REIMAGINING “STEM”: GENDER AND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN AMERICA’S TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION, AND RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION

Abstract

On August 9th, 2007, President George W. Bush signed an Act that declared, “To invest in innovation through research and development, and to improve the competitiveness of the U.S.”.1 President Obama later reauthorized this Act, known as the America COMPETES Act, on May 28th, 2010. One of the key focuses of this public law was to increase funding in STEM education in response to a supposed shortage in STEM workers. By focusing on the “T” in STEM, and on computer science education, this thesis attempts to tackle the issue of racial and gender disparities in the technology industry from a different perspective. This study is then complemented with a geographical analysis of the emergence of tech hubs in four U.S. cities, which evaluates the impact of these agglomeration economies on residential racial segregation. The findings within lead us to question the rationality of the aforementioned acronym: STEM.