Underrepresented women of color in the US are not only fighting a Virus, but they are fighting sexism and racism as well.
Nowhere are the effects of the current Corona Virus pandemic more severe than in communities of color, especially women in STEM. These women have long endured employment discrimination, occupational segregation, specific stereotyping, economic exploitation, and workplace bias. Considering these factors, black and Latina women are at greater risk of unemployment during an economic downturn.
The Corona virus does not discriminate based on race, gender, or color, but its effects do. Without immediate action, the economic fallout will drastically affect underrepresented women of color.
Let’s voice out loud what most of us are thinking. This pandemic and its after-effects will most likely be the death of many Black and Latina women’s careers in STEM.
Now, let’s focus on the reasons why:
Structural Racism
Black and Latina women in STEM are facing steeper hurdles than white women or men because of structural racism. They have to pay attention to the alleviated risk of COVID infection, alarming deaths in the communities of color, increased policing & surveillance in their communities, and racist reactions by law-enforcing agencies to mandatory precautions among others.
How can we prove that the structural racism, the difference in fatality rates, and the disease risk are more prevalent among women of color and their communities? More than 50% of cases in Chicago and nearly 70% of the deaths involve black individuals. In Louisiana, 70.5%, and in Michigan, 33% of black lives were lost due to the CoronaVirus. Blacks and Hispanics have accounted for 28% and 34% of the deaths in New York, respectively.
The structural racism goes way deeper than this. As validated by a pattern noticed during the Great Recession, women of color are the first ones to be fired when the institution is facing financial depression. Despite their abilities and experience, these women have the highest rate of foreclosure, unemployment, and lose the most wealth. According to BLS, unemployment has already risen to 16.7% for Black workers and 36.5% for Hispanic or Latino workers. For underrepresented women of color, the employment market is unstable even when the economy is at its strongest and hazardous when it is not.
Work-Life Balance Unbalanced!
The pandemic is amplifying almost every disadvantage women of color in STEM face. When it started, people were quick to point out that Sir Isaac Newton, among dozens of other male scientists, was at his most productive when forced to stay home. But what they forgot was 1- He was white 2- He did not have additional caregiving and home responsibilities.
For women of color, the final straw is the inequality in household duties, homeschooling, and childcare responsibilities they must take on. As proven through research, women spend more time in traditional caregiving responsibilities and house chores when compared to their male counterparts.
Black and Latina women do not generally have nannies or housekeepers, unlike white Americans. They often rely on the "village" to help in their homes. However, the pandemic has eliminated or reduced this resource to many of them. Now, with everyone working from home and schools closed till an unidentified period, the burden of household chores especially childcare has fallen heavily on women. Various scientific journals have already reported fewer submissions from Women Of Color, and women in general, since the Corona Virus became a pandemic as compared to the male scientists. As a matter of fact, submissions from males have increased. This speaks volumes about the policies companies have taken to make sure their women workers, especially minorities, are not risking their mental and physical health due to added responsibilities.
Women of color also receive lower wages and have less access to paid sick leave and paid leave for childcare than white workers.
Cultural Difference
Black and Latina families are culturally bound together as compared to White American families. There is a staunch concept, passed on from generation after generation, to be knitted together and to take care of aging parents. Compared with White households, Black families endorse more positive beliefs regarding assistance to aging parents.
This study proves that Black and Latinx Americans seem to provide more support to aging parents than White Americans do, and find it a less burden to look after them. This means that when at home, family values and cultural integrity bound women of color to look after their aging parents. It isn’t considered an added burden or responsibility but is considered as important as taking care of children.
If the roles are reversed, the traditional white households do not suffer from these problems. Even if they do, white men and women in STEM are much better paid than their black and Latina counterparts and can easily hire in-house help to look after their parents. For every $1 of wealth that a white household has, a black one has 10 cents.
This points to a huge problem faced by minority women in STEM. They do not only have to work from home but look after their children, household duties, and aging parents at the same time. They are doing this all the while juggling with the other negative impacts of this pandemic. And what has their employer’s support been throughout this time? None! There have been no measures to aid these women to work while easily taking on all these responsibilities.
The loss of a job after this pandemic isn’t an option for Black and Latina women. Not just because of a paycheck, but because of the struggle they had to go through to get to where they are today. Even those who are earning comfortable incomes have a little to fall back on because of the US’s duplicitous economic aid policies.
Employment prospects for Black and Latino women in STEM have long been hobbled by factors that stretch from poorer educational options to total discrimination by employers. The worst effects of Corona Virus will be the unforgettable loss of lives and the disastrous economic collapse among others. But my biggest fear is that the hard-won progress of the women of color in STEM will be the collateral damage once the pandemic is over.
