What Rihanna taught me about intersectionality and inclusion

Rihanna has been in the news a lot lately. The Barbados-born music icon and entrepreneur had the media’s attention as the world’s wealthiest female musician, even before welcoming her first child and headlining the 2023 Superbowl halftime show. But it’s RiRi’s foray into fashion that most caught my attention, as it made me think more provocatively about diversity, equity and inclusion in science.

The approach Rihanna uses in her Savage x Fenty lingerie line is what we need in science to move past the perfunctory ‘Women, minorities, and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.’ Unfortunately, some diversity and inclusion efforts still, albeit inadvertently, treat women as if these descriptors are mutually exclusive.

In 2018, women reportedly earned 47.7% of all bachelor’s degrees awarded in chemistry in the US compared to their population of 49.4%. At first glance, that looks a lot like parity; however, a closer look reveals that only 11% of the degrees were earned by women from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, who comprise 17.7% of the population. At the graduate level, the underrepresentation of women of colour is further exacerbated; they received just 3.7% of doctorates earned by US citizens and permanent residents in the physical sciences. This stark underrepresentation continues, despite warnings cast three decades before our favourite bad girl would sign her first record deal.