many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the United States. These are institutions which were set up to provide higher education to African American people before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevented racial segregation, when most higher education institutes either prevented African Americans from attending or enforced quotas on enrolment. HBCUs are well-versed in providing an education for African Americans and facilitating their progression through academic science.
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Promoting Role Models:
Promoting role models in the context of empowering Black women in STEM entails aggressively highlighting and honoring the achievements and contributions of Black women who have excelled in STEM professions. By highlighting these individuals as examples of brilliance and endurance, programs want to encourage and motivate young Black women to pursue STEM fields.
According to Stem Women:
New research has shown that black women are more likely to feel like they belong in STEM if they have access to black female role models.
BAME Women, and especially black women are still vastly underrepresented in the UK STEM workforce and in STEM education. According to BBSTEM, just 6.2% of UK domicile students enrolled onto STEM-related subjects at UK universities are black (4.8% Black African, 1.2% Black Caribbean, 0.2% Black Other). Within the top tech firms in the UK, over 70% of boards and senior executive teams do not have a BAME member; in fact, women of BAME backgrounds only make up around 2% of boards and senior executive teams.
New research has now proven that role models can make a huge difference to the aspirations of young black women, which is a big step forward to us working towards a more inclusive and balanced STEM workforce.
The research was conducted by Indiana University, written by India Johnson, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at Elon University and Eva Pietri, PhD, assistant professor of psychology at IUPUI and published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly journal. It reveals that black students who identify as female were more likely to feel like they belonged in STEM, and therefore were more likely to work in their chosen field, if they had access to black women as role models.
The researchers highlighted that having women of colour to look up to at university when studying STEM subjects, greatly boosted their feelings of belonging. Pietri stated: “Women who feel like they belong are more likely to enter and stay in STEM, so lack of belonging may be one reason for women of colour’s lack of representation.”
STEM WOMEN
Promoting role models not only provides real examples of what is achievable, but also helps to dispel stereotypes and misconceptions about who belongs in STEM. It gives aspiring Black women relatable individuals to look up to, indicating that they, too, can thrive in these disciplines, regardless of the obstacles they may face.
Furthermore, by spotlighting Black women’s successes in STEM, these programs want to raise their exposure and recognition within the larger community, so helping to break down barriers and promote a more inclusive and diverse STEM workforce. Ultimately, encouraging role models is critical in empowering Black women to seek and achieve in STEM jobs, as well as driving good change in the sector at large.
Addressing Structural Barriers:
Addressing structural impediments to enabling Black women in STEM requires a multidimensional approach focused at addressing systemic challenges embedded in cultural, institutional, and organizational frameworks. It starts with recognizing the pervasiveness of these impediments, which derive from historical and continuing discrimination and biases that have maintained unequal opportunities for Black women in derive.
This acknowledgment allows for the identification of specific difficulties such as limited access to quality education, unfair employment practices, and a lack of representation in leadership positions. Addressing these impediments requires legislative changes, such as the establishment of diversity and inclusion initiatives, the enforcement of anti-discrimination rules, and improvements to hiring and promotion systems to promote fairness and equity.
The scientific endeavour is a social process which has the potential to benefit the whole of humankind. However, not everyone has equal access to participation in this process, even when comparing people of equal ability; it is well established that scientific enterprise is more accessible to participants who are male (Pell, 1996 ▸; Roper, 2019 ▸; Astegiano et al., 2019 ▸), of privileged ethnicity (Bhopal & Henderson, 2019 ▸) and non-disabled (Inckle, 2018 ▸). This violates our basic notions of fairness and equality, but also impoverishes the scientific enterprise by narrowing the pool of available talent on grounds other than ability, and also by narrowing the range of perspectives present in the pool of scientists thinking about a problem (Powell, 2018 ▸).The scientific endeavour is a social process which has the potential to benefit the whole of humankind. However, not everyone has equal access to participation in this process, even when comparing people of equal ability; it is well established that scientific enterprise is more accessible to participants who are male (Pell, 1996 ▸; Roper, 2019 ▸; Astegiano et al., 2019 ▸), of privileged ethnicity (Bhopal & Henderson, 2019 ▸) and non-disabled (Inckle, 2018 ▸). This violates our basic notions of fairness and equality, but also impoverishes the scientific enterprise by narrowing the pool of available talent on grounds other than ability, and also by narrowing the range of perspectives present in the pool of scientists thinking about a problem (Powell, 2018 ▸).
Women perform at comparable levels to men in the early stages of their careers; however, they are increasingly poorly represented at later career stages, a difference which remains even when accounting for the effects of career breaks (Blackaby et al., 2005 ▸), suggesting the presence of a systemic bias based on sex and/or gender. Awards (such as the Nobel Prize) and promotions typically disproportionately recognize those at the top of hierarchies for work which has been conducted by a large team of researchers (Lincoln et al., 2012 ▸), a process which reduces the visibility of early-career researchers. Similarly, well established scientists are invited to give keynote talks at conferences (including the first session of the CCP4 Study Weekend), further enhancing their visibility.
Article: National Library of Medicine
Ongoing advocacy activities are also critical, requiring partnership with advocacy groups, lawmakers, and grassroots engagement to effect systemic change. By addressing structural hurdles together, we can build a more equal and inclusive environment for Black women in STEM, allowing them to reach their full potential and supporting innovation and development in these fields.
Advocacy and Policy Change:
Advocacy and policy change are critical components of empowering Black women in STEM, requiring collaborative efforts to overcome systemic disparities and promote fairness in academic institutions, workplaces, and larger societal structures. Advocacy comprises increasing awareness of the unique problems that Black women experience in STEM, rallying support for legislative changes, and amplifying their voices in decision-making processes. This advocacy can take several forms, including lobbying lawmakers, working with advocacy groups, and engaging in grassroots activity to advocate for institutional and governmental changes.
Science Advocacy Groups
LIBRARY RESEARCH GUIDES
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)Multidisciplinary scientific society formed in 1848 to “advance science, engineering, and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people.”
- Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)Founded in 1971, CSPI is a consumer advocacy organization that focuses on health and nutrition research. It seeks to provide scientific findings on “food, alcohol, health, the environment, and other issues related to science and technology” to both the public and policymakers, and represent the public’s interest before regulatory, judicial, and legislative bodies.
- Federation of American Scientists (FAS)Founded in November 1945, FAS “provides science-based analysis of and solutions to protect against catastrophic threats to national and international security. Specifically, FAS works to reduce the spread and number of nuclear weapons, prevent nuclear and radiological terrorism, promote high standards for nuclear energy’s safety and security, illuminate government secrecy practices, as well as prevent the use of biological and chemical weapons.” Staff and fellows include experts in aeronautical engineering, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, environmental science, law, nuclear engineering, physics, and political science
- National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI)Community of practice that ‘fosters the development of sustainable and scalable institutional capacity and engagement in NSF’s broader impacts activity.’
By fighting for and implementing policy changes that address the structural disparities that Black women confront, we can create more equitable opportunities, develop diverse and inclusive settings, and realize talent’s full potential in driving innovation and growth in STEM disciplines.
Overall, empowering Black women in STEM is critical for fostering diversity, innovation, and excellence in these sectors, addressing long-standing injustices, and creating more inclusive chances for all persons to prosper.
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