When discussing the dearth of women in STEM fields, I am often reminded of Mamie Parker, former assistant director of Fisheries and Habitat Conservation for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Early in her career, Parker noted that she was often gawked at by the service staff in the buildings where she worked. When she asked one of them about it, she was told she was the first black woman they had seen in that office for any reason besides cleaning it. It was a situation she was made perfectly aware of. Often the only support she had came from the only people that looked like her: her same staff.
Her story stands out to me not just because she was a pioneering black woman in her field, but because she notes that one of the key problems in attracting not only women but all underrepresented groups to STEM fields is a lack of mentorship. Perhaps more specifically, the lack of mentorship from people that share the same background. The perception for young women and minorities is that most scientists and engineers simply don’t look like them. Our generation more than any other will have to learn the importance of mentoring if we want the gaps in sex and race to close.
By the 1970s, when Parker was working in D.C., the most obstinate of social and political barriers that barred women and minority groups from participating in STEM had come down. Few if any institutions would outright deny someone a deserved position because of race or sex, greatly improving the chances that underrepresented groups would join the STEM workforce.
What used to be a 10 percent contribution to the STEM workforce is now around 30 percent for women, which is still pretty terrible. Better, but still terrible. The numbers get significantly worse for Hispanic, black and Native American groups, which are around 6.5 percent, 6.4 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Institutional barriers clearly exist, but they are nuanced and in many ways, shame the scientific establishment even as some efforts are made to remove them. Some of you may remember Dr. Tim Hunt, a Nobel Prize winner ousted from his position for making a sexist remark implying women were not meant for lab work. The backlash was severe and showed sexism was not to be tolerated by scientists.
Diminishing social barriers, however, still have not compensated for some of the discrepancies individual STEM fields see in their demographics. The life sciences, for instance, is comprised of around 40 percent women, while engineering is made up of around 13 percent women. The reason for this is very simple: it’s hard to become excited about joining a profession where you don’t think you belong. The modern image of engineers and scientists is widely skewed toward the picture of a bunch of nerdy guys in dimly lit rooms covered in comic book pictures. “The Big Bang Theory” may have actually done more harm than good to science in this respect. There are no immediate and popular role models to create an image in a young girl’s mind as to why that profession is for them and not just for boys.
For those of an underrepresented race, the problem is further amplified when the only people that might conceivably look like you are the cleaning staff. It’s never happened to me, but there is certainly more than one case where Hispanic and black students at major universities were assumed to be secretaries, administrative staff and, occasionally, janitors.
The problem is one of perception — not just of the way the STEM fields are popularly seen, but whether or not those that don’t fit the mold make themselves known to be there. In many ways, I think the greatest barrier to getting more women and underrepresented groups in science are gone and will continue to decrease as a new generation takes over the administrative roles left by their predecessors. However, this won’t change the way STEM careers are seen.
This problem will not be fixed unless we couple dismantling the social and administrative barriers with honest attempts to spend some of our time mentoring students from our backgrounds. Whether it is based on race, gender or even socioeconomic status, plenty of groups exist, even outside of STEM, directly for this purpose. Until we are willing to actively mentor in groups like the LGBTQ Mentorship Program, the Multicultural Mentoring Program or the STEM Committee of the Commission for Women and put our time where our mouths are, we really should not be surprised if the gaps remain exactly the same.
David Garcia is a first-year graduate student in energy science. He can be reached at [email protected].
