The African-American women brought to screen by movie “Hidden Figures” fought sexism and racism to calculate complex equations that enabled space travel. Their NASA work took place in the 1960s, a seemingly distant past, but the struggle for minority women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is larger-than-life in 2017. Today, women make up 47 percent of the U.S. workforce, yet just 13 percent of engineers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For minorities, there are additional layers of complexity. I spoke with Kim Scott, associate professor at Arizona State University, about the challenges minority women face in STEM and how we can bridge the divide between STEM and the humanities.
Olivia Deng: Why does women in STEM matter to you?
Kim Scott: From my perspective as a sociologist of education and a social scientist, it’s an issue of social justice and equity. There are not enough women [in STEM] and particularly women of color [which include] African-American, Native-American, Latina and Hispanic women. [There’s] a lack of opportunity to gain access to the skills necessary to diversify the pipeline. When I think about what we see with women of color in particular entering [STEM fields], but not persisting, it’s a question of what we’re doing in a society to prevent these communities from cultivating their interests into careers.
OD: What are some stereotypes about women in STEM?
KS: Given my research, a lot of the stereotypes are even maintained by women themselves. We asked the girls in the beginning of the program, [ages] 13 to 18, “What does a scientist look like?” Still today, despite the admirable efforts done by multiple agencies and organizations, girls inevitably default to white, Asian-American, middle-aged or senior male. Unfortunately, that image holds true, but one of the other stereotypes we are trying to challenge is, “What is STEM?” We have interesting quotes from girls who thought computer science is exclusively sitting in front of a computer when we know that successful computer science programs can do much more than code. They need the competency to collaborate, problem solve. That’s a disturbing stereotype we should aim to combat. Who are the real scientists?
OD: As an associate professor at ASU, what do you notice about minority women in STEM?
KS: Our school here at ASU has a relatively large number of African-American students majoring in engineering and about half are women. That’s very encouraging and it’s a new trend. That’s great. Here at ASU, there's greater attention to crossing disciplinary borders. What’s really exciting for us is we’re starting to see young women who come here to ASU, first generation college students, who are choosing not to go to computer science per se, but choosing programs like digital culture.
OD: How would you advise a girl to choose her career?
KS: I don’t think it should be either [STEM or the humanities]. It should be both. If girls of color feel their social relevancy of their work and they’re contributing to a whole, they’re more likely to do it.
OD: Why do you think so many people see this as a dichotomy?
KS: I think it’s just a lack of knowledge. There’s a lot of biases in arts. But there’s a lot of overlap. What we’re most interested in is nurturing opportunities. STEM disposition is less about STEM jobs, but nurturing the habits of mind [such as] computational thinking. The best way to gain that is studying some form of STEM. For humanities, it’s the same. The binary exists because there’s a lack of information about how those STEM competencies always applied to the arts.
OD: How does your arts background help you understand STEM?
KS: I was really interested in education. My focus was on how we can educate western society on West African art. I think that a lot of problems stem from not asking the right questions. We’re just looking at the image and taking it at face value, not necessarily accessing the voices of the creator, or the target audience and using that information.
OD: Going forward, what do you hope for the future of women of color in STEM?
KS: I hope there’s going to be more research done that’s going to tap into the complex issues that affect and are affected by women of color’s experiences in STEM. I think there’s been an incredible emphasis on creating programs targeting women of color but there’s less of an emphasis on how we research those programs and the impact they’re having. I hope there’s greater emphasis on the research and that the research is going to appropriately reflect the complex lives of women of color.
This interview has been condensed and edited.