Unintended
Consequences
How science professors unintentionally
discourage women of color
23 February 2007
• To download this presentation and
some of the papers it is based on:
• www.smcm.edu/users/acjohnson/Duke
2001 college grads
All women
College grads
Science grads
57%
54%
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 28 Sept 2005
2001 college grads
College grads
Science grads
All women
57%
54%
Asian
3.3%
5.2%
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 28 Sept 2005
2001 college grads
College grads
Science grads
All women
57%
54%
Asian
3.3%
5.2%
Black
5.6%
4.3%
Hispanic
4.3%
3.6%
American
Indian
.41%
.37%
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 28 Sept 2005
2001 PhDs, working scientists
All women
Awarded
science PhDs
39%
Employed PhD
scientists
23%
Asian
4.9%
4.5%
Black
1.5%
.6%
Hispanic
1.6%
.7%
American
Indian
.1%
N/a
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 30 Sept 2005
The good news
All women
1997 S&E grad 2004 S&E grad
students
students
40%
42%
Asian
2.5%
2.9%
Black
2.7%
3.1%
Hispanic
1.8%
2.5%
American
Indian
.2%
.2%
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/sex.htm, Tables D-2 & D-3, retrieved 20 Feb 2007
The bad news
• African American, Latino and American Indian
students are less likely to graduate in science
than similarly prepared White and Asian
students (Huang, Taddese & Walter, 2000)
• At CU Boulder: This pattern persists among
declared science majors after controlling for
financial need and preparation (Johnson,
under review)
Why this matters
• Equity
• Quality of science (Harding, 1991,
1993)
• Employment patterns: altruistic science
(Johnson, 2005)
The question
• Why are women--especially women of
color--under-represented in the
sciences?
Explanations
National Academies report
Women are not as
good in math
Girls and boys perform
the same in high
school now
Only a matter of time-- “Women’s
not enough qualified
representation
women
decreases with each
step up the …
hierarchies,” even in
fields with lots of
women for the past 30
years
National Academies report
Women faculty are less Women’s productivity is
productive
now comparable to
men’s
Women take more time Women take more time
off due to children
off early in their
careers; over a
lifetime, men take
more sick leave than
women
Subconscious bias
• Implicit Association test: 71% associate
science with men, 9% associate it with women.
• To take the test:
implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/
• For more info:
www.projectimplicit.net/research.php
Nosek, B. A., Smyth, F. L., Hansen, J. J., Devos, T., Lindner, N. M., Ranganath, K.
A., Smith, C. T., Olson, K. R., Chugh, D., Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (2006).
Pervasiveness and Correlates of Implicit Attitudes and Stereotypes.. Unpublished
manuscript: University of Virginia.
Seemingly neutral conditions
• Seymour & Hewitt (1997), Talking
About Leaving
• ~350 well-prepared students, 7
institutions across the country
• Some stayed in science, some left
• All reported similar conditions
Seemingly neutral conditions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hard classes
Bad teaching
Competition
Fast pace
Heavy work loads
Unsupportive culture
Seemingly neutral conditions
• Masculine skill: rising to a challenge, without
nurture
• “Most women we encountered had entered
college at a peak of self-confidence, based on
good high school performances, good or
adequate SAT scores and a great deal of
encouragement and praise from high school
teachers, family and friends” (255-256).
Seemingly neutral conditions
• “in treating male and female student
alike, faculty are, in effect, treating
women in ways that are understood by
the men, but not by the women” (260).
• White middle class skill: focus on
individual goals
Seemingly neutral conditions
• Eisenhart & Finkel (1998), Women’s
Science
• Study of science workplaces which
women believed were good for women
• “For the most part, the women actually
found easy access and success only
insofar as they worked as if they were
prototypical white males” (12).
