Given the need for people with a scientific background in the labour force, the underrepresentation of Black women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and computer sciences) fields has attracted attention recently. The shortage of Black women in STEM is detrimental to them, since STEM fields are generally among the highest paying and fastest growing. Specifically, academic workforce is not as diverse as either the student body or the labour force. Therefore, even though universities across Canada have committed to equity and diversity, the same level of commitment isn’t apparently in academic staff and employment and wage equity in academia. In this article, we will explore the rate of employment and earnings wages of racialized men and women, compared to their white counterparts.
Racialized individuals (defined as non-white individuals) in Canada are significantly underrepresented in the college and university sector, at less than 15% of all instructors. Furthermore, racialized university teachers constitute fewer than 15% of all university instructors, which is significantly lower than both that of racialized students (36%) and that of racialized doctoral degree holders (31%). Therefore, a large proportion of racialized university graduates cannot secure a job in our universities. At 10.7%, Black professors have the highest unemployment rate, compared to white professors and other racialized groups. Black university teachers, specifically, only comprise 2% of all university teachers, even though there has been a slight improvement in the representation of Black university teachers over the past decade (from 1.8% in 2006 to 2.0% in 2016)
On the other hand, women remain seriously underrepresented among university full-time academic staff in numerous disciplines, including architecture, engineering and related technologies (15.5%), mathematics, computer and information sciences (20.6%), physical and life sciences and technologies (24.8), business, management, and public administration programs (39.4%). Women post-secondary teachers are less likely to have full-time, full year employment. Unemployment rates are highest for racialized women university faculty (9.2%), compared to the average unemployment rates for university teachers (4.9%). Therefore, for Black women, both sex and race are compounded to decrease their chances at securing an academic job with a competitive salary.
Racialized women college instructors earn only 63 cents on the dollar and racialized women professors earn an average 68 cents for every dollar. Employed white professors earned an average of 105,300, while Black professors earned $90,363 on average, an earning gap that has increased since 2005. Racialized women professors have an even more pronounced earning gap. Compared to white men, who earn $114k and racialized men who earn $96k, racialized female university professors earn $77k. These earning gaps narrow when adjusted for age, rank, job, and discipline, but do not disappear. Remaining wage gaps are likely the result of systemic discrimination put in place on common practices and salary structures.
Black Canadian staff experience a wage-gap and higher unemployment compared to their white colleagues, and this gap is even bigger for Black Canadian women. Indeed, salient discriminatory patterns and practices hidden in job offers and salary development contribute to employment and pay gaps. Given the lower wage and higher unemployment rates among Black Canadians, they have a lower chance of securing high paying jobs, even though they have the same skills, experiences, and qualifications. Further, when discrimination excludes diversity, innovation, and growth in STEM fields suffers. Studies have shown that inviting different perspectives and empowering minority groups to bring in their voices to STEM leads to new inventions and enhances progress. Canada prides itself on its diversity and indeed diversity is our strength, and we should be taking advantage of the diversity we have in our society, both inside and outside of STEM. This will benefit our STEM fields, our economy, and our citizens. The data discussed in this article came from an article from the Canadian Association of University Teachers (https://bit.ly/3g1DRN0)