The Project

• Register for a focus group or a workshop!
• Meet the team
• Follow the project online

About this project

Existing studies show that LGBTQ+ experiences of climate in STEM (working and research cultures) are constructed from perceptions and experiences with inconsistent policies and practices. LGBTQ+ people and communities in STEM experience and observe exclusionary behaviour, along with multiple and compounded discriminations that are shaped by the availability and quality of support structures and professional networks.

Improving inclusion and retention of LGBTQ+ people in STEM requires multifaceted, multidisciplinary, intersectional approaches. Studies exploring the experiences of LGBTQ+ people in STEM have employed a wide range of methods, yet quantitative data is favoured amongst policy and decision-makers (Natow, 2021). Qualitative data, by comparison, can be misunderstood and devalued by stakeholders (Natow, 2020).

Purpose and aims

The main purpose of this project is to develop a sector-wide, cross-disciplinary, international understanding of the potential impact that qualitative or mixed methods approaches present for improving policies and practices to address retention of LGBTQ+ people in STEM.

By bringing together a US and UK-based collaborative research team, with expertise from both social science and STEM fields and strong track records of researching the experiences of and inequalities faced by LGBTQ+ people in STEM, this project will achieve the main purpose through these four aims:

• Build a network for sharing best practices for engaging with qualitative methods for creating impact and delivering change on LGBTQ+ inclusion and retention in STEM.
• Enhance understanding of the purpose and potential impact of qualitative and mixed methods approaches for developing transformative policies, practices, and interventions to reduce attrition and enhance inclusion and retention of LGBTQ+ people in STEM, focusing on policymakers, researchers, and other stakeholder groups.
• Examine career pathways for LGBTQ+ people in STEM, using qualitative methods, including mapping the “field” of institutions, social actors, and power relations that shape attrition and retention for LGBTQ+ scientists in the UK and the US.
• Explore, using qualitative methods and framed by intersectionality and queer theories, the multiple and embodied strategies of (in)visibility employed by LGBTQ+ scientists to navigate their career pathways and how these experiences might contribute to reducing attrition and improving inclusion and retention.

For more information about the project read the project information sheets.