At last: Women of color
• First: Some seemingly neutral
conditions which disadvantage women
of color
• Next: Your responses
• Then: Some possible solutions
• And finally: More good news
My study
• Setting: Large Research I university,
85% white
• Participants: 6 Black women, 7 Latinas,
3 American Indians, 4 Asian/Pacific
Islanders
• Academic preparation comparable to
other science majors
Data
• 12 formal interviews
• Participant observation in classes and
labs (gen chem, honors chem, physics,
environmental bio, molecular bio, o
chem, plant anatomy, human anatomy)
Data analysis
• Searched for patterns of behavior and
experiences
• Generated assertions
• Checked assertions against new data
• Presented findings to participants
• Focus groups with other women of color
Findings
• 3 discouraging practices in science
classes
• Large lecture classes
• Asking and answering questions in class
• Engaging in research
Findings
• Two discouraging cultural values
• Focus on decontextualized science
• Presentation of science as meritocratic,
raceless and genderless
Large lecture classes
• The women…
• Wanted to get to know professors
• (Many) came from urban or rural schools
where they were cherished
• Found lectures alienating; felt conspicuous
but also invisible
It was a shock, literally a shock walking into my
first class and seeing the teacher down there
with the microphone, and seeing him like put
up the screen on this huge—I mean, it’s bigger
than our little theater in our town, I’m just like
“oh my god,” you know, I mean it was huge,
and I just couldn’t adjust to that.
And I couldn’t adjust to the fact that I couldn’t
talk to this teacher, you know, face-to-face.
One, I didn’t have the time, and then they
didn’t have the time. Because they were
always doing other things, and they had like
five hundred students in the first class, so it’s
just like, they can’t take that much time just for
you, you know.
--American Indian woman, molecular biology major, now a
pharmacist
Alexis was in cell biology with us that year.
And towards the last exam, Alexis and I went
to go talk to the professor who was teaching—
he’s a really good teacher. He [said] “strange,
I don’t recognize you guys from my class. Do
you sit in the back?” And in retrospect, I was
like “Dang!” How could he miss us?? Me,
Alexis and Derartu were the only Black people
in the whole class! I was like “do you not look
up?” I don’t know. “Next time we’ll sit on your
little podium.”
Even though, you know, maybe he didn’t
recognize us legitimately, OK? There’s like
three hundred people to stare at every day for
six months or whatever. But still, I still just felt
like not involved in the class, you know? Just
kind of like a spectator of the class, like I’m not
really a part of the learning process, I’m just
kind of watching and hopefully getting a good
grade.
--Black woman, molecular biology major, now with a master’s in
public health
Asking and answering
questions
• Common tactic of professors
• Seems laudable
• Good way to be recognized by
professors
• Some students take advantage of it
more than others
• White men answered, white women
asked, women of color were silent
Asking and answering
questions
• Socialized as women not to draw
attention
• Felt conspicuous
• Feared they alone, out of 250 students,
were confused
• All students seemed to have this
opportunity but only some took it
Like the classes were, you know, there’s a
select few over-achievers who laugh at all
the jokes, who ask questions, who ask the
“challenge the professor” questions, who
probably clone genes at home, I don’t
know—it’s like those select few and the
professor, and everybody else is just either
asleep or just scribing every word they can
get. And that’s just what I felt like—the
class is just following along, and I’m just sort
of like along for the ride.
--Black molecular biology major
Doing research
• Some women in this study had
outstanding experiences
• Some had spectacularly bad
experiences
I like working in the lab because I get to go
in there and I get to do all this stuff that
you have no idea what you’re doing—
because you work with things that you
can’t see, right? And so you do a lot of
stuff, and you don’t know what you’re
doing, you don’t know if it’s going to work
or whatever, and then you find out that it
works, and you’re just kind of like “Wow, I
did that, and it worked! And now I know
that this species is not related to this
species...”
It was just all this work on trying to find out
[using DNA sequencing] if some species were
related, and how closely they were related. It
was just learning—learning about things that you
can’t see by using things that you can see. …
After I graduate, I want to come back and do a
doctorate, probably in genetics, some kind of
genetics. And then I want to do research. I just
find it fascinating! You’re always learning! That’s
what I like—I like learning. Finding things out.
--Latina molecular biology major, now a PhD-holding research scientist
I did research my freshmen year in an
environmental biology lab and it was
sooooo boring to me. I was looking into a
microscope 3-4 hours a day looking at
fungi. How fun is that? I would go to the
professor in charge of the lab with intent of
getting course advice or help as far as what
else my biology degree would get me. I
was expecting a mentor, but that didn't
happen. He was too busy for little ol’ me.
Also one of his grad students accused me
of stealing his favorite pen, which ended
up being in his lab pocket the whole time
and he eventually apologized. That is why
I switched my major.
Then I did paid research in a kinesiology
lab my second year. That was cool, it was
in a human cardiovascular lab. Then
another student and I wrote a grant to go
to Mexico—that was the best experience
ever. And now I am doing my own
independent stuff on diabetes in the
Latino/Hispanic community.
Anyway, my mentor is acting like it is such a
hassle to work with me, so I don't know or care
what is up with him. He just seems so distant.
