The Intersectionality of Black Women and Girls in STEM
As a Black woman in STEM, a chemical engineer, during the final week of Black History Month I celebrated National Engineers Week. March is Women’s History Month, this year it feels like a continuation of my Black History Month celebration. I am intentionally celebrating Black women especially Black women in STEM. This is the time of year, I become hyper-aware of the intersectionality that I experience as a Black woman. Intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, the law professor at Columbia and UCLA describes the way people’s social identities can overlap and why all inequality is not created equal. I reflect upon my ancestors, the Black women in STEM that paved the way for my colleagues and peers and how we can pave the way for the Black women in STEM coming behind us.
As a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) trained engineer and STEM Educator, I notice the images in the media, social media and various outreach campaigns of current STEM professionals and who they are encouraging to become STEM professionals. Often these images do not include Black women STEM professionals, nor are they targeted for Black girls. Even targeted campaigns to encourage girls to become STEM professionals, exclude Black women and girls and contain images of white women and girls and/or other people of color. Therefore, the movie Hidden Figures and seeing Shuri in Blank Panther are important to the Black community and society at large because these films displayed Black women and girls in STEM.
Black men and women contributions to the STEM fields date back to ancient African civilizations such as Egypt, Kush, Carthage, Mali and Zimbabwe. The engineering of the pyramids, medical innovations such as pharmaceutical sciences and surgical techniques, creating mathematic formulas such as what became known as the Pythagorean theorem that are the foundations of STEM were built, created, and designed by ancient African civilizations. In the United States, Black women have made their contributions to the STEM fields since this nation was formed and the first three Black women were awarded patents: Martha Jones in 1868, Judy W. Reed in 1884 and Sarah E Goode in 1885. These women paved the way for Black women inventors such as Dr. Donna Auguste, Dr. Patricia Bath, Dr. Shirley Jackson, Dr. Valerie Thomas and other Black women inventors who are unknown for various reasons including their intellectual property being stolen or it belonging to their workplace. Black women STEM professionals such as Dr. Alice Ball, Roger Arlier Young, Dr. Marie Maynard Daly, Dr. Marguerite Thomas Williams, Dr. Etta Zuber Falconer and many more paved the way for current and future Black women in STEM.
My generation was inspired by Black women STEM professionals such as Dr. Mae C. Jemison, Ursula Burns, Lisa P. Jackson and the Black women that were our STEM teachers in high school and college professors, especially those that are HBCU alumnae. We are also inspired by the Black women STEM professionals in our network whose names most people will never know, but they made contributions to their respective fields and are our mentors and role models. My generation, Gen X and the Millennials produced famous Black women STEM professionals such as Dr. Ayanna Howard, Dr. Aprille Ericson-Jackson, Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green and Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. My network is filled with amazing Black women STEM professionals, many are HBCU alumnae, such as Monica Dickerson, Angela Fields, Dr. Melanie Harrison Okoro, Lerato Matlamela, Dr. Marguerite Matthews, Dr. LaToya Myles, Shayla J. Nealy (pictured below), Dr. Leyte Winfield and many more that are entrepreneurs and working academia, corporate and government. Black women in STEM can also be found on social media, through online communities such as #BLACKandSTEM created by Dr. Stephani Page and Vanguard STEM created by Dr. Jedidah Isler. Black Women in STEM can also be found at the conferences and meetings of Black STEM professional societies such as blackcomputeHer, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) , National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCCHE), National Association of Black Geologists and Geophysicists (NABGG), Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) and more.
According to 2020 U.S. Census Data, Black women make up approximately 7.5% of the population. An August 2020, Catalyst article “Quick Take: Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) states that Black women received 2.9% of the STEM degrees awarded and make up 2.5% of the STEM workforce. Now, I will circle back to the term that I started this article with, the Intersectionality. As a society, we often use the term underrepresented minorities in STEM, which I believe is inaccurate description of the current and future STEM workforce. It is correct that the number of Black women in STEM is disproportionate to the number of Black women in the US population. However, using the term underrepresented minorities does not address the racial and gender discrimination that Black women and girls experience. Nor does it address the racial inequities, systematic racism, and gatekeeping in STEM Education and in the STEM workforce.
Our educational system inadequately prepares Black girls to pursue STEM Careers. Despite the socio-economic status of the neighborhood (zip code), public schools in many Black communities do not have qualified STEM teachers, advanced STEM courses and hands-STEM experiences, extra-curricular STEM activities and other things that prepare Black girls for post-secondary educational opportunities in STEM. The informal education community has launched programs for Black students, some of them exclusively for Black girls, however many of those programs are underfunded, do not have culturally relevant curriculum and/or managed by culturally incompetent and/or racist and sexist leadership and staff. If a Black girl persists through her K-12 educational experience and pursues post-secondary education in STEM, she continues to experience barriers such as the gatekeeping/weed out culture in STEM in higher education. She may also experience a lack of support, especially if she attended a predominately white institution (PWI), unable to locate a peer group and mentors or obtain knowledge of the resources available on campus to facilitate her successful matriculation through college, graduate, or professional school. Once a Black woman enters the STEM workforce, she will encounter some of the same barriers during her pursuit of her STEM career as well as workplace racism and sexism.
When having conversations about the state of Black women and girls in STEM, we must acknowledge that intersectionality exists. Barriers to Black women and girls their pursuit and maintenance of their STEM careers must be removed. Black women and girls belong in STEM and their images should be displayed and stories recounted when we talk about women and girls in STEM. The leaky pipeline in the K-12 educational system that prepares Black girls for post-secondary educational opportunities must be repaired; including policies and practices that are intentionally designed to discourage Black girls from pursuing STEM careers. Once a Black woman enrolls in a post-secondary educational program in STEM, she should be mentored and supported as well as equipped with all the resources and tools to achieve her highest desired level of educational attainment (a certificate, associates, bachelors, masters, doctoral degree). Finally, once a Black woman enters the STEM workforce, every organization should have systems in place for her success, retention, and promotion. These systems include pay equity, resources, and support to successfully fulfill job her responsibilities, investment in her professional development and protection from racism and sexism in the workplace.
