Invisible

A legacy of intersectionality: Dr. Scott reflects on her mother’s personal and professional experiences navigating through life as a Black woman in the 40’s. She then shares how intersectionality played a role in her own life — as the first Black woman to integrate her college, then later as a professor at an all-Black institution.  At every stage, feelings of invisibility impacted her experiences — an indication to Dr. Scott l that the issues women of color face cannot be simplified to gender or race. Instead, There are several layers to a woman’s identity that determine how she navigates throughout life.

Color and invisibility: Dr. Scott sees intersectionality at play when her daughter, the only Black girl in her school, reveals  that she could survive the experience if she “renders herself invisible.” Broken-hearted, Dr. Scott removes her daughter from the school with the knowledge that there is an uphill battle to create spaces where women and girls of color feel a sense of belonging.

Amber shares her stories of invisibility:   when she first started her agency, 8 years ago, she chose not to display images of herself or highlight that she was the owner, fearing that people would dismiss the company if they knew it was owned by a Black woman.

Bridging the gap. Becoming a scholar: Dr. Scott is now determined to fix the issues she sees in her own home through scholarship She launched CompuGirls and the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at ASU and most recently, a collaborative partnership with The Kapor Center, the WOC in Computing Collaborative. She looks to technology as a method to change society — focusing on solutions for underrepresented women of color who feel invisible due to their intersecting identities.

The pipeline: Through her team’s research, Dr. Scott identified areas where women of color are left behind. The issues begin in both public and private schools. Teacher bias due to a lack of diversity and inclusion training plays an influential role.  Administrators’ sharp punishments towards children of color impact the school to prison pipeline. Hostile environments, in school and at work, are pushing women of color out.

Change requires knowledge and an ability to reach all of the people who are involved in women of color’s journeys: from elementary school to college, throughout careers and on to entrepreneurship.  

All women are not treated equally: Broad groupings (i.e. Women, Asian Americans, etc.) mean that some women within those categories are not fully represented. Those that identify with  multiple marginalized groups are impacted differently and so is their access to opportunities. Intersectionality isn’t just about race and class, etc. but how those distinctions create barriers to that individual attaining a position of power.

What are you doing today fix the gaps? The existing playing field has never been level, and Dr. Scott doesn’t believe it ever will be. Instead, she suggests looking for ways to create new spaces where women of color can succeed. This means starting new programs, investing in the women via entrepreneurship and partnering with a multitude of audiences (i.e., academics, corporations, policymakers, venture capitalist, etc.) to get access to this data.

She  is working with former students to push their research forward and make a change. Together, they are moving beyond the goal of retaining more WOC in the industry to actually building spaces in which they can succeed — creating collaborative research groups across disciplines to have a systemic impact.

Dr. Scott hopes to empower girls and women of color to use the skills they gain to change their communities.