Why are there so few women of color in public health? Using multiracial feminism and identity as lenses to incorporate justice into the public health pipeline

Science-based fields like public health are high-status and satisfying. However, their rewards have historically gone mostly to white men. Thus, a pressing question is why so many qualified minority girls who show promise in the sciences have been pushed out of science tracks at early ages. This study uses the lenses of discourse identity, multiracial feminism, and intersectionality to analyze the educational and career trajectories of three women of color (African American, Latina and American Indian) with the shared goal of working in public health and its allied fields. All information was gathered through qualitative interviews. Despite negative experiences, all three participants have received formal recognition of their success (fellowships, prestigious jobs, publications) in public health. We found that their success was not just about acquiring scientific knowledge, skills, dispositions, worldviews, but also required using what Gloria Anzaldua has called “la facultad,” the ability to quickly analyze a situation and manipulate the components of one's identity in order to persist in the face of hostility: to learn how to be safe and brave. Secondary results demonstrate the value of ongoing science enrichment programs and support systems for minority women, as all three participants turned to science enrichment programs as settings where they could build attractive identities for themselves, after finding it difficult to do so in their home, school, workplace or community. As public health educators who are serious about keeping women of color in the public health pipeline, we must radically rethink the unjust organization of science education.