Intersections of Race and Gender in U.S. STEM Careers

In the United States there are still discrepancies in the number of women and non-whites who achieve top positions in STEM fields. Despite vast infusions of money by the federal government to address this issue, little has changed in the last 50 years. Additionally, while it is assumed that Asians are the one non-white group to dominate these positions, they are in fact still outnumbered by whites in comparison. In this paper, I examine a sample of 22 Asian students who are pursuing careers in STEM to better understand intersections of race and gender for this sample, and larger implications regarding the assumptions around racial and gender “equality” in these fields.