Malcom was amazed at the lack of the minorities and women in her classes and faculty members while in college. Because of this experience, she decided to take action by becoming the program manager for the Minority Institutions Science Improvement Program[4] at the National Science Foundation in 1977. The program provided federal funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities for improved equipment and facilities as well as higher salaries for the faculty. In 1979, Malcom returned to AAAS as the head of the Office of Opportunities in Science.[5]
While working as a research associate at AAAS, where she surveyed science education programs designed for minority students, a conference was held which Malcom helped to organize. The result of this conference was a landmark report, co-authored by Malcom, entitled The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science (1976).[7][8]
In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the importance of diverse learning environments, but dismissed formulaic and points-based approaches to undergraduate admissions to achieve this diversity. In response in 2004, AAAS issued a report titled Standing Our Ground: A Guidebook for STEM Educators in the Post-Michigan Era, written by Shirley Malcom, which clarifies legally plausible options for preserving diversity in engineering and science programs.[9]
