My name is Marina Ramirez-Alvarado; my pronouns are she/her. I am the chair of the Committee for Inclusion and Diversity (CID) at the Biophysical Society. Part of CID’s mission is to broaden participation, enhance visibility, and promote career opportunities for historically underrepresented groups in biophysics.

One of the first questions I ask myself about these goals is, what exactly is underrepresentation?

The meaning of underrepresentation

The label “underrepresented” has historically been applied based on race and ethnicity; in essence, certain groups do not access STEM careers in a proportion consistent with representation the general population, hence the term “underrepresentation.” The definition of underrepresentation is broadening to include other identity categories, such as socioeconomic status, (dis)abilities, being a first-generation college student, being LGBTQ+, and many others.

Understanding identity and allyship

Many social identities in addition to race define us as individuals.  Among these social identities are gender expression, religion, socioeconomic status, age, geography, body type, politics, nationality/immigration status, sex, disability/ability, to name a few. It wasn’t until I participated in a workshop with Dr. Sharon Milgram, Director of the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education at the NIH, that I began to understand the complexity of identity, and how this complexity informs our strategies for inclusion. In that workshop many years ago, Dr. Milgram made me realize that certain social identities are perceived as ”agent” identities — they’re understood as having agency and power in society, while other social identities have been historically marginalized and have less power in society, and are considered ”the other.”  

As you reflect on your sense of identity, perhaps many of the following categories come to mind. Which aspects of your identity do you consider to have greater agency in society? Which have been othered?

Example identity categories [1]

Gender: Gender is the internal sense of being a woman, man, neither, both, or another gender. Everyone has a gender identity.

Sex: Sex is a classification of female, male, or intersex based off of anatomy, chromosomes, and hormones. Sex does not define gender.

Ethnicity: A group of people who share a sense of themselves as having a common heritage, ancestry, or shared historical past, which may be tied to identifiable physical, cultural, linguistic, and/or religious characteristics. Ethnicity should not be used interchangeably with race, as illustrated by the fact that Hispanics, designated an ethnic group in the U.S., may nevertheless be of any race.

Race: A group of people who share similar and distinct physical characteristics and shared cultural practices. The definition of race has changed amongst scholars over time, moving from a scientific or biological concept to a social concept. Racial categories generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in a specific country rather than an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically.

Sexual Orientation: An enduring pattern of attraction that determines intimate, emotional, and sexual relationships with other people.

Socioeconomic Status (“SES”): A place within the social hierarchy based on factors like education, income, and occupation.

Disability: A physical or mental condition that affects major life activities. Use “person first” language when speaking about persons with disabilities. Person first language, such as saying “Person with a Disability” emphasizes that the person is more important than the disability.

Let me use myself as an example.

I am a woman, which is considered ”the other” in a profession where being a man has agency.

I am female, which is considered “the other” in a profession where being male has agency.

I am Latina, which is considered ”the other” in a society where being white has agency.

I was born in Mexico City and currently live in the US, which is considered “the other” in a society were immigrants are “the other” and those born in the country have agency.

I am straight and have agency in a society where any other sexual orientation is “the other.”

I am Christian, which has agency in the country where I live and come from.

I am upper-middle class, which has agency.

I am 51 years old, and will lose agency as I age in a society where elderly individuals are considered “the other.”

I am not a person with a physical disability. However, I suffer from some chronic conditions (fibromyalgia, asthma, multiple complicated allergies) that make me ”the other” in a society where people without these physical conditions have agency.

My geography has agency as I am in an area with wealth and opportunities; I live in an urban area, which gives me agency.

As I consider different aspects of my identity, I realize that some groups I belong to are “agent” groups, and some have been “othered.” Some of my identity categories are more obvious to strangers than others – that is, I am noticeably a woman and Latina. In other categories, people would not know my challenges, such as having chronic health conditions. While some of my identities come with unique social challenges, other categories (i.e. being straight, Christian) provide me agency. I was completely unaware until this reflection on identity with Sharon Milgram.

Identity is complicated, and understanding how visible and invisible components of our identities play a role in our advantages and disadvantages is important when striving for inclusion.

For example, let’s consider a hypothetical colleague. Dr. Hypothetical is a 60-year-old white Jewish gay man (he/him pronouns). Dr. Hypothetical is a professor at a community college in a rural setting. Dr. Hypothetical suffers osteoarthritis, has cataracts, and is losing his sight.

While Dr. Hypothetical has social identities that are privileged as a white man, he is ”the other” based on his age, sexual orientation, and religious, geographical, and disability identities. Side by side, you would think by outward appearances that my identity would be “other” while Dr. Hypothetical’s would be the “agent” if we looked solely at visible identities such as race and gender.

Recognizing that both I and Dr. Hypothetical have very different identities but both experience exclusion leads me to reflect that our current challenge with diversity initiatives in STEM is to move forward emphasizing inclusion and connection rather than separation and differentiation. This requires both me and Dr. Hypothetical to recognize that within the social identities where we have agency, we must become allies of “the others.” This may include Dr. Hypothetical advocating for, consciously including, and calling out discrimination against women and Latinas though he is neither, while I too must seek to elevate those with sexualities, religions, and other identities different from my own.

A common term for empathy and advocacy for those with identities different from our own is allyship. To broaden participation for diverse biophysicists everywhere, we must dedicate ourselves to active allyship. This can begin with introspection about our identities like the exercise above, grow into discourse with those different from ourselves, and result in social and cultural change that promotes inclusion for all. It is a goal for the Committee on Inclusion and Diversity to foster an inclusive Biophysical Society – a goal possible with focused awareness about the complexity of identity and active allyship from our members.