Never Meant to Survive, A Black Woman's Journey: Interview with Evelynn Hammonds

-Wanted to go into Science ever since school at 9 yo

-Gap in background - didn't understand Group Theory, had taken Pre-Calc
-Felt cheated by predominantly BLack schools, teachers, parents
-Most teachers didn't know what she was doing. They were encouraging, but didn'
t push or anything. Some teachers outright racist. Pts taken off tests too b/c
color.
-Mother encouraging: could stop if didn't like it, but couldn't stop b/c someone
was discriminating against her
-Choosing officers for a society of physics student org: men dominated. Couldn'
t be a serious scientists and a woman.
_At Bell Labs, got encouragement from preofessors at Morehouse. But wasn't gett
ing encouraged by pers, though.
-Began reading about women's movement. Beame a bookstore feminsit
-When went to Georgia Tech thru Dual Degree Program, many sutdents viewed as the
re only b/c affirmative action (Came from predom black to predom white school).
Only there b/c the goernment was forcing them to let them in (previaling view o
f them).
-Even black men sexist
-Some refused to enroll and go on to Georgia Tech b/c of the sexism
-Other women weren't able to finish b/c atmosphere at GTech
-Was prepared to face difficulties b/c black, not prepared to the sexism
-Only when came to MIT did it get better
Sexism not identified as a female problem, so E ended up internalizing it asd se
eing it as her own deficiency
-Applied to MIT andw as accepted; still faced racism and sexism
-Preoffesors would talk about how the woman was dressed, not even talk about the
content of her presentation
-PhD advisor suggested she start with freshman physics - telling her start all o
ver!
-Blakc studnets isolated themselves, and white's felt they couldn't reach into t
heir group
-Didn't get a PhD from MIT, chose to leave. Finished master's, but quested whet
her she really wante dto be a physicist. SKills, exams, etc...
-To her, sexism and racism aren't separate b/c she is black and female.

Walking a Tightrope: FEminist Life of a Drosophila Biologist, Marta L. Wayne

-Women in science who are feminist
-Communication b/w women's studies and life sciecnes professionals is at early s
tage
Slyvia Earle on Women in Science
-Mom told her she could be nurse, pilot waitress, but not pilot, doctor, etc...
-Brothers could become scientists and the such
-Selected to be an aquanaught - stilled considered unusual for women to be under
water explorers
-Astronaut program - men only
-Aquanaut program - allowed both men and women (Leader said half fish are female
, I guess we could put up with women).
-Still a gender bias with selection and compensation
-We shape categories of what boys and girls should be doing
Report on current status of women
-Yale study: bias favoring men in science fields
-Geologist: rocks don't care what my gender is
-Never dared to say what they wanted to be
-Communications not as bad as a field

-Feel discrimination is lessened but still there, still see skewed norms detrime
ntal to women (and men too)
-Ways to change: awareness, concentrate on the scientists and research interesti
sts/abilities
PP
-Women excluded from education except literacy education (until mid 1800s)
-Perception women would become soc and pol deviants if educated (e.g. trying to
take over men's jobs)
-Research studeis at time: women's intellects would undermine their healtha nd t
hat of their children (would draw blood away from brain towards privates)
-Late 1800s - women needed to be ed to be better wives adn mothers. Some privat
e colleges only accept women. White women first.
-3 pioneering owmen: Maria MItchell, Josephine Silone Yates, Gerty Cori
-Maria: 1st professional scientsits in US, discvoered new comet, 1st elected to
american academy of arts and scientsits
-Josephine: presidential address, advocate for women educaton, AFrican American,
1st professor of science african american woman. State law prohibited married
teachers, so she had to resign her position
-Gerty Cori: received nobel prize for medicine
-Evelynn Hammonds doubted self, but then learned about these biases towards wome
n (went back and earend her PhD, became a dean at Harvard)
-Simone Hruda: minmal increases in Afrian American women in engineering, althoug
h mintority women increasing doctorates, but still underrepresented (black women
7% of female engineering doctorates). Challlenges of being the sole balck fema
le preofessor in a university. Need more AA mentors for AA students
-Why does this not apply to Asians?
Dr. Simone Peterson Hruda
-We only have African American to categorize black people
-White men from south african naturalized as an African American
-Engineering Doctorates: 63% phds awareded to US, 0.73% awarded to blacks, 0.08%
minority women in 1980
-1984: 52%, 0.52%, 0.03%
-1992: 46.$%, 0.90%, 0.11%
-However, these are percents. The numbers are still small: AAF 2, 1, 6
-2006: 34.6%, 1.43% (103), 0.58% (42)
-367 black women engineering doctorates since started collecting statistics
-367/347 bw, 371 engineering schools in country - not enough to have 1 per schoo
l (professors)
-Schools across country where no black women professors
-Fewer than 50 full time black women professors, less than 100 all around (supre
ssed data)
-Corrected a research student, told her she was wrong, she rebuted. Later she e
mails she learned she went to MIT and now wants to know
-Progress in awarding doctorates
-Maybe women just don't go into engineering!
-0 to 575 women receiving PhD.'s per year
-Black men increasing at faster rate than female blacks PhDs
-Where are these black women engineerings going to come from for PhDs?
-~65000 engineering BAs awarded yearly
-Americans account for 75% of these
-Women have gone from nothing to about 12000
-~3000 awarded to African Americans
-~1000 awarded to Black women (1.6%)
-Trends: 2.2% to 4.8% engineering degrees
-Universities usually just tell the enrollment rate, but there is a high
drop out rate in engineering
-2.2-4.8% BA

1.5-2.6% masters
0.5-1.5% PhDs
-Trends for Black women
-1.6%, 0.8%, 0.4%
-College of Engineering has 5 departments
-"We're alone, but we're not lonely." b/c level is growing, recruition, etc...
Problem was not quality, but quantity of applications. Some years, only 2 from
blacks
-No black female professors - no role models, mentors, etc...
-Florida A&M University and Folirda State Uniersity College of Engineering
-Finding mentors not a problem for black females b/c they've been doing this for
ever (DISAGREE)(41:40)
-NCSU: Christine S. Grant - Chem Engineering, Associate Dean