Black Panther came out this February with a predominantly black cast leading a blockbuster superhero movie that positively represented minorities. Representation for marginalized groups on film screens is vitally important to create more energy for representation in other facets of society, such as the workplace, especially for women of color.
Letitia Wright, who played the amazing character of Princess Shuri — a sixteen-year-old Afrofuturist scientist who built all the advanced technology seen in Black Panther — expressed to the Huffington Post that she wanted the character to inspire more women to enter the field of STEM. Seeing a woman of color in STEM is a powerful image; that image can spark the imagination of young women of color everywhere to feel that they can succeed in technical fields.
Danyale Calhoun, a third-year studying business administration, previously studied industrial engineering and reflected on how powerful imagery can be. “White people don’t tend to have the same feelings of having only certain options because they see that people who look like them do any and everything and are expected to be everywhere,” Calhoun said. “They are the norm. If I didn’t have my dad, an engineer, as someone who can tell me I can do it, I don’t know if I thought I could do it.”
March is also Women’s History Month, a month dedicated to the contributions of women throughout history. For Women’s History Month, I thought it pertinent and timely to shine an overdue spotlight on women of color in STEM on this campus.
Women of color on this campus face challenges; the intersection of their racial and gender identities leads them to experience different levels of discrimination that other groups are not subjected to. This is even more true for women of color within STEM, as their presence is even more marginalized by the field’s lack of diversity.
Cecile Sadler, a fourth-year studying computer engineering, articulated the reality of the intersecting identities. “Oftentimes being a double minority you often wonder, in both negative and positive situations, is this situation happening to me because I’m a woman?” Sadler said. “Is the situation happening to me because I am a person of color? Or is it because I am both?”
Women of color in STEM are constantly in spaces where their voice is in the minority, meaning that it is not as prized as other people’s perspectives. This can play out in group projects where their ideas may be heard but often are not listened to.
Women of color also have to deal with a lack of cultural competency from their peers, which may lead to awkward or even harmful interactions because of a lack of understanding. This can lead to women of color feeling less connected to the classroom and NC State as a whole.
“I feel like I am apart of [the] black community on NC State’s campus,” Calhoun said. “I don’t feel like I am a member of NC State as a whole. There will be things people talk about on the larger NC State scale that I know nothing about, such as sports or the predominantly white Greek culture, that are huge parts of student culture at NC State.”
These challenges, however, have fostered a bond of sisterhood — or sistahood in this case — that is entirely unique to women of color, who often make it their duty to support other women of color in STEM.
“Within my friend group we are really supportive of each other,” said Breonda Snead, a second-year studying paper science and chemical engineering. “We check in on each other every once in a while. I know we are all going through the same thing; these classes are hard and we are there for each other. Making sure I stay in touch with my people in STEM is really important to me. I make time for that because I know it’s important.”
Women of color in STEM, judging from my interactions with them, also aspire to be like Princess Shuri, in the sense of being a figure that inspires other women of color. They want to be that face that inspires other young girls of color to choose STEM, so they are not just working hard for themselves but for their community as well.
There are also allies for women of color who advocate for them. “Something that people miss or overlook: yes it is difficult, but there is also a lot of people who help us to succeed and want us to no longer be a minority in the field,” said Sadler. “We have a lot of advocates who can be our allies in situations. Yes it’s difficult because we are in a male-dominated field. Women are often overlooked, but there’s also a lot of people, a lot of males of color and non-color, who are willing to be voices in spaces that we are not in.”
Women of color in STEM are a wonderful group of women who are challenging the norm through their hard work. The path they have chosen is hard, but it is through their struggles that more women of color can rise in the STEM field. They are paving the road of change in real time, a change that NC State, and beyond that, our society, benefits from. There is an African proverb that sums up their story perfectly: “Until the story of the hunt is told by the lion, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”
