From Where She Stands: Standpoint Theory as a Significant Predictor of Diversity in Academia

Certain academic fields are less diverse along gender and racial lines than others. Work on stereotypes has shown that negative stereotypes about lack of innate intellectual ability may contribute to the underrepresentation of women and African Americans in academia, from the level of the bachelor’s degree and up. The purpose of the present study is to add a dimension to this discussion that has not previously been explored. Drawing on concepts within standpoint theory, this paper aims to show that the specific life experiences of women and systematically disadvantaged minority groups, like African Americans, lead to their overrepresentation in certain fields and underrepresentation in others. Natural language extracted from RateMyProfessors.com was used as a tool to measure the importance of these kinds of experiences in different academic disciplines. The frequency of key words such as “experiences” and “stories” corresponded significantly with diversity of PhD earners. Generally, fields with high relative value of experiences were likely to have more women and African Americans, though race and intersectional data showed mixed results. Such a relationship present in natural language use is indicative of the importance of experiences and life perspective in determining diversity across academia. These findings are important for continuing to address social injustice and the persistent disadvantaged status of women and minority racial groups.