Over the last 30 years, employment opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields have exceeded overall job growth and increased 79%, yet women and racial and ethnic minority groups continue to be largely underrepresented.

According to a 2017 report by MassBio, women account for only 24% of C-suite and about 14% board positions in the Massachusetts life sciences sector.

Joyce Y. Wong, PhD., professor of biomedical engineering and materials science & engineering and the inaugural director of ARROWS

It’s much of the same nationwide. According to a January 2020 report by trade group BIO, only 30% of women hold executive positions and 18% hold board seats. What’s more, people of color make up only 15% of executives, 14% of board members, and 12% of CEOs of the organizations surveyed.

At Boston University, ARROWS: Advance, Recruit, Retain & Organize Women in STEM is an organization actively working to increase representation of women and minority groups in the STEM community — and ultimately STEM fields like biotech.

“Representation is a theme I feel we really need to do better in our field because it’s good science to have diversity of thought and diverse perspectives,” says Joyce Y. Wong, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering and the inaugural director of ARROWS. “We do a disservice if we don’t have everyone at the table.”

Community, collaboration, and vertical integration

Founded in 2014, ARROWS takes an approach centered around building community among women in STEM and vertically integrating all levels of academia from undergraduate students to faculty to build opportunities for mentorship — two areas that Isabella Claure, a PhD student in biomedical engineering has found invaluable.

Isabella Claure, a Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering

“I don’t often interact with faculty, but through ARROWS and a couple of workshops they’ve been a part of, I’ve been able to speak with faculty more frankly about all these different topics, not only women in STEM but diversity in STEM,” says Claure.

In June 2020, ARROWS participated the #ShutDownSTEM protests, part of a social media movement to support Black Lives Matter. They hosted an open forum to discuss how the Boston University community can educate themselves, take action to fight racism, and better support Black scientists.

“It feels like a grassroots campaign,” Claure says. “People are really passionate about it and they know what they’re working towards.”

ARROWS also hosts an annual lecture to raise awareness about gender equity in STEM and offers Women in STEM Mentoring Circles for undergraduate and graduate women.

“Anyone that is part of a marginalized or minority population becomes more empowered if you know there are others around you that have a similar situation,” Wong says. “The goal is to have more women in STEM in leadership positions, not just to be the token woman.”

ARROWS also works with other on-campus organizations to address issues that affect women in STEM, such as unconscious bias and harassment.

“Women, especially women in STEM, tend to hold themselves to a much higher standard so I think it’s important to share stories and to recognize that there is bias,” Wong says.

For example, in collaboration with Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWISE), WISEguys, a group for men, and the University’s Sexual Assault Response & Prevention (SARP) Center, ARROWS offers a Gender Harassment Workshop series which aims to train male STEM graduate students to identify, interrupt, and prevent gender harassment

Providing STEM opportunities for children and teens in the community

Cultivating a love of STEM from an early age is perhaps one of the best ways to encourage children and teens from underrepresented groups to seek out careers in these fields.

Photo by Jackie Ricciardi for Boston University PhotographyDr. Wynter Duncanson, College of engineering professor and assistant dean of diversity and outreach awarded fellowship in the IAspire Leadership Academy

That was certainly the case for Wynter J. Duncanson, Ph.D., who says she always had access to STEM — through Montessori school and visiting children’s museums — and felt supported by her family and teachers who gave her the message that she could pursue a career in science and engineering.

As a graduate student at Boston University, Duncanson’s Ph.D. advisor was Dr. Wong. “In a way, I had ARROWS before there was even an ARROWS because I had a Ph.D. advisor who was committed to supporting me professionally, and making sure I thrived in my engineering and in my career,” she says.

Now, as the assistant dean of outreach and diversity at the Boston University College of Engineering, Duncanson works with ARROWS to bring STEM programs to elementary, middle, and high schools in the local community, which are comprised of ethnically diverse, low-income students.

The engineering professors work with undergraduate students to develop engineering activities or innovations in a box. “Those activities can be used to translate super high-level engineering concepts to students to help them see that they can do engineering,” says Duncanson. “Those activities have been really great to give kids hands-on experience and to give them access to opportunities they might not otherwise have.”

Increasing representation of women among STEM faculty

An ARROWS STEM faculty reception

According to The New York Stem Cell Foundation’s Report Card for Gender Equality, while women in STEM are well represented in undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate education, they make up less than 10% of tenured faculty recruits in nearly one-third of the institutions surveyed.

Recruiting more women for STEM faculty roles is another challenge that ARROWS is laser-focused on. Through their recruitment committee, potential candidates are given the opportunity to talk with faculty members about how the community on campus is supporting women in STEM.

“I think that’s a real game changer because it gives you first-hand experiences and connections,” Duncanson says. “ARROWS is making a significant impact in the way that we’re able to recruit and retain our faculty of women and hopefully women faculty of color.”

ARROWS also offers an individual coaching program to support faculty. “Because of COVID, one of the things I feel that we need to do better on is to help support our women in STEM faculty, especially mothers who have young children,” Wong says.

“What is the cost if we don’t include everyone?”

ARROWS participants during a lecture

When it comes to solving for underrepresentation among women and minority groups in STEM, experts agree, it’s an ongoing challenge that requires education, awareness, community, and collaboration.

It also requires that as a nation, all stakeholders ask: What is the cost if we don’t include everyone?

For instance, what if we’re not cultivating a young mind who has the cure for cancer? Or without data from people of color to make machine learning algorithms, facial recognition won’t work for everyone. “As we’re designing for society, we need to make sure we include all of society so that we can impact the world,” Duncanson says.

“It’s one thing to say it’s a challenging problem for women in STEM. But I would argue, what is the cost of doing nothing? It is actually vital and critical as a nation that we figure this out,” Wong says.