The whole purpose of having a mentor is to have
that person MENTOR you. My lab now is highly
male dominated. Sometimes I just feel so
inferior, not only because I am a female, but
because I am an undergraduate. I feel at times I
have a double stereotype, a woman of color.
-Latina kinesiology major, master’s in public health, now applying to
doctoral programs
Research: Mixed results
• Intimate spaces, close contacts with
professors
• Some labs let women express their
interest in science
• Other labs amplified women’s feelings
of alienation and difference
Decontextualized science
• Lectures and labs focused on minutiae
of science
• Seldom gave a big picture
• Seldom talked about why information
was interesting
• “just pouring information at you in a
sort of condescending way”
Decontextualized science
• Reasons women in the study liked
science:
• It’s interesting
• Means to a health career
• Interested in the human body
• Felt slighted or alienated when these
motivations were not acknowledged
Decontextualized science
• Professors centered interactions around
science, not around students
Some science professors only look to the science
aspects, they’re only into the intellectual thing. I
guess they have to be if they’re teaching that,
but—I cannot expect them to be open-minded
about different things, like your life, when you do
get advice from them. Many people are just like
“OK, this is the career, this very intellectual, Ph.D.,
Master’s, that kind of thing.” I think they should
ask the question like “what do you want to do?
What makes you happy?”
--Asian American molecular biology major, completed PhD in
biomedical sciences, now in medical school
Merima: Whenever I go talk to molecular biology
professors, they make me feel, I don’t know—he’s
a nice teacher, but they make me feel stupid.
[Chris & Monica: Uh-huh.] I couldn’t even divide
ten thousand by ten—I was so nervous. One time
he said “did you understand what I just said?” I
said “uh-huh,” so he said “repeat in your own
words,” and I couldn’t. The hard thing is that for
med school, they want you to have two science
recommendations. This summer I’m going to work
with somebody, but I don’t know who else I could
get a recommendation from. I’m not just going to
go up to somebody, just because I went to their
office hours.
Angela: What are they doing that makes you
feel stupid?
Monica: They put you on the spot.
Merima: And they’re not too friendly. If you
don’t know the answer, they just wait.
Chris: It’s like they expect you to know the
answer. And then, if you don’t, they just
wait. They don’t tell you the answer.
Merima: And I can tell you a lot of molecular
biology students feel like this. It’s not just
me or Chris.
Meritocracy
• Belief that success in science comes
only from talent
• Well-intentioned belief, but:
• Made some of the women feel like
special cases, even more different
I was doing my report on Graves’ Disease a couple
weeks ago. There’s different genes related to
Graves’ Disease, for different ethnicities, and for a
long time, they were like “OK, it’s just this one
gene,” but it was only found with white people. And
I thought that was really interesting. But then in my
presentation, I was like “should I mention the part
about African Americans having a different gene?”
And women get affected a lot more. And I thought
“damn, that’s kind of messed up, that I should rethink presenting—it’s as normal to the disease as its
symptoms, know what I’m saying?” But still, I sort
of felt “damn, should I not mention that?”
In class, if there’s one black person and you’re
the only other colored person, you know that
you’re going to get to know that person, just
by that person being brown, because it’s just
like—you always get called out in class, and
you have nobody else to talk to, because they
don’t know how it is to be brown, and in
school, and it is totally different.
--American Indian pharmacist
In a class where there’s me and then like one or two
other people of color, we all seem to stick together,
and somehow we all end up being lab partners, or
something like that. Some people may feel like
they’re being left out, or they can’t interact with the
white people in the class, or something like that,
because it seems like whenever I’m sitting there and
it’s time to pick your lab partner, whoever else is the
minority in the classroom will come and find me.
Most of my lab partners have been minorities.
--Latina molecular biology major, now pursuing PhD in the biomedical
sciences
Meritocracy…
• Made race and gender patterns seem
like personal choices
• Obscured common reasons women of
color studied science
Conclusions
• Women in this study faced the same
difficulties all science students faced
• Weed-out courses
• Multiple choice exams
• Inaccessible professors
Conclusions
• They also faced unique difficulties
• Felt conspicuous
• Didn’t like to draw attention
• Felt conflicted between their altruism &
their professors’ decontextualized science
• Interpreted decontextualization as hostility
or lack of caring
• Were skeptical of claims about meritocracy
Difficulties came from
• Pragmatism (big classes)
• Good intentions (asking and answering
questions in class, taking on research
assistants)
Success in these settings
required…
• Comfort with attention
• Knowledge of how to succeed in an
unsupportive environment
• Comfort with personal interactions
centered on information, not
relationship
• Race- and gender-blindness
But the setting “seemed
fair”…
• Because rhetoric of meritocracy
obscured racial and gendered patterns
• Both the women in the study &
professors explained women’s nonparticipation in individual terms--lack of
interest, lack of preparation, lack of
ability
Feedback
• Does this data--and my arguments
about it--seem convincing?
