And where are we working in the world now?
For the past several months, the human environment has been my main priority. I have been participating in environmental justice job training workshops in South Carolina, speaking on panels, and attending conferences, focused on women and the status of women and young girls, in the US today.
(Left to Right) Rev. Brendolyn Jenkins (founder of the S.H.A.R.P. Sisters (Sisters Honoring African Rites of Passage)); Valerie Jarrett (Senior Advisor and Assistant to President Barack Obama for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement); and Lilia A. Abron, Ph.D., P.E., President, PEER Consultants
Nearly 30 years ago I was a part of an NSF –funded study prepared by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The title of this study was, “The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science.” After many years of promoting women and minorities in the sciences, the AAS found that minority women scientists were falling somewhere in between the funded efforts to improve science opportunities for minorities, and efforts to advance women in science. They determined that there was little information available on the status of minority women in science, and virtually no literature advising institutions on the nature of the problems or the remedies.
The AAS decided to arrange a small conference of the women themselves to find out exactly what the problems were, at that time, and in what respects, whether similar or different, from those of majority women scientists, minority male scientists, and all other scientists. To this end the AAAS convened a small 3-day conference of 30 minority women scientists, in December 1975, in Washington, DC, to define and illuminate those questions and to receive the advice of minority women scientists.
This was the first time, in America, that minority women in science, engineering, medicine and dentistry, met together to discuss their unique position as the most underrepresented and probably over selected group in the scientific disciplines. These women, African America, Mexican-American, Native American, and Puerto Rican were involved in teaching, research, administration, and health service delivery. The results of that conference and programs emanating from it set the stage for progress women in the sciences have made today. I was one of those 30 women. This past May 2010, NSF reconvened 6 of those 30 women and asked the questions of “where are you now, have you seen positive change over the past 30 years, and what recommendations would we give now to ensure continued access to these professions to new female entrants entering the workforce and preparing to enter the workforce.
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