Women of Color Share Details of Discrimination on the Jobw



We’ve made a lot of leaps and bounds as women when it comes to equality, but the journey is still a long one when it comes to the workplace. (Evidence A: the gap in pay between men and women.) Even more startling is a recent report from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law showing that 100 percent of women of color in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math education) workforce have experienced negative bias. Say what?

While numbers for women who’ve experienced negative bias across the board are high—100 percent of a group is a jaw-dropper. Common sexist issues aside, women of color experienced unwarranted stereotypes such as:

  • Black and Latina women said they were regularly mistaken for janitors.
  • Asian-American women felt more pressure to act traditionally feminine.
  • Black women controlled emotion to avoid an “angry black female” stereotype.
  • Latina women reported being labeled as “crazy” when they expressed emotion.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, the percentage of women of color in the STEM workforce is pretty dismal. A 2013 report from the U.S. Census Bureau found that not only were men hired at double the rate of women, but only 6 percent of STEM jobs were held by African Americans, 7 percent by Hispanics, and 41 percent by Asian Americans. (Although it should be noted that gender was not specified.)

Other biases that all women experienced: those with children were seen as less committed than their male counterparts, not to mention less competent. In fact, researchers found that given a male and female candidate with equal math skills, the man was more likely to receive the job offer. A third of the women surveyed also reported experiencing sexual harassment, however the rate at which it was documented greatly varied. For white women, 37.2 percent reported the harassment, while for Asians that number was 25 percent, 21.9 percent for Latinas, and 12.5 percent for black women.

Some other mind-blowing details:

  • 76.9 percent of black women reported having to “prove” their competency.
  • 61.4 percent of Asian women said they felt pushback for being assertive.
  • 59.4 percent of Latinas said they couldn’t express anger.

Given the already limited job openings in STEM research for women, there is the occasional sense of competition that can arise. According to the report, this varies between ethnic groups. However, such a negative environment helps no one.

“This is not women’s problem,” says Professor Joan C. Williams, who conducted the study. “If you want to interrupt the bias, you actually have to redesign the business system.”