JANITORS

Almost half of Black and Latina women working as scientists have been mistaken for a janitor or administrator of their offices, reveals a new report (http://www.toolsforchangeinstem.org/double-jeopardy-report-viewer/) on the experiences of women of color working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

As one Latina statistician told researchers, “I always amuse my friends with my janitor stories, but it has happened not only at weird hours.” She calmly informed someone that she had the key to the office, not the janitor’s closet.

That detail is part of “Double Jeopardy: Gender Bias Against Women of Color in Science,” the new report by the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California that surveyed 500 female scientists and conducted in-depth interviews with 60 more. It provides a damning look at how gender and racial bias impacts women’s mental health and careers.

The conventional wisdom is that women don’t work in the sciences at the same rate as men because of a lack of early encouragement for girls to pursue STEM careers and because they’re more likely to leave careers to have kids. But the interviews show that those explanations leave out the hostile and discouraging environment that many women face in male-dominated classrooms, offices, and labs. Of the 60 scientists interviewed in the report, 100 percent reported that they had experienced gender discrimination during their careers. More than 75 percent of the African-American women scientists surveyed reported having to prove their intelligence over and over again. They feel they can’t afford to make a single mistake.”

Read the full piece: http://bitchmagazine.org/post/women-of-color-working-in-stem-fields-are-frequently-mistaken-for-janitors

Teenage scientist Alexa Dantzler works in a chemisty lab at Emory University. Photo by Isabelle Saldana.