Written by Freda Pan
Introduction
Discrimmination has been an issue for many minority groups around the world, creating barriers between the privileged and underprivileged . These individuals are overlooked simply because of factors like their race, gender, and appearance, and often experience discrimination in various forms, from instances of harassment to prejudiced comments. Mirroring the biased market of today's workforce, discrimmination is an issue that all minorities continuously struggle to overcome.
For these reasons racism and sexism often discourages females and minority ethnicities from pursuing jobs in STEM-related fields despite having the qualifications and a passion for such careers. In a varying field that is oversaturated by cisgender white and Asian males, females are very familiar to the hardships and disadvantages that become a deciding factor in pursuing a STEM-related career. Gender and racial bias is persistent in this interdisciplinary field and only reflects the patterns of our current workforce.
In 2017-2018, women only accounted for 20.2% of post secondary students in engineering and engineering technology degrees and 37.8% of STEM-related fields in general in Canada (Catalyst, 2020). These discrepancies are mainly due to the difficulty for women to break into the field of STEM, for discrimmination deters females pursuing these jobs.
Despite the prevalent injustices that affect the community at large, minorities are still striving to reach equality in STEM.
Here are a few individuals who, despite all odds, have overcome racial and gender barriers to make major advancements in the field of STEM:
Hedy LaMarr
Austrian-American hollywood actress and starlet, Hedy LaMarr, was famed for her roles in several Oscar nominated films, however, her lesser known contribution was made to the Second World War: frequency hopping. In her early 20’s, at the height of WWII, LaMarr emigrated from her home country of Austria to America. Although she spoke very little English, she was able to find an acting job in the film capital of Old Hollywood where she quickly captured the eyes of adoring fans by her striking looks. During breaks from acting, LaMarr found joy in conducting experiments which eventually led to her extraordinary discovery in collaboration with George Antheil. By transmitting radio signals over fast changing frequencies, LaMarr realized that those signals would be more secure, preventing detection or radio jamming. This was especially useful during wartimes since it allowed soldiers to communicate with each other without worrying about the enemy jamming or detecting their radio frequencies. Although this was a great contribution to the war, LaMarr was not recognized for her discoveries until the late 90’s. Her invention was the precursor to modern day Wi-Fi, bluetooth, and wireless connection.
Katherine Johnson
The 1900’s were an extremely difficult time for all African-Americans. Segregation ingrained into the American congress by Jim Crow Laws helped enable further discrimination, solely based on the unjust notion that European-Americans were superior to those of darker complexions. Nonetheless, Katherine Johnson was born into this era with a natural passion for mathematics. Graduating high school at the young age of 14, she pursued a college education, earning a degree in mathematics at just 18 years old. This eventually led to a career at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which is now known as NASA. As an African American person as well as a woman, she faced double discrimmination for her race and gender. Not only was she segregated and made to work with “blacks only” computers, but she was made to work separate from the white women as well. Despite the extreme disadvantages this discrimination subjected her to, Johnson was able to establish her reputation for being extremely accurate with mathematical calculations. Her work involved calculations for NASA’s first exploration into space as numerous publications in academic articles. Her capabilities and work for NASA was considered invaluable to several space projects. Despite the hardships and discrimination she faced early on in her career, she was able to prove her true worth and skill.
Conclusion
Without their contributions in STEM, who knows what today's society information and technological advancements would have looked like. We owe our thanks to all individuals in STEM from various backgrounds for their impactful discoveries and work that has led to modern day technology.
This is why it is crucial that we do not allow discrimination to hold minority groups back from advancing in the STEM field. Everyone should be given equal opportunities without the fear of letting biased views interfere with their careers. By not having safe spaces and not prioritizing the creation of inclusive environments for all individuals to explore this incredibly rewarding discipline, we automatically close the door to further innovations and new ideas. Thus, further advancements in STEM are only limited to its lack of diversity.
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