Their stories aren’t widely told, but these Black women and men helped shape history

 Their stories aren’t widely told, but these Black women and men helped shape history

When Phelps turned her sights to radiochemistry – the study of radioactive substances – racial bias and sexism tried to get in her way, she said. While women make up half the US workforce, only 27% work in

 science, technology, engineering and math, often dubbed STEM, US 2019 census data shows; of those, only 2% are Black women, according to 2015 National Science Foundation stats live.

“For the first 18 years of my career, I was the only Black woman in my field. When I was in the Navy, I was the only Black girl in my division. Afterwards in my lab, I was the only Black woman in the whole facility – and initially they thought I was the janitor,” she told CNN, recalling requests to grab the trash.