Measuring the Margins: Role Strain at the Intersection of Race and Gender for Black Undergraduate Women in STEM

Abstract

This chapter builds upon the Bowman Role Strain and Adaptation Model (BRSAM) with an emphasis on role strain and adaptation processes in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Specifically, it outlines how conceptual insights from the BRSAM informed the development of a new framework—the Role Strain and Adaptation Model (RSAM) for Black Women’s STEM Success (Williams, 2024)—which is uniquely situated to highlight key factors that shape Black undergraduate women’s success in STEM fields. This framework incorporates theoretical insights from Critical Race Feminism (Wing, 2003), Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000, 2022), and intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989, 1991) to highlight Black woman collegians’ race-gendered experiences and how those experiences ultimately influence their STEM success. The authors discuss how this new framework informs current psychometric work, which combines traditional scale development and phenomenological techniques to advance a critical mixed-methods approach for creating a measure of Black women’s (race-gendered) intersectionality in computing and engineering. This chapter closes with a discussion of how the RSAM for Black Women’s STEM Success may help to inform future work, as well as education policy and practice within institutions of higher education.