Five Women of Color Who Transformed STEM Fields
A 2015 study from the Harvard Business Review found that nearly half of African-American and Latina women in U.S. STEM careers reported being confused for administrative or janitorial staff.
In its 2017 survey of women of color working in astronomy and planetary sciences, the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets showed that 40 percent of respondents felt unsafe at work because of their gender or sex, with 30 percent reporting feeling unsafe because of their race.
The 2017 Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering report from the National Science Foundation found that the percentage of African-American women earning bachelor’s degrees in computer science has actually declined from 1995 to 2014.
Despite the challenges facing women of color in STEM today, numerous reports have demonstrated the benefits of diversity in the workplace. For example, a 2015 McKinsey report revealed that companies with greater racial and ethnic diversity are “35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.”