Past work found that Black female scientists act as the best role models
for Black women. Given the lack of racial diversity in STEM and the
growing biracial
population, it would benefit for biracial women to also be role models who
encourage Black women’s belonging in STEM. To explore this possibility,
Study 1 presented monoracial Black women with a STEM company website and a
female scientist who was either White, Black, mixed race and appeared Black,
or mixed race and appeared ambiguous. Relative to the White scientist, the
Black scientist and two mixed race scientists increased belonging at the
company. Participants also believed the monoracial Black woman and mixed
race scientists had similar experiences with adversity and were more
similar to themselves than the White woman.
Study 2 found that even when the racially ambiguous biracial scientist did
not explicitly acknowledge her half-Black identity, she still was a role
model (i.e., promoted belonging), and participants did not perceive her as
trying to “pass”. The current work shows that even racially ambiguous biracial
female scientists can help promote belonging in STEM and address the lack
of role models for Black women.