• Other seemingly neutral practices?
Some solutions
• Recognize that science has a culture
which certain types of students may not
be familiar with
• Occasionally put science in context
• Establish rapport with students during
office hours or research
• Mention race & gender where they
make sense
Other solutions??
Altruism
• Subset of previous sample
• 3 Black women, 4 Latinas, 3 American
Indian women, 4 Asian/Pacific Islanders
• Still in contact with them 5-6 years after
original study
• 13 of the 14 expressed specific altruistic
values, often tied to science
No matter what I choose to do, I’m sure it
will be something like a doctor, a teacher, a
counselor, something where I’m involved with
other people and working, trying to help
other people.
--African American biology/psychology major, now an
M.D.
Altruism and science careers
• Career goals as undergraduates:
• Teaching science (4)
• Using science to preserve the environment
(3)
• Health professions (10)
Medicine as altruistic science
And so, with medicine, I could have
patients, and I could do clinical
research, and stuff like that. Anything
that I can do to help people would
really make me feel good
--Latina molecular biology major, now working
on a PhD in biomedical sciences
Medicine as altruistic science
1. medicine is fun, fascinating, 2. it is
a career that will keep me interested
and challenged, 3. the opportunity to
serve many different people
--2005 email, American Indian biology major, now an
M.D.
Medicine as altruistic science
• Seven students specified desire to work
with under-served populations
Medicine as altruistic science
From what I see, they’re the ones who
don’t have all the means necessary to
keep them really healthy. […] So I
want to work with people of color. And
I’m a person of color, and I want to see
them be healthy, and do well, and help
them succeed, just like I did.
--American Indian M.D.
Race and altruism
• 5 students connected their altruism with
their experiences as women of color
and residents of medically under-served
areas
Race and altruism
If you’re often put in a lesser position,
or something like that, and you manage
to get above that, but you see other
people being subjected to it, then you
want to do what you can to help them
out of it, and make them see that
there’s another way.
--African American M.D.
Altruism as a buffer
In science settings:
I get the feeling I do when I walk
through somebody’s house with shoes
on. Like I’m in somebody else’s home
and I’m improperly walking, when I’m in
science
--African American molecular biology major, now in
public health
Sophomore year was like the year I was going
to switch and become a teacher, and get my
master’s—I don’t know what I was going to do,
but it was going to be something else, and [the
director of an enrichment program for students
of color in science] was like “no, there is a way
to find the union between social issues and
science. Just stick with it.” And on that faith,
on faith that he was right, I decided, “well, I’ll
try it.”
--African American public health worker
I don’t really have a feel for the science
department. But working with other
people, and being active with other
communities of color, you learn about
their struggles and this or that, and so
when you apply both of them together—
biology and working with people—I can
see that medicine is one way to connect
them all. So that’s helping me achieve
my goal.
--American Indian M.D.
Altruism as a bridge to
science:
I wasn’t as excited to work on plants as
I was to work on animals, just because it
didn’t really affect me whether or not
this family belonged to this family or not,
but now that I’ve been doing it, it’s
really interesting, just like seeing the
way that they go about doing it.
--Latina molecular biology major, now working on PhD
I remember studying about genetics and
the base primers and blah blah, and
here I am, doing it in real life…life a mad
scientist. I used to think, this is just a
job to provide the means for the ends
(graduation). But now I am doing so
well in this job and have learned how
the worlds of hard science meet public
health….
--2005 email, Latina kinesiology major, on
working in a kinesiology lab to put herself
through her master’s in public health.
7 years later….
• Engaged in research (natural or social
sciences) with altruistic applications: 7
•
•
•
•
•
AIDS prevention
Maternal and child health
Organ transplants
Infection in American Indian populations
Pharmaceuticals
7 years later….
• Health professionals (5)
• Applying to medical school (1)
• Organizing and recruiting women or
women of color in the sciences (3)
???
• Your ideas of how any or all of this
could be used to retain more able
women of color in the sciences???