Don’t Be Too Political: Depoliticization, Sexual Orientation, and Undergraduate STEM Major Persistence

Hughes, Bryce E.

doi:10.1080/00918369.2021.1996101

Cited by 15 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Participation in undergraduate research was not a significant predictor of retention in STEM for TGNC students. Coupled with a finding by Hughes and Kothari (2021) that undergraduate research participation does not predict STEM retention for LGBQ students, new questions should be asked about what the undergraduate research experience is like for LGBTQ+ students overall. In neither of these studies is undergraduate research a predictor of retention or attrition—could the lack of significance indicate the retention difference could be even greater if students did not participate in these experiences?…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors

Maloy

Kwapisz

Hughes

2022

LSE

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors

Maloy

Kwapisz

Hughes

2022

LSE

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“…Depoliticization and cisheteronormativity are often discussed as part of the culture within STEM. , Depoliticization is the removal of social and political concerns from scientific pursuits in order to make it more “pure” . The ideology of depoliticization is embedded into STEM culture and ingrained in the socialization and interactions of STEM students and professionals.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ideology of depoliticization is embedded into STEM culture and ingrained in the socialization and interactions of STEM students and professionals. It can be used selectively in defense of cisheteronormativity and can establish social norms and expectations of closeted behavior from LGBTQ+ individuals, which impacts an individual’s climate …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Climate as a whole has been found to play a role in how safe and welcome LGBTQ+ students feel in school, which can have a positive impact on student retention. When controlling for LGBQ+ inclusive experiences, like participating in an LGBTQ+ organization on campus, a study involving 4,162 college students from both freshman (first year) and senior (last year) classes showed that there was not a significant difference in the retention of LGBQ+ STEM undergraduate students compared to their heterosexual peers. Climate was also reported to be a major factor in sexual minority students’ decisions on switching to non-STEM majors …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Looking through a Prism: A Systematic Review of LGBTQ+ STEM Literature

2022

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Research involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, as well as individuals who identify with other gender and sexual minorities (LGBTQ+), make up a small, yet meaningful, amount of published work within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) literature. This review of LGBTQ+ STEM literature from January 2009 to June 2022 describes the dissemination, theoretical frameworks, and research findings of 139 works to better understand the current trends.LGBTQ+ STEM research and publications have increased in recent years, and the locations in which these works are published continues to grow. Much of the literature is disseminated without the use of an explicit framework. However, when frameworks were included, critical theories were the most common. Findings from this review show that the current climate and culture in STEM leads to exclusionary behavior and marginalization of LGBTQ+ individuals, which can be mitigated through visibility such as including role models, implementing policies to protect LGBTQ+ individuals, and learning more about the intersection of STEM and LGBTQ+ identity. Current trends in LGBTQ+ STEM literature will inspire and inform researchers and allies who aim to improve academia and industry for LGBTQ+ chemists and help create inclusive and welcoming environments.

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“…Data collection is a key step toward understanding successes and failures of educating and supporting queer-spectrum people in STEM [ 7 , 16 , 28 ]. The importance of collecting data on the experiences of queer-spectrum people is exemplified by how participation in undergraduate research experiences, a strong predictor of STEM retention overall, does not predict the persistence of queer-spectrum students [ 16 , 29 ], as well as the widespread inequities for queer-spectrum STEM professionals revealed in Cech and Waidzunas’ recently published large-scale survey data [ 1 ]. However, even in surveys that create space for queer-spectrum identities, there is no consensus on best practices, leading to a range of data collection practices that may or may not accurately capture individuals’ identities and that yield data that are not necessarily comparable [ 21 – 24 , 28 , 30 , 31 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing the queer-spectrum in STEM through robust demographic data collection in undergraduate engineering and computer science courses at four institutions

2022

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Queer identities are often ignored in diversity initiatives, yet there is a growing body of research that describes notable heterosexist and gender-normative expectations in STEM that lead to unsupportive and discriminatory environments and to the lower persistence of queer individuals. Research on the experiences of queer-spectrum individuals is limited by current demographic practices. In surveys that are queer-inclusive there is no consensus on best practices, and individuals with queer genders and queer sexual, romantic, and related orientations are often lumped together in a general category (e.g. LGBTQ+). We developed two queer-inclusive demographics questions and administered them as part of a larger study in undergraduate engineering and computer science classes (n = 3698), to determine which of three survey types for gender (conventional, queered, open-ended) provided the most robust data and compared responses to national data to determine if students with queer genders and/or queer sexual, romantic, and related orientations were underrepresented in engineering and computer science programs. The gender survey with queer-identity options provided the most robust data, as measured by higher response rates and relatively high rates of disclosing queer identities. The conventional survey (male, female, other) had significantly fewer students disclose queer identities, and the open-ended survey had a significantly higher non-response rate. Allowing for multiple responses on the survey was important: 78% of those with queer gender identities and 9% of those with queer sexual, romantic and related orientations selected multiple identities within the same survey question. Queer students in our study were underrepresented relative to national data. Students who disclosed queer gender identities were 7/100ths of the expected number, and those with queer orientations were under-represented by one-quarter. Further work developing a research-based queered demographics instrument is needed for larger-scale changes in demographics practices, which will help others identify and address barriers that queer-spectrum individuals face in STEM.

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Don’t Be Too Political: Depoliticization, Sexual Orientation, and Undergraduate STEM Major Persistence

Cited by 15 publications

References 52 publications

Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors

Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors

Looking through a Prism: A Systematic Review of LGBTQ+ STEM Literature

Revealing the queer-spectrum in STEM through robust demographic data collection in undergraduate engineering and computer science courses at four institutions

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