I have a new publication out, with Christine Nyawaga, in the National Communication Association journal Communication and Race. Our research examines how Black workers in STEM fields manage their intersecting social identities on enterprise social media (ESMs), which have become ubiquitous in contemporary workspaces to aid with job-related tasks, such as collaboration, supervision, and tracking workflow.
Ongoing attempts to enhance diversity and inclusion in STEM fields have had mixed results at best, with Black workers far behind other demographics in terms of education, hiring, salaries, and promotions, although their number has increased in absolute terms. The NSF notes that about 18% of all Black workers were employed in STEM fields, compared to 25% of white and 39% Asian workers, in 2021. While comprising 12% of the U.S. adult population, Black workers made up only 9% of the STEM workforce in 2021—up only 2% points from 2011. Moreover, Black STEM workers routinely encounter both overt and covert forms of racism and threats to their social identity. Thus, especially with the increasing shift of work from in-person on-site interactions to remote activities—hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic—we argue that it is crucial to better understand how Black STEM workers manage their identities in these online settings.
Theoretically, we were guided by research on the communicative management of social identity in professional contexts, especially by minoritized workers, and intersectionality. To better understand the possibilities of identity performance offered by ESM platforms, we also drew from technological affordances theory. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 30 Black professionals working in STEM fields and analyzed the data using constructivist grounded theory. Our findings show how Black STEM workers employ various communicative strategies to both reaffirm and suppress their racial, gender and professional identities. These insights could help design more inclusive ESM technologies and enable institutions to address the persistent gap between Black and other STEM workers.
This research was partially funded by the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society at Villanova University.
Up to 50 free online copies of the article are available here; if they run out, email me to send you a copy.
Rahul Mitra 