In this paper we investigate the opportunities and challenges that emerge from an intersectional approach to achieving equity through institutional change, focusing particularly on the persistent lag faced by underrepresented minority (URM) women in U.S. academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Our specific goals in this paper are twofold: (1) to contribute to current theoretical models and research on enabling URM women in academic STEM fields, and (2) to advance broader current discussions concerning how intersectional approaches might be applied to shape institutional transformation. In order to do this, we first explore the historical and contextspecific issues that illustrate how the relative lack of progress made by URM women faculty in STEM is at least partially driven by institutional structures that cannot fully address the experiences of persons with multiple subordinated identities. We then employ current literature on intersectionality and organizational change to theorize four ways that intersectional approaches might specifically help shape more successful institutional interventions. By offering some possibilities presented by an intersectional approach to institutional transformation, we suggest helpful starting points for mobilizing intersectionality in the service of structurally supporting the advancement and success of URM women in STEM.

This article investigates the persistent challenge of how higher education institutions can support the success of underrepresented minority (URM) women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Our theoretical model centers on intersectionality, and we examine the possibilities and challenges involved in taking an intersectional approach to institutional change for this group. Our National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study focused on 18 universities that received large NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation (IT) grants (Cohorts 3 [2005] and 4 [2008]). There were two steps to our investigation: (a) an analysis of documents generated by IT programs as a way of identifying and categorizing "mechanisms" for supporting URM women and (b) conversations with IT leaders as a means of documenting the on-the-ground experiences of those working to institutionalize change. Our data yielded valuable results, including the identification of 5 Intersectional Facilitators, key institutional characteristics that enable change for URM women. Our results also show that while efforts intended to support URM women are typically additive (nonintersectional) in approach, when intersectional approaches are taken, most seek to intervene in the experience of individual URM faculty. We hypothesize that increased attentiveness to a "multipronged" approach-including efforts based on recruitment of URM groups and climate initiatives-will increase effectiveness. Comprehensive strategizing across the group, individual, and climate levels-particularly if the 5 Intersectional Facilitators are used to guide strategies-may not only increase intersectional efforts but also synergistically combine, maximizing the combined positive effects of all efforts to support the success of URM women in STEM fields.

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