How to get more women and people of colour into graduate school — and keep them there | BOOK REVIEW - Nature.com

Sibrina N. Collins, executive director of the Marburger STEM Center at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Michigan emphasiz, Case studies show that efforts to address equity in science are doomed if they don’t learn from past mistakes.

Sequencing DNA at the Cancer Genomics Research Laboratory in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Photo: National Cancer Institute/SPL

In 1916, Saint Elmo Brady became the first African American to be awarded a doctorate in chemistry in the United States. Eighty-four years later, I was one of only 44 Black chemists in the country to earn a PhD that year. As a chemistry professor in academia, I have seen many efforts to address diversity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Yet the needle has barely budged. In 2016, in a nation where 33% of people identify as Black, Latin American (Latinx) or Native American, only 9% of all science and engineering doctorates in the United States went to students from these groups.

Some of the reasons behind this are explored in the book Equity in Science. Social scientist and education researcher Julie Posselt warns that we must learn from previous efforts or we are doomed to repeat past mistakes. She focuses on case studies from geoscience, psychology, chemistry and applied physics that serve as potential models for universities and colleges looking to recruit and retain women and people of colour in STEM graduate education. Posselt defines equity work as “reconfiguring structures, cultures, and systems to empower marginalized groups and close disparities”. Institutional change is required to make substantial shifts. She admits it can be very messy...

Equity in Science does a good job of highlighting some of the barriers and challenges to equity in graduate programmes, and provides examples of what some do right and wrong. The book supplies specific guidance on inclusive practices. What we need now is a companion volume on getting and keeping scientists of colour in the next section of the pipeline: faculty. As I found after securing that PhD, rising through the ranks of academia as a Black woman chemist is tremendously hard work. What kept me going? Inspired by Saint Elmo Brady’s legacy, I knew I too deserved a seat at the table.

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Additional resources  

Nature 586, 491-492 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02940-y

Recommended Reading

Equity in Science:

Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change 

in Graduate Education

Source: Nature.com