“It's wicked hard to fight covert racism”: The case of microaggressions in science research organizations

Salmon, Udeni

doi:10.1111/gwao.12934

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 66 publications

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“…The communication of who does and does not belong to a workplace-related group can take many forms, including everyday microaggressions (Kim & Meister, 2023;Lee et al, 2020;Salmon, 2024); active and overt forms of ostracism and incivility (Miner et al, 2019); and bullying and harassment (Gunter & Stambach, 2005;Parrish, 2023). These negative behaviours tend to be conceptualised in interpersonal terms-happening between two individuals within an organisation (Lewis et al, 2020).…”

Section: General Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“That’s just the way it is”: bullying and harassment in STEM academia

Corbett,

Barnett,

Yeomans

et al. 2024

IJ STEM Ed

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Background The under-representation of women and other minority group members in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) academia is a problem internationally and is attributed in part to hostile workplace cultures. We draw on the social identity perspective to examine the dynamic inter and intragroup processes entailed in these experiences. In this paper, we report a reflexive thematic analysis of 219 responses to a free-text question on bullying and harassment embedded in a national survey of 40 STEM departments from across the United Kingdom. Most were women (53%) at an early, pre-lectureship career stage. Main findings Our analysis shows who is the perpetrator and who is the victim is not arbitrary, and neither is the form that it takes; majority group members draw on discourses that warrant the exclusion of minority group members (e.g., women are not smart; incompatibility with religious identity). In this ‘othering’, minority group members learn that one is not regarded as a bona fide STEM academic ingroup member and accordingly are constrained in being able to claim and act on that identity. Thus, it is not just the acts themselves that are problematic, but the ways in which being denied a shared STEM academic identity is consequential for a range of putative benefits and leads to a range of strategies that all confer costs. Conclusions/potential implications The solution must rest with senior STEM academics and with institutions. First, we need to challenge discourses and practices that narrowly define the boundaries and content of STEM academic identity. Second, all members of a community need to perceive an alignment between the purported values of an organisation for diversity, inclusion, and respect and how that organisation responds when those principles are violated. Formal processes of remedy need to recognise the dynamics entailed in status differences and remove the onus of complaint from isolated, low status individuals. In addition, there is a need to recognise the ways in which perpetrators are embedded in networks of support both within and without the university; and the importance, therefore, of widening the scope of evidence gathering and intervention.

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Section: General Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“That’s just the way it is”: bullying and harassment in STEM academia

Corbett,

Barnett,

Yeomans

et al. 2024

IJ STEM Ed

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Microaggressions as a Framework for Understanding Women’s STEM Career Experiences in Lebanon

Makarem

Metcalfe

2023

Sex Roles

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The silent shift: Pregnant women doing aesthetic and emotional labor at work

Hutson

2024

Gender Work & Organization

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Although the U.S. Pregnancy Discrimination Act protects people from discrimination, there remain risks for individuals who become pregnant while working. Therefore, many choose to stay quiet about their pregnancies before beginning to show. Doing so, however, requires a constant management of appearance and behavior that feels necessary for employment. To investigate how pregnant people manage occupational settings while growing visibly pregnant, I draw on data from interviews with 54 women in the U.S. who were employed during their pregnancy. Findings reveal that efforts to manage the pregnant body are both aesthetic and emotional, and they constitute a form of unpaid labor that I term the “silent shift.” The silent shift encompasses two types of labor: the labor of concealing and the labor of dealing. Concealing—typically done during the first trimester—involves trying to strategically hide a pregnancy from co‐workers through alterations to work attire (i.e., aesthetic labor) or behavioral changes, such as napping in the office or discretely running to the bathroom. When concealing was no longer an option, pregnant women had to deal with awkward comments from co‐workers about their bodies. In these instances, women employed emotional labor to keep silent about how such remarks made them feel by suppressing negative emotions, rationalizing co‐workers’ comments, or by laughing them off. These findings suggest that even though laws and institutional policies have created space for pregnant workers, there remains a tension between the professional and pregnant body—a tension that women themselves feel compelled to manage.

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“It's wicked hard to fight covert racism”: The case of microaggressions in science research organizations

Cited by 3 publications

References 66 publications

“That’s just the way it is”: bullying and harassment in STEM academia

“That’s just the way it is”: bullying and harassment in STEM academia

Microaggressions as a Framework for Understanding Women’s STEM Career Experiences in Lebanon

The silent shift: Pregnant women doing aesthetic and emotional labor at work

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