{"82161":{"#nid":"82161","#data":{"type":"news","title":"No Regrets: New Study Shows How African-American Ph.D. Chemists Overcame Discrimination to Build Careers","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhile seven out of ten respondents felt they had been hindered by discrimination, less than a handful regretted choosing a career in chemistry. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Regardless of the experiences they had, these people had remarkably positive feelings about chemistry,\u0022 said Willie Pearson, Jr., the study\u0027s author and chair of the School of History, Technology and Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology. \u0022If they had it to do all over again, they would still see chemistry as an attractive field.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EResults of the study, \u0022Beyond Small Numbers: Voices of African-American Ph.D. Chemists,\u0022 were presented February 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The study explores the divergent career experiences of 44 randomly-chosen African-American Ph.D. chemists who received degrees prior to 1994. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The opportunity structure differed dramatically in many cases over time,\u0022 said Pearson, who conducted face-to-face interviews with all but one of the scientists. \u0022Most felt that race was an issue, and that it had impacted them in certain ways. But they didn\u0027t let that cripple them or stifle their achievement. Racism was just part of the reality that confronted them.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMost respondents began their careers in the academic world, with slightly more than half taking positions at historically black colleges and universities. Ph.D. chemists choosing academic careers were attracted to institutions similar to the ones where they obtained their undergraduate degrees. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir experiences changed dramatically over time, affected by federal legislation such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and court decisions such as \u003Cem\u003EBrown v. Board of Education\u003C\/em\u003E.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOther key findings include:\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-- The respondents often found themselves torn between the research they were trained to do and administrative roles that provided salary and advancement opportunities beyond what they could achieve as practicing chemists. For industrial chemists, these administrative positions were often in Equal Employment Opportunity, human resources or community outreach areas with little impact on company decision-making.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-- Many of the respondents reported that good work overcame discrimination. \u0022It\u0027s difficult not to reward excellence,\u0022 said Pearson. \u0022While there may be discriminatory practices, by and large the system tended to work for those who did good work.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-- In academia as well as industry, experiences varied among departments even within the same institution. \u0022While there might be a company culture, there are also individual unit cultures,\u0022 he explained. \u0022At one company, chemists reported different career advancement experiences depending on the division in which they worked. For example, in one unit, a chemist had filed racial discrimination complaints, while chemists in two separate units reported supportive and welcoming environments.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-- African-American women often had to also confront gender discrimination and were expected to meet a higher standard than their male counterparts. \u0022But I think you would find the same thing with women in general, because chemistry is still largely a male-dominated field,\u0022 Pearson said.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-- If they were the only persons of color in their organizations, African-American chemists sometimes suffered feelings of isolation, which caused stress and depression. In academia, isolated chemists often had difficulty attracting graduate students, which hurt their research and therefore their stature in the field.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-- Among industrial chemists, eight of 13 respondents (62 percent) said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs. Among the academic chemists, 16 of the 22 (72 percent) reported that level of satisfaction - while five said they were very dissatisfied.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-- Segregation in the South contributed to a \u0022brain drain\u0022 in which African-Americans pursuing chemistry doctorates entered universities outside the region. Most never returned. \n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"A national study of career experiences among African-American Ph.D. chemists shows how these scientists dealt with discriminatory practices and attitudes to build careers in academia, industry and government.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27304","created_gmt":"2004-02-18 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:38","author":"Matthew Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2004-02-18T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2004-02-18T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gtresearchnews.gatech.edu\/newsrelease\/phdchemists.htm","title":"Divergent career experiences"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/contact\/index.html?id=\u0022\u003EContact  \u003C\/a\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}