Transforming Trajectories for Women of Color in Tech (2022) / Chapter Skim
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5 The Role of Government in Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women of Color in Tech
5 The Role of Government in Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women of Color in Tech
Pages 157-186
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From page 157... ...
fields in particular, in many cases such efforts have failed to take an intersectional approach.1 Without such an approach, women of color often fail to benefit from government efforts to the same degree as white women or men from underrepresented groups. Take the historic example provided by the fight for voting rights in the United States, both the white women who led the women's suffrage movement and the men of color who fought against disenfranchisement on the basis of race often excluded women of color from these civil rights efforts (Bailey, 2020)
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In this chapter, the committee reviews efforts by government to address institutional obstacles facing women of color in tech; calls upon government to be more intentional about taking an intersectional approach to efforts aimed at supporting greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in tech (Box 5-1) ; and calls for additional action by government institutions to promote transparency and accountability among tech companies, institutions of higher education, and in the government itself, including in government funded laboratories.
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From page 159... ...
EFFORTS BY GOVERNMENT TO MITIGATE INSTITUTIONAL OBSTACLES FOR WOMEN OF COLOR In the section below the committee reviews efforts by Congress and federal agencies to support women of color pursuing tech education and careers and attempts by these government institutions to remove systemic barriers to access and equity in these fields. The committee identifies progress that has been made by these efforts, including a recent, growing appreciation for the importance of taking an intersectional approach to such efforts, as well as shortcomings and lessons learned from past efforts.
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From page 160... ...
One, the proposed STEM Opportunities Act, "provides for guidance, data collection, and grants for groups historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education at institutions of higher education and at federal agencies." Though the term "intersectionality" is not specifically used in the draft language for the STEM Opportunities Act, in section 4, "Collection and Reporting of Data on Federal Research Grant," the legislation calls for disaggregation of data "cross-tabulated by race, ethnicity, gender, and years since completion of doctoral degree." Furthermore, in section 7b, "Workshops to Address Cultural Barriers to Expanding the Academic and Federal STEM Workforce," the bill includes language tasking agencies with ensuring that the workshops provide "a discussion of the unique challenges faced by different underrepresented groups, including minority women, minority men, persons from rural and underserved areas, persons with disabilities, gender and sexual minority individuals, and first-generation graduates in research." A second example, the "Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act of 2019," which seeks to address "sexual harassment and gender harassment in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields by supporting research regarding such harassment and efforts to prevent and respond to such harassment" calls upon the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund "research on the sexual harassment and gender harassment experiences of individuals in underrepresented or vulnerable groups, including racial and ethnic minority groups, disabled individuals, foreign nationals, sexual- and gender-minority individuals, and others." These examples of legislative language that acknowledge, explicitly or implicitly, that it is important to examine the intersection of race and gender in efforts to address underrepresentation in STEM are, in this committee's opinion, an important step in the right direction.
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From page 161... ...
Such a resource is, unfortunately, not available for all federal agencies, which can make ascertaining the ways that other agencies are investing in such efforts difficult. Table 5-1 describes the list of programs NSF reported in the 2021 budget request to Congress that focus3 on broadening participation and offers information on the extent to which individual programs take an intersectional approach or support women of color in tech, specifically.
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. The 2020-2021 program solicitation for the ADVANCE program reads, "All NSF ADVANCE proposals are expected to use intersectional approaches in the design of systemic change strategies in recognition that gender, race, and ethnicity do not exist in isolation from each other and from other categories of social identity." This is an important step.
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Alliances for Graduate The AGEP program aims to increase the number of faculty from Education and the Professoriate historically underrepresented groups through alliances between institutions of higher education, which NSF expects to "work collaboratively and use intersectional approaches in the design, implementation, and evaluation of systemic change strategies." (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2021/nsf21576/nsf21576.htm) Alliances for Graduate These supplements are available to institutions that currently Education and the or previously had an Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate's Graduate Professoriate award and are to be used to support an individual Research Supplements doctoral student or master's student planning to pursue a Ph.D.
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Historically Black Colleges This program "provides awards to strengthen STEM and Universities Undergraduate undergraduate education and research at historically Black Program colleges and universities." (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/ nsf20559/nsf20559.htm) Historically Black Colleges The HBCU-EiR program aims to strengthen research capacity and Universities Excellence in at HBCUs by funding research projects aligned with NSF's Research research programs.
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More than 50% of Hispanic/Latino/a undergraduate students attend Hispanic-serving institutions, and an intersectional approach to meeting them where they are could significantly impact the diversity of undergraduate STEM degrees awarded and STEM professionals in the United States." (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2020/nsf20599/nsf20599.htm) Inclusion across the Nation of INCLUDES supports a wide range of projects, events, Communities of Learners of and networks support broadening participation in STEM.
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The broadening Participation participation track seeks to "prepare underrepresented SBE scientists and others who share NSF's diversity goals for positions of scientific leadership in academia, industry, and government." The solicitation specifically cites data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics that show that "American Indians or Alaska Natives, Blacks or African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders, in addition to individuals with disabilities, are underrepresented in the SBE sciences in the U.S." (https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2018/ nsf18584/nsf18584.htm) Science of Broadening This program "uses the theories, methods, and analytic Participation techniques of the social, behavioral, economic, and learning sciences to better understand the factors that enhance as well as the barriers that hinder our ability to expand participation in education, the workforce and major social institutions in society, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
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. While diversity and inclusion appears to be a cross-cutting theme of these DoD STEM efforts, it is not clear from the website whether the DoD STEM efforts take an intersectional approach or emphasize women of color.
