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Writer's pictureDr. Kimberly Scott

Kim's Corner - October 2019


Squatting. What an ugly term. Squatting refers to an illegitimate appropriation of space. Squatters assume an area that is recognized as presently uninhabited and uninhabitable. Such spaces are often abandoned and lacking most of the basic elements for survival. It is commonly believed that squatters also lack many of the necessary social, education, and economic skills to cease their participation in the detested squatting community. Perceived as powerless individuals, they become subject to efforts constructed by folk privileged to shape their paths through a variety of institutional means including through the calculated neo-colonial process of gentrification. No one grows up wanting to be a squatter though many dream of gentrifying historically Black and Brown spaces.


Like squatters, URMs (aka girls/women of color) tend to inhabit (STEM) deprived and problematic spaces. URM. Another neocolonial term. URM refers to underrepresented minorities. Like the term squatter, this also has an unpleasant sound to it. When I say it like a word, it sounds like I’m clearing my throat. I agree with Kamau Bobb it sounds like a disease. Who wants to grow up and be an URM? No one I know.


Nevertheless, URM is widely used to symbolize underrepresented minorities who are treated like the squatters of computer science and the education system. Research illustrates this point:

  • Schools where the majority of students are racial and ethnic minorities from lower-income backgrounds are more likely to lack access to the same advanced STEM experiences as spaces with predominantly White, economically affluent kids. One study found this is also true for rural schools.

  • Even when women of color are legitimately navigating the space as, let’s say, a computer science student, they are treated as squatters. We must not forget the Alona King incident.

  • And, for those who somehow manage to overcome these challenges, discrimination and unfairness in the workplace abound. The Kapor Center recently found nearly one quarter of underrepresented men and women of color experienced stereotyping, twice the rate of White and Asian men and women and almost one-third of underrepresented women of color were passed over for promotion--more than any other group

CGEST takes these findings seriously as they illustrate STEM disparity is not about individuals’ defects. To spend any time on the “problem with” girls/women of color in STEM furthers their position as undeserving and unprepared STEM squatters and URMs. It is not the girls/women of color who need to be fixed but the system that presents them in deficient ways. And if we must label girls/women of color in STEM, let’s consider calling them underestimated for many of these young women are full of untapped potential and limitless talent.


Integral to CGEST’s intersectionality manifesto is framing our work in capacity building ways. For us, intersectional work does not focus on “fixing” disenfranchised members or their communities. Researching how or developing programs providing underestimated women skills to tolerate a hostile system misses what should be the object of inquiry—the inequitable structure that sustains what Colins and Bilge[1] describe as the matrix of domination. Thank you for joining us in this mission. Without partners like you, we won’t be successful in shifting the tide and reframing conversations about women of color in STEM.


[1] Hill Collins, P. & Bilge, S. (2016). Intersectionality (Key Concepts). Cambridge, UK: Polity.


Executive Director

Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology

Professor School of Social Transformation

Arizona State University

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