“Race and racism create specific, unique challenges for women of color that are too easily ignored with broad platitudes that seek to advance women’s representation without questioning which women are most likely to benefit.“ ~ Adia Harvey Wingfield, author of the book Flatlining: Race, Work, and Health Care in the New Economy
Race and gender continue to create divergent and uneven outcomes for women of all races and men of color in America.
An oft-cited statistic reveals that women make 79 cents for every dollar men earn. But Black women earn only 64 cents on the dollar, and for Latinas,.racism and ,.racism and” it is a dismal 54 cents.
As it was in the early 20th century, women of color continue to experience occupational and economic disadvantages that reflect the ways both race and gender affect their work experiences.
Research indicates that both factors, racism and sexism, impact women of color in professional settings. The factors adversely affect Black women in a variety of occupations through stifled leadership opportunities, the ongoing persistence of specific forms of sexual harassment, and subtle but pervasive doubts about competence, intelligence, and skill that are unrelated to actual performance, according to a Brookings Institution report.
In a study by Adia Harvey Wingfield, Black women doctors observed that
The medical community is sorely lacking in diversity with respect to Black women doctors.
Black women doctors, in a study by Adia Harvey Wingfield, observed that race and gender were key factors shaping the challenges they faced in the field.
Despite being 7% of the U.S. population, Black women are a paltry 3% of medical doctors today, a disparity that has devastating consequences for health equity in a rapidly diversifying society.
Working in a profession dominated by white men, Black women doctors are very attuned to the ways that sexism impacts their lives. For instance, nearly every Black woman doctor with whom Wingfield spoke shared accounts of being mistaken for a nurse rather than a doctor, so much so that they argued that when it came to their everyday interactions, gender was a much more significant factor than race.