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. MUREP offers competitive awards to minority serving institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic–Serving Institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander–Serving Institutions, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, American Indian Tribal Colleges and Universities, Native American–Serving Nontribal Institutions and other minorityserving institutions.
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Historically Black Colleges and This seminar series, launched in September 2020, focuses Universities STEM Alliance Seminar on the research and career journeys of African American scientists from NIST and is geared toward historically Black college and university STEM undergraduates at three partnering colleges, Savannah State University, Texas Southern, and Prairie View A&M. Information Technology Laboratory This committee is a grassroots assembly formed to Diversity Committee assist the staff and management of NIST's Information Technology Laboratory in working toward the vision and the goals of the NIST policy on diversity.
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Society for Advancement of Chicanos/ NIST participates in programs offered by the Society Hispanics and Native Americans in for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Science Americans in Science and shares information about current NIST research opportunities (Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science, n.d.)
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. The widespread disparities that persist in tech education and careers underscore the need for additional efforts by a range of stakeholders to address structural racism and sexism in tech using an intersectional approach that makes use of the research on what is effective in driving change.
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. Similarly, the 2020 National Academies report Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Opening Doors describes the research on the impact of transparency and accountability.
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about efforts to promote transparency, accountability, and data collection at the national laboratories in an effort by the DOE Office of Science to better understand how the national laboratories are working to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM. Modeled off an existing best practice for reporting 5-year strategic plans for science and technology strategies to senior leadership, DOE established a process for annually reviewing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts by the national laboratories.
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The section below describes efforts by investors to hold tech companies accountable for progress on their stated diversity goals and makes the case for the role of government in promoting transparency and accountability among tech companies, especially those that are recipients of government contracts. A Role for Congress in Holding Tech Companies Accountable Through Transparently Sharing Workforce Demographic Data Recognizing the importance of data collection, transparency, and accountability, many investors have called upon tech companies (and other large companies)
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Under Title VII, EEOC is required to keep the EEO-1 forms from individual companies confidential; however, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs is not subject to these same requirements under Title VII. Some investors believe that making the EEO-1 data publicly available will promote competition among companies that could drive companies to make greater progress on their stated goals related to workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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. The SEA Change effort in the United States resembles the Athena SWAN Charter in its emphasis on accountability through data collection, community support, educational resources, and an award system; however, it distinguished itself by its explicit focus on intersectionality.
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, launched by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2018, provides institutions with a community of practice; a range of educational resources; opportunities on best and promising practices for promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion; and positive incentives to work toward systemic change through an award program that recognizes institu tions that undergo self-assessment, take action, and reassess in both a top-down and bottom-up manner. The Three Pillars of the SEA Change effort include • Community: SEA Change provides a "safe space where partnerships and collaborations can be established to nurture the talent pool for STEMM among member institutions, organizations, and individuals committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion." • Institute: The SEA Change Institute offers participating institutions with a repository of research; access to issue-based convenings, courses, trainings, and recordings of past SEA Change events; and information on how to apply for a SEA Change award.
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There are examples in science and education policy more generally in which meaningful policy change has grown out of partnerships and a coordinated advocacy effort. Advocacy coalition frameworks and specific case study examples could serve as models to stakeholders, such as scientific and engineering professional societies, that are working to advocate for improving the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women of color in tech (Weber, 2019; Weible, 2017; Weible and Ingold, 2018)
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From page 179... ...
that engage in advocacy for science and for diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM, to form strategic partnerships with influential organizations that have worked for many years to address structural racism and sexism and which have a great deal of influence with government institutions. For example, scientific and engineering professional societies could forge strategic partnerships with the NAACP, National Urban League, LULAC, UnidosUS, Native American Rights Fund, United Negro College Fund, the National Congress of American Indians, and other groups to expand their sphere of influence.
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History demonstrates that unless policies, practices, programs, and individuals embrace an intersectional approach in efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in our institutions, women of color will likely continue to fail to fully benefit from these efforts. The committee found that both legislative language and program solicitations at federal agencies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion are inconsistent in calling for an intersectional approach.
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RECOMMENDATION 5-3: To promote transparency and account ability, Congress should amend section 709e of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require public release of EEO-1 workforce demographic data by companies, which would include those that are the recipi ents of government contracts supported by taxpayer dollars. Research demonstrates that increasing transparency and accountability in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts can yield tangible positive impacts.
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If these recommendations are implemented with the intentional focus on intersectionality, it is this committee's opinion that they could be a positive force for holding institutions accountable for working in good faith to address the underrepresentation of women of color in tech education and careers.
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and higher education associations (e.g., the Association of American Universities) that engage in advocacy for science and for diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM, to form strategic partnerships with influential organizations that have worked for many years to address structural racism and sexism and which have a great deal of influence with government institutions.
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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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n.d. Title VII of the civil rights act of 1964.
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