Between creative identity performance and constrictive empowerment: case studies of women of color as STEM content creators on social media

The extent of women’s empowerment in the digital world has been debated, given the co-existence of digital feminist activism and enduring gender stereotypes. This study investigates how women of color who work as STEM communicators utilize social media creatively to redraw the boundary of acceptable topics and styles in STEM knowledge production. Through case studies, we identify their identity performance practices, such as sharing about out-of-lab life, displaying idealized femininity, invoking pop cultural elements, and highlighting intersectionality. Bringing an intersectional perspective and feminist science studies to bear on the creative practices of women of color in STEM, our study reveals what we call “constrictive empowerment,” where social media offer some opportunities to address exclusion in STEM communication, yet simultaneously delimit the self-presentations of women of color in accordance with racialized and hegemonic gender norms as well as platform-specific cultural conventions.