THE CRITICAL ROLE THAT WHITE MEN AND WOMEN PLAY IN CREATING AN EQUITABLE STEM WORKFORCE

Since the passing of the Women’s Educational Equity Act in 1974, advocacy groups have been working to identify and address the multiple barriers that women face when entering the STEM workforce. The National Science Foundation further paved the path forward in 1980 with the passing of the Science and Engineering Equal Opportunities Act. This act states that “it is in the national interest to promote the full use of human resources in science and technology and to insure the full development and use of the scientific talent and technical skills of men and women, equally, of all ethnic, racial, and economic backgrounds.” The passing of this act opened the doors to invest more resources into improving the diversity of the United States STEM workforce, and in 1982 Congress began publishing a series of statistics on Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. These initiatives have spurred forward a variety of programs to help close the gender and racial/ethnicity gap in the STEM workforce, many of which have seen great success.

However, only recently are scientists acknowledging the role that intersectionality plays in these barriers that have been identified over the past 40 years. Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 to explain the oppression of African-American women (Crenshaw, 1989). It has since evolved into a term used to generally describe the impact that multiple factors (i.e. race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, age, etc.) have had on shaping social inequalities (Collins, 2015). Intersectionality is directly linked to the individual experiences of under-represented groups in STEM and must be taken into consideration as the STEM community works to identify solutions to these barriers. This presentation will focus specifically on the critical role that white men and white women play in 1) acknowledging the compounding impact of intersectional identities in the STEM workforce and 2) best practices to serve as allies and advocates for members of under-represented groups in the STEM workforce.