Washington University鈥檚 Adia Harvey Wingfield, who is a professor of sociology, has long been interested in the ways that race, class and gender influence everyday workplace structures and interactions. Her most recent book, 鈥�,鈥� looks closely at the experiences of black workers in health care 鈥� as does .
Focused around 60 in-depth interviews with black doctors, nurses and technicians, the study suggests that among people of color, one鈥檚 professional status within an organizational hierarchy has a significant effect on how one perceives instances of racial discrimination.
On Wednesday鈥檚 St. Louis on the Air, Harvey Wingfield joined host Sarah Fenske to discuss the implications of this research for the health care industry and beyond.
Harvey Wingfield said the study found big differences in the racism reported by black health care workers, depending on the category of their position within the industry.
"Physicians were a lot more likely to talk less about individual interactions that they had that were a challenge and more likely to put their challenges in the context of bigger structural problems," the professor saud. "So they would talk, for example, about issues with access to education, or issues finding mentors, or even issues getting into hiring."
By contrast, Harvey Wingfield said, nurses referenced more individual experiences.
"They were a lot more likely to talk about challenges with supervisors and situate these as examples of individual discrimination that were a lot more prevalent."
Technicians were even less likely to talk about structural issues.
"For them," Harvey Wingfield said, "their experiences were even more individualized than, say, nurses, and certainly more than most doctors."
鈥�鈥� brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by and produced by , , and . The engineer is , and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.
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