Research Problem

The Uhura Effect: How the character of Uhura in Star Trek (1966) influenced Black women’s and girls’ decision to enter STEM fields during the mid-twentieth century.

Introduction/ Context

The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (seejane.org)’s tag line is “if she can see it, she can be it” (Davis 2012). For at least ten years, seeJane.org has studied and reported on women’s and girls’ representation in media (in front and behind the camera). Although there is a recent history of improvements in parity and positive representation, there is little data reported on the historic correlation of the representative images of Black women in the twentieth-century media — specifically during the age when television became ubiquitous in American homes (the 1960s and 1970s) — and their career choices.

Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison was the first Black woman in space but credits Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura (actress Nichelle Nichols) with “encouraging her to literally reach for the stars” (Jackson 2013). But this is a single image of Black womanhood from 1966.

The earliest mass media images of the Black American woman were servile. And although the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters ratified their Television Code in 1951 in which members pledged: "Racial or nationality types shall not be shown on television in such manner as to ridicule the race or nationality" (MacDonald 2009), the upward mobility of Black women in a way that reflected reality was not shown.

The power of images is well documented. Corporations have been using targeted advertising for generations, and widely reported news stories seem to have a bias designed to sway public opinion. In a 2016 study of U.S. news stories and editorials, “black families represent 59% of the poor in the media, but make up just 27% of the poor of the general population... White families, on the other hand, represent 17% of the poor in media, but make up 66% of the poor across the country” (Mohdin 2017). This misrepresentation of Black Americans creates a false narrative that is fought against on a daily basis as these messages are channeled into real-life outputs. “Until the 1970s, employers’ exclusion of black women from better-paying, higher-status jobs with mobility meant that they had little choice but to perform private domestic service work for white families” (Banks 2019). This limitation was transferred to and from television sets across the country, creating an idea that only the exceptional Black woman could be more than a servant.

Of the most popular shows of the 1950s and early 1960s that were not musical and variety shows, none of them featured a Black woman. In the 1960s, as the Civil Rights movement reached a crescendo, Black men became prominently featured, but Black women were relegated to housewives and maids. In 1966, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek debuted with a multicultural cast and an aspirational portrayal of future race relations. A key figure among the cast that included diverse races and species was Communications Officer, Lt. Nyota Uhura. At the time, Uhura was the only Black woman on American television who was not a domestic worker or housewife. Uhura remained the primary image of Black potential through the 1970s and 1980s.

Today, equitable representation is top-of-mind for many media leaders, as is the understanding of the power their programming choices hold. The Geena Davis Institute in their “Scully Effect” report says that (white) girls have entered STEM fields because of Gillian Anderson’s Agent Scully on the X-Files (1993) and other tech and science-savvy women in popular shows of the 1990s and 2000s (seeJane.org). Who, besides Uhura, had a career that Black girls aspired to have? How has the lack of equitable and dynamic representation of the Black American woman in mid-twentieth century television impacted Black female career choices?

PURPOSE & SIGNIFICANCE

Research studies have not often turned their investigative lenses toward gender representation in relation to race. This study will focus on self-identified BIWOC (Black and Indigenous Women of Color) in STEM fields who were born before 1960 and aims to begin to fill the gap in gender representation research by looking backward in order to move forward.

Participants who were born before 1960 are vital because this is the generation who experienced much of television’s firsts. This group may have viewed Star Trek in its first run and early syndication and found Uhura’s presence affirming, thus strengthening their resolve to further their pursuits in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.

By allowing participants to self-identify their race opens this opportunity to all women of color but also signals a specificity that may be more nuanced for mixed-race women. Focusing on self-identified BIWOC brings attention to systemic misrepresentation by the media at large that furthers stereotypes nurtured by white supremacists.