Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208.
Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611.
CBE Life Sci Educ. 2023 Sep;22(3):ar33. doi: 10.1187/cbe.22-06-0130.
Black women in graduate school can experience stress due to blatant and subtle acts of gendered racism. However, we do not know how such stressors are navigated over time among those who successfully complete their PhDs. The current study used a Black feminist thought framework and narrative analysis to conduct a longitudinal exploration of how three successful Black women biomedical graduate students make sense of and respond to gendered racism they experienced and the coping strategies they employ as they persist. When interacting with others, the women experienced low expectations and doubts about being legitimate scientists. These experiences contributed to feelings of isolation, impacted their networking opportunities, and dampened their view of the desirability of an academic career postgraduation. Over time, their coping strategies for dealing with negative racial and gendered racial stereotypes and biases shifted from opting to "prove others wrong" or working harder, to leaning on their social networks for camaraderie and advice as well as choosing to not exert energy to form a response. Implications for mentoring and mentoring programs at the graduate level and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programming are discussed.
在研究生院的黑人女性可能会因为明显和微妙的性别种族主义行为而感到压力。然而，我们不知道那些成功完成博士学位的人是如何随着时间的推移来应对这些压力源的。本研究采用黑人女性主义思想框架和叙事分析，对三位成功的黑人女性生物医学研究生如何理解和应对她们所经历的性别种族主义以及在坚持过程中采用的应对策略进行了纵向探讨。在与他人互动时，这些女性经历了对自己作为合法科学家的低期望和怀疑。这些经历导致了孤立感，影响了她们的社交机会，并削弱了她们对毕业后从事学术职业的渴望。随着时间的推移，她们应对负面种族和性别种族主义刻板印象和偏见的应对策略从选择“证明别人是错的”或更加努力工作，转变为依靠社交网络获得友谊和建议，以及选择不花费精力做出回应。讨论了研究生阶段和科学、技术、工程和数学项目中的指导和指导计划的意义。
