MEAM Seminar: “Systemic Disadvantages for LGBTQ Professionals in STEM”
October 8 at 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM
Researchers have documented race and gender bias in STEM for decades, but there has been little parallel examination of LGBTQ status as an axis of inequality. How do LGBTQ-identifying STEM professionals fare in STEM? Drawing on data from her NSF-funded STEM Inclusion Study, which included surveys of over 25,000 STEM workers, Dr. Cech will discuss her research on LGBTQ inequality among STEM professionals. Her research is the first to document persistent and systemic disadvantages for LGBTQ STEM professionals, compared to their non-LGBTQ peers. She documents these disadvantages along numerous dimensions, including day-to-day workplace experiences, career limitations, professional devaluation, marginalization and harassment, turnover intentions, and health and wellness issues. Her presentation will situate these findings within the broader context of intersectional inequality in STEM. This research reveals LGBTQ status as a clear axis of inequality in STEM and underscores the need for organizational and cultural shifts to address these patterns.
This event is co-sponsored by SEAS ODEI, the Penn LGBT Center, and the Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania.
Erin A. Cech
Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of Undergraduate Studies, University of Michigan
Dr. Erin Cech (she/her) is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and the Department of Mechanical Engineering (by courtesy) at the University of Michigan. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from UC San Diego, undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Sociology from Montana State University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Clayman Institute at Stanford. Cech’s research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction in the workforce broadly and STEM fields specifically. Her work has appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Science Advances, American Journal of Sociology, among others. Her work has been covered by The New York Times, Washington Post, Time, and the news sections of Science and Nature. In 2020 she was named one of Business Equality Magazine’s “40 LGBTQ+ Leaders Under 40.” Cech is the author of two recent books: The Trouble with Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality (2021) and Misconceiving Merit: Paradoxes of Excellence and Devotion in Academic Science and Engineering (with M. Blair-Loy; 2022).