Our Mission:

Project: STEAM’d! aims to help women and other underrepresented minorities in STEAM (STEM+Arts) build social capital through a freely-available podcast and website.

What we do:

In our podcast, exceptional scientists and artists share their stories, inspiring the next generation to fearlessly enter and succeed in STEAM. By hearing from their peers, under-represented minorities can be confident that they are not alone, and that there is a community of “us” working towards a more representative, equitable, and inclusive world of STEAM.  Our website provides resources to help women and URMs overcome obstacles—bias, sexism, imposter syndrome, burn-out—that they may face in STEAM fields. In addition, our website contains a directory of women and URMs in STEAM, creating a nationwide social network.


Background and purpose:

Despite efforts to improve diversity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics plus arts (STEAM), women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in STEAM fields1–3. Multiple factors contribute to gender and racial disparities, including stereotypes and biases, and racial differences in education opportunities. In contrast, identification—the process of relating oneself with other individuals in a specific community4—has been shown to enhance entry and retention of underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEAM5. Thus, to reduce gender and racial disparities, we must increase identification in URMs. 

Social capital is defined as “the individuals in a person’s social network and the resources that can be accessed through that network”6,7. Simply put, the people you know can provide the resources you need to achieve your educational and career goals8,9. To elaborate, if you have social capital, you have people in your network that can provide advice, physical resources (e.g. financial aid, a place to stay), and emotional support to help you navigate the specific industry you are in. Importantly, social capital has been shown to improve persistence of URMs in STEAM7,10. A critical component of social capital is trust and trustworthiness—one must trust the people in their network to then utilize the resources that are provided11,12—and personal identifiability fosters trustworthiness13.  Thus, identification and social capital go hand-in-hand. 

The objective of this project is to help women and minorities in STEAM to build social capital and enhance identification through a freely-available podcast and website. “STEAM’d!” is a podcast series that highlights the work and life of women and minorities in STEAM, while discussing the challenges that URMs face in the fields of STEAM. Every episode will examine a specific obstacle that URMs face—bias, sexism, imposter syndrome—through first-person narratives, and provides realistic tools that can be used to overcome institutional “isms” and “norms” that prohibit inclusivity, equity, and diversity in STEAM. By hearing from their peers, women and minorities can be confident that they are not alone, that there is a community of “us” working towards a more representative and inclusive world of STEAM. 

REFERENCES

1 STEM Jobs See Uneven Progress in Increasing Gender, Racial and Ethnic Diversity | Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/04/01/stem-jobs-see-uneven-progress-in-increasing-gender-racial-and-ethnic-diversity/ (accessed 15 Jan2022).
2 Bureau UC. Disparities in STEM Employment by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2013/acs/acs-24.html (accessed 15 Jan2022).
3 Woolston C. Minority representation in US science workforce sees few gains. Nature 2021; 592: 805–806.
4 identification – APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/identification (accessed 15 Jan2022).
5 Kricorian K, Seu M, Lopez D, Ureta E, Equils O. Factors influencing participation of underrepresented students in STEM fields: matched mentors and mindsets. Int J STEM Educ 2020; 7: 1–9.
6 Lin N. Social Capital. Cambridge University Press, 2001 doi:10.1017/CBO9780511815447.
7 Smith CAS, Wao H, Kersaint G, Campbell-Montalvo R, Gray-Ray P, Puccia E et al. Social Capital From Professional Engineering Organizations and the Persistence of Women and Underrepresented Minority Undergraduates. Front Sociol 2021; 6: 105.
8 Schuller T, Theisens H. Networks and Communities of Knowledge. Int Encycl Educ 2010; : 100–105.
9 Bizzi L. Social Capital in Organizations. Int Encycl Soc Behav Sci Second Ed 2015; : 181–185.
10 Puccia E, Martin JP, Smith CAS, Kersaint G, Campbell-Montalvo R, Wao H et al. The influence of expressive and instrumental social capital from parents on women and underrepresented minority students’ declaration and persistence in engineering majors. Int J STEM Educ 2021; 8: 1–15.
11 Algan Y. Trust and social capital. Good Meas 2018; : 283–320.
12 Trust and trustworthiness – Social Capital Research. https://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/trust-and-trustworthiness/ (accessed 16 Jan2022).13 Tanis M, Postmes T. A social identity approach to trust: interpersonal perception, group membership and trusting behaviour. Eur J Soc Psychol 2005; 35: 413–424.