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Essential to the advancement of women of color (WOC) faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is an institutional culture that promotes equity by empowering organizational structures to facilitate the attainment of leadership positions. Currently, Black/African American, Latina and Native women are grossly underrepresented in the academy and, most drastically, in full professor ranks. According to National Science Foundation data on science, health and engineering doctorates, Black/African American, Latina, and Native women accounted for less than 1 percent of full professors, less than 2.5 percent of associate professors and less than 3 percent of assistant professors (National Science Foundation, 2015). The daunting magnitude of underrepresentation of WOC in the STEM professoriate underscores serious equity concerns that have the potential to negatively impact institutional equity, undergraduate and graduate STEM education and society at large (Monroe et al., 2008). Specifically, the potential consequences of this underrepresentation are that fewer WOC faculty are involved in developing and implementing institutional policies that promote equity (Ong et al., 2011); fewer aspirational and support models exist for students of color (Espinosa, 2011; Morse, 1995; Ong et al., 2011; Rosser, 2004); and fewer WOC researchers are in place to use their unique perspectives for conducting research on problems plaguing communities of color (e.g. health disparities, biases in STEM pedagogies) (Malcom and Malcom, 2011; Morse and Pratt (1995); Ong et al., 2011). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to highlight critical issues facing WOC STEM faculty through qualitative meta-analysis that synthesizes existing literature and to propose recommendations for action using an intersectionality framework. The recommendations are based on an intersectional lens because it accounts for the roles of power and privilege and allows for the evaluation of the impact of race and gender simultaneously (Collins, 2002; Thomas et al., 2008).
Background and rationale
In recent years, there has been an increase in the literature on WOC faculty in the academy. Research has documented that WOC experience racism and sexism (Harley, 2008; Patitu and Hinton, 2003; Thomas and Hollenshead, 2001; Turner, 2003; Turner et al., 2008; Villalpando and Delgado Bernal, 2002) in the workplace. In one study African American women reported incidents that involved race, gender and sexual orientation when asked to describe their experiences...