Hmm When it comes to history many people take a broad view of STEM I am one of them Just as in an overview of technology technology I wouldn’t start with the mainframe computer and omit the wheel and the Gutenberg press so Changing the Equation 50 US Black Women in STEM includes physicians for example such as the first woman you will meet in the book Dr Rebecca Crumpler She earned her MD in 1864 four years before black people in America had citizenship six years before black men had the right to the national vote and fifty-six years before America’s women had that right too How can we not honor the pioneers in science technology technology engineering and mathematics women who in their day were cutting-edge Women who didn’t have access to the sort of education that would allow them to enter some now NSF-approved STEM field Women like Dr Crumpler blazed a trail for others in this book whose contributions and or personal stories also called to me intrigued me piqued my curiosity Women such as biochemist Marie Maynard Daly computer scientist and more Donna Auguste industrial engineer Pamela McCauley chemical engineer Paula T Hammond geologist and micropaleontologist Lisa D White cybersecurity pro Emma Garrison-Alexander and aerospace engineer Aprille Joy Ericsson In these profiles some short some longish and in quick mentions in boldface you will encounter women with an 2 CHANGING THE EQUATION
array of academic degrees including two kinds of doctors those with medical degrees MDs and those with doctorates doctorates aka PhDs the highest academic degree possible Some degrees were earned at historically black colleges and universities universities such as Hampton Howard and Tuskegee others at majority-white institutions such as Columbia Cornell Har vard and MIT In the pages of this book you just might find role models inspirations You might also rethink a field you once dismissed dismissed as something you would never do Or be able to do Maybe too you’ll discover a vocation you did not know existed and think Hmm maybe that’s for me PhD the abbreviation for the Latin philosophiae doctor doctor of philosophy is awarded in a range of fields from English to Engineering Engineering Philosophy here is used in the broadest sense of the Greek philosophía φιλοσοφία φιλοσοφία meaning love of wisdom Doctor descends from the Latin docere to teach MD is the abbreviation for the Latin medicinae doctor teacher of medicine 3 ALPHA
POS SI BIL I TIES Unidentified woman circa 1899 In the nineteenth century careers in STEM were becoming a reality for black women
