Choosing Self-Care and Preservation: Examining Black Women STEM Faculty's Decision to Pursue Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education Programming

Despite recent STEM diversity initiatives, there still exists structural barriers on who can pursue their STEM aspirations. The lack of diversity in STEM fields hinders individual self-actualization and economic advancement as well as STEM innovation efforts. Notably, Black women remain underrepresented in STEM higher education and academic entrepreneurship. The goal of this project is to increase the understanding of the entrepreneurship-related experiences of Black women in STEM higher education. Specifically, we examine how the erasure and marginalization of Black women in STEM academic entrepreneurship contributes to their minoritization in STEM. In doing so, we seek to identify ways to improve their experiences in STEM higher education and entrepreneurial spaces. Relying on Collins' (1990) domains of power framework, the following question guides the study: To what extent do everyday encounters and practices of marginalization in STEM higher education and entrepreneurial education spaces shape Black women's engagement in STEM entrepreneurial education programming? To answer this question, we conducted semi-structured interviews (n=7) of Black women faculty in STEM higher education who have engaged or not engaged in entrepreneurship education programming. These conversations reveal the various ways Black women navigate in and outside of entrepreneurship education programming to innovate their fields.