Abstract
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals in U.S. workplaces often face disadvantages in pay, promotion, and inclusion and emergent research suggests that these disadvantages may be particularly pernicious within science and engineering environments. However, no research has systematically examined whether LGBT employees indeed encounter disadvantages in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) organizations. Using representative data of over 30,000 workers employed in six STEM-related federal agencies (the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Transportation), over 1000 of whom identify as LGBT, we compare the workplace experiences of LGBT employees in STEM-related federal agencies with those of their non-LGBT colleagues. Across numerous measures along two separate dimensions of workplace experiences-perceived treatment as employees and work satisfaction-LGBT employees in STEM agencies report systematically more negative workplace experiences than their non-LGBT colleagues. Exploring how these disadvantages vary by agency, supervisory status, age cohort, and gender, we find that LGBT persons have more positive experiences in regulatory agencies but that supervisory status does not improve LGBT persons' experiences, nor do the youngest LGBT employees fare better than their older LGBT colleagues. LGBT-identifying men and women report similar workplace disadvantages. We discuss the implications of these findings for STEM organizations and STEM inequality more broadly.
Highlights
Scholars have documented interactional- and institutional-level processes that perpetuate disadvantages for women and racial/ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
Patterns of inequality that we identify within these STEM-related federal agencies are likely present—if not amplified—in STEM organizations in the private sector
We explore whether these inequalities are mitigated for LGBT employees who have advanced in the hierarchy of their organization, whether recent cultural shifts toward greater rights and inclusivity for LGBT persons manifests as cohort differences in reported workplace experiences, and whether LGBT disadvantages play out differently by gender
Summary
Scholars have documented interactional- and institutional-level processes that perpetuate disadvantages for women and racial/ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). These professional arenas are increasingly committed to equality and inclusion [1,2], women and racial/ethnic minorities continue to face marginalization and discrimination in K-12 and college STEM education [3,4,5,6,7,8] and in STEM workplaces [5,9,10]. Studies of academic settings have found that LGBT students and faculty in STEM are more likely than LGBT persons in other disciplines to report discomfort with the campus climate and fear harassment and physical violence on campus [18,22,40,41]
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