Women of color have been underrepresented in geosciences (sciences dealing with the earth). Between 1973 and 2016, the numbers were bleak: only 20 Native American, 69 Black, and 241 Hispanic or Latino women received PhDs in all three geoscience subdisciplines combined—marine geographers, paleogeography, and physical geographers—according to Nature.com. 

    These numbers amount to 1.46% of all doctorates awarded in over 40 years and have made little to no movement toward change.

     “A lack of diversity and inclusion is the single largest cultural problem facing geosciences today,” Kuheli Dutt, the diversity officer of Lamont-Doherty Observatory at Columbia University, told Nature Geoscience journal.

    Upon graduating from the George Washington University in Wash., D.C., in 1985, Joan Murrell Owens (1933–2011), became the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in geology. Shortly after, as a coral biologist, she began to transform the understanding of the evolutionary relationships of button corals.

Owens was born in Miami. Her father, a dentist, was an avid fisherman, so the family often went on weekend fishing trips. Being so close to the Atlantic Ocean piqued her curiosity about its habitats. Thus, marine biology was always a subject she dreamed of studying. 

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    A lover of books, “The Silent World by Jacques Cousteau” became young Owens’ favorite read. She graduated from Miami’s Booker T. Washington High School in 1950. That same year she entered Fisk University on a scholarship and soon found that marine biology courses were not offered. That was not uncommon for historically black colleges and universities during that time. She studied fine arts instead, becoming an educator at a psychiatric hospital. 

    Owens later became a member of Howard University’s faculty, specializing in remedial English. During the 1960s, she relocated to Newton, Mass., where she worked for the Institute for Services to Education. There she was tasked to design programs for teaching English to educationally disadvantaged students. The Upward Bound program of the U.S. Department of Education was developed from these programs.

    Unfortunately, Owens suffered sickle cell anemia. Her geosciences research projects were then limited because of her inability to dive underwater to search for specimens. But that did not derail her dreams. She instead performed a laboratory project at the Smithsonian Institute, working with coral samples collected by a British expedition in 1880. 

    Owens said during an interview, “Never give up on your dreams, in spite of the obstacles. There have been several points in my life when a door to my planned career closed and another, totally different door, opened. Though one door may seem to close, the other door can lead to the fulfillment of your dreams.”

   Despite all the walls she tore down to navigate her career path and follow her heart, Owens went on to contribute valuable knowledge to the field of marine science. In 1994, her work added a new species to the genus Letepsammia.

Source: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/joan-murrell-owens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Murrell_Owens

Image:  http://www.thehundred-seven.org/womenstem.html

Mia Lane

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