While there has recently been increased attention on reaching gender parity in STEM fields, there remains deep-rooted racial and gender inequality. While the percentages of women majoring in scientific fields have risen, the percentages of women pursuing higher degrees or working as researchers remain low. Indeed, only seven women have received the Nobel Prize in chemistry since its inception in 1901. Additionally, in 2016, only 9% of all science and engineering doctorates in the United States went to Black, Latinx, or Native American students, despite people from those ethnic groups making up 33% of the United States population. As someone looking into pursuing STEM in college, I wanted to ensure that I took efforts to educate myself both on hidden figures within chemistry (the field I plan, as of now, on studying) as well as their accomplishments.
I hope that this project will allow me to, first of all, bring more awareness to these people who, historically, have been neglected despite their laudable accomplishments. I recently read an article titled “How to get more women and people of colour into graduate school — and keep them there” by Sibrina N. Collins, which argued that many institutions struggle with attaining gender and ethnic parity in graduate-student enrollment due to a lack of mentoring and inherent marginalization. I personally believe that these issues don’t just exist at the graduate school level but can be addressed in younger students as well. In addition to the biographies and research resumes, I hope to look into making a resources page that includes links to summer programs and other support systems for students hoping to pursue chemistry. Often, a lack of information can act as a prevalent barrier, and I hope that this website will, in some small way, help to break that obstacle down.