In a series of famous studies, researchers found that kindergarteners had no stereotypes at all. But by the second grade, they all had one standard image, and it was - a scientist wore a white lab coat and glasses. And he was always a white man.
This stereotype has become so common that according to a new report, black and Latina women scientists who work in science, technology, engineering, math or STEM, frequently experience bias and discrimination. The percentage of this experience can be as high as 100 percent.
60 women scientists were interviewed in the report, and most of the African-American and Latina scientists had said one thing - they were almost always mistaken for janitors. They say "I always amuse my friends with my janitor stories.
But it has happened not only at weird hours."
Women scientists from India said that gender bias was worse in the United States. But women scientists from Japan and Africa disagreed with that, according to the Washington Post.
Most of the Latina women scientists are labeled as 'angry' or too 'emotional'. Some Latina women scientists said that they worked intensely to overcome the stereotype thinking that Latina women are "lazy". But their accomplishments are always attributed to luck. And most of the time, these women are routinely being asked to handle the administrative work, which is called the "office housework" by the researchers.
"Several of them were actually being treated as admin, expected to fill out other people's grant forms, coordinate other people's meetings, and they couldn't get out of it," Joan Williams, a law professor at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law says.
Even though women make up half of the workforce, they are still a distinct minority in all the STEM field. And if we consider the color of women, it becomes rarer. When the internet giants - Google and Facebook, revealed their employment data, people were not shocked to see that it mostly consisted of white or Asian male "brogrammer" culture.
