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Unicorns No More

Hispanic Community May 2022 PREMIUM
The Promise of Today’s Latina Students in STEM

Written by Sarah L. Rodriguez, Ph.D. and Norma E. Garza, M.S.

Over the years, The Rodriguez Research Group has researched and advocated for enhanced STEM pathways for Latina students. In one piece, the team highlighted a participant who related, “I feel like we’re like the rare thing, you know . . .We’re the unicorns in STEM! We’re a double minority. We’re women in [and of] itself, and then we’re Latinas” (Rodriguez & Blaney, 2020). While the image of a unicorn may set off thoughts of sparkly pink confetti for some, others may connect this to the mythical being, effervescent and intriguing. Her statement highlights the real rarity of seeing Latina women in a STEM field: the stark reality of a STEM world in which Latina women are forever a double minority, living life at the gendered and racialized borderlands of STEM education and professional experiences.

The Higher Education Landscape for Latina Students in STEM

Today more Latina students make their way to higher education, yet few of these students come to find their home in STEM fields. Overall, Latinx students are underrepresented in degree completion. According to a National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics report, over half of all bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering fields were awarded to white students in 2018, while Latinx students earned 15.7% of bachelor’s degrees in science and 12.2% of bachelor’s degrees in engineering. While Latina students have made great strides in bachelor’s STEM degree completion, they continue to make up only around 8% of earned bachelor’s degrees in science and engineering.

Latina students often experience challenges related to isolation and feeling a sense of belonging in STEM fields due to the intersectional nature of experiencing both racism and sexism within these spaces (Rodriguez & Blaney, 2020). Latina students often find it difficult to feel a sense of STEM identity and find it sometimes hard to see themselves as the kind of individuals who engage in STEM careers (Rodriguez et al., 2017). However, Latina students also bring with them a vast treasure trove of community cultural wealth learned from their families and communities and utilize their voices and agency to resist racial, sexist, and other oppressions in a variety of ways (Peralta et al., 2013; Rodriguez, Lu, & Ramirez, 2020).

Beyond the scholarly realm, educators have taken real action across the nation to promote STEM interests and improve STEM pathways for Latina students, including providing opportunities for them to get plugged in with early, sustained, and meaningful STEM experiences. Examples include Latinitas, a national initiative based in Austin, Texas, which focuses on Latina girls and technology and media;  The Latina STEM Fellowship at Tarrant County Community College in Fort Worth, Texas, which focuses on STEM career exploration, skill-building, and mentorship; and SHPEtinas, which supports Latina students in engineering break into the field.

In the past, the Hispanic Outlook has pushed readers to think about STEM and Latinx community. Last year, one article urged readers to start early, consider the realities of higher education, and prepare Latinx students for the STEM careers of the future. Another article, “STEMinism,” a play on the words STEM and feminism, urged readers to focus on maintaining STEM interests for Latinas  but also warned of the dangers of the looming financial crisis and issues of self-sabotage. So, where do we go from here?

From our vantage point, what is needed is a meaningful, sustained engagement with the histories and contemporary experiences of Latina students in STEM, as well as the movement to honor Latina voices and place them at the forefront in the co-creation of systematic, sustainable collaborations. As such, this call for action is meant to highlight the promise of today’s Latina students in STEM and make them “unicorns” no more.

Addressing Inequities for Latinas in STEM: Reflecting on Systems of Oppression, Honoring the Voices of Latinas and Co-creating Systematic, Sustainable Collaborations

Educators and scholars must understand the socio-political history and contemporary context that contribute to the landscape of STEM environments for Latina students in our country. Today, highlighting the historical and contemporary systems of oppression is challenged in many ways. Some believe that focusing on these areas creates social strife, whereas others believe that situating today’s problems in the larger histories of marginalized groups is essential. Ultimately, trying to address inequities for Latinas in STEM fields without acknowledging the complex history and on-going systems of oppression that these students experience, such as racism and sexism is failing to see the whole picture. Educators and scholars must continue to reckon with these issues if they are to make sustainable change.

Educators and scholars must make space for the voices of Latinas in STEM to be heard. Current Latina students and industry employees have valuable perspectives that, in many instances, are either absent or actively marginalized. Rather than simply researching, writing, or designing something for these students, scholars and educators might try honoring and fore-fronting their voices. This might mean listening more than talking and allowing Latinas in STEM to speak  about their experiences from their own perspectives. Technolochicas, an initiative of The National Center for Women and Information Technology, showcases Latinas currently employed in computing fields with the express goal of sharing their perspectives and motivating other Latinas to pursue careers in technology.

Educators and scholars must push for the co-creation of systematic, sustainable collaborations among a variety of stakeholders to facilitate action for enhanced STEM pathways. This means a rebalancing of power, with scholars and educators relinquishing some of their power in order to better engage and serve Latinas in STEM -building trust and addressing power imbalances for a more supportive, shared decision-making process. For scholars, this might mean reframing study participants as true “co-creators” in the research process or moving towards a more liberatory or participatory action research model, involving researchers and participants working together to solve complex problems. For educators, this might mean supporting shared decision-making and empowering Latinas in STEM to express community needs and shape their curricular and programmatic experiences.

Sarah L. Rodriguez, Ph.D., associate professor of Higher Education & Learning Technologies at Texas A&M University – Commerce, researches equity issues in higher education, with a focus on Latina/o/x students and students in STEM fields. Sarah.Rodriguez@tamuc.edu

Norma E. Garza, M.S., a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Arlington, focuses on the cultural experiences of Latina students in STEM, attitudes toward immigrants, and political psychology. norma.garza2@mavs.uta.edu

References

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. (2021). Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2021. Special Report NSF 21-321. Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/wmpd.

Peralta, C., Caspary, M., & Boothe, D. (2013). Success factors impacting Latina/o persistence in higher education leading to STEM opportunities. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 8(4), 905-918.

Rodriguez, S. L., Lu, C., & Ramirez, D. (2020). Navigating Operating Systems: A Framework for Understanding Identity Development for Undergraduate Latina Students in Computing. In E.M. Gonzalez, F. Fernandez, & M. Wilson (Eds.), An Asset-Based Approach to Advancing Latina Students in STEM: Increasing Resilience, Participation, and Success. Research in STEM Education Series. London, UK: Routledge.

Rodriguez, S. L., & Blaney, J. M. (2020). “We’re the Unicorns in STEM”: Understanding How Academic and Social Experiences Influence Sense of Belonging for Latina Undergraduate Students. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

Rodriguez, S. L., Cunningham, K., Jordan, A. (2017). STEM identity development for Latinas: The role of self- and outside recognition. 18(3), Journal of Hispanic Higher Education.

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