Far too often, Black women like the author, and so many others from groups that have been historically marginalized in STEM, are made to "assume some kind of position" as they navigate the hostility of a disciplinary culture that was never intended for them but has, nevertheless, benefited from them. On varying levels, that…

Individuals concerned with subgroup differences on standardized tests suggest replacing these tests with holistic evaluations of unstructured application materials, such as letters of recommendation (LORs), which they posit show less bias. We empirically investigate this proposition that LORs are bias-free, and argue that LORs might actually…

Undergraduate calculus instruction is a contributor to racialized and gendered trends of STEM persistence and disidentification with mathematics. However, the nature of instruction that promotes equitable learning opportunities for disrupting such negative outcomes and experiences among historically marginalized populations is underexplored. To…

Introductory mathematics courses, including precalculus and calculus, largely influence Black and Latin* students' persistence and sense of belonging in STEM. However, prior research on instruction in these courses for advancing more equitable outcomes is limited. This paper presents findings from a study of 18 Black and Latina/o students'…

For many years, Xavier University of Louisiana (Xavier) has been a leader in educating underrepresented minority students who successfully transition into postgraduate degree programs in STEM and eventually into STEM-based careers in research, healthcare, and beyond. Striving to meet the needs of women and minority students who continue to be…

Background: As engineering remains central to the US economy, it is imperative that the innovators of this field reflect the world in which we live. Despite decades of concerted effort to broaden participation in engineering, representation continues to lack. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide education researchers and practitioners…

Many commonplace stories, including the authors and those they have heard, substantiate a critical and undeniable truth: marginalized and underrepresented students' development through the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pipeline is centered on race and gender and is impacted by (un)intentional and (in)formal interactions…

The perceptions of students interested in STEM, particularly those too often excluded due to race and/or gender, are necessary to create educational experiences that additively contribute to students' access and inclusion in STEM. The purpose of this inquiry was to understand the perceptions of 34 high-school students about race and gender…

Racialized and gendered imbalances impact tenure-track faculty service workload and ultimately, career advancement for women faculty, especially women of color faculty. This article reports on a 3-year study examining the barriers to career advancement for women/women of color tenure-line Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) faculty at…

In December 2019, the institutional affirmative action "Onde elas estão?" ("Where are they?") was launched for the mitigation of gender inequality in the STEM disciplines in Brazil, coincidentally in the same period which the first reports of the COVID-19 pandemic appeared in the city of Wuhan, China. Unfortunately, when…

This is a review of the literature that focuses on the gap in the available scholarly inquiry into Black females' participation in Career and Technical Education and their underrepresentation in non-traditional, high-paying career clusters, and those Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields broadly. Through an initial review of the…

Under-represented women of color in the STEM pipeline face myriad structural and cultural challenges in these male-dominated fields. Given this context, it is important to examine how these young women employ gendered discourses as they navigate their STEM majors. We report findings from interviews with 16 Hispanic women college students…

A deficit perspective is a propensity to locate the source of academic problems in deficiencies within students, their families, their communities, or their membership in social categories (such as race and gender). While the deficit perspective is a common topic of discussion in K-12 mathematics education, it is a much rarer topic of discussion…

This reflection explores the contributions to this special issue in order to derive an over-arching sense on the many difficulties that Latinas attending universities designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) face in STEM fields where their abilities are not only questioned, but they also get marginalized, deprived of opportunities that…

Black women engineering students often find themselves in an uninviting space in a field dominated by White men. Thus, as Black women matriculate toward completion of their engineering degrees, they encounter instances of racism, sexism, and prejudice that result from the intersection of their race and gender. In an effort to identify and…