Q&A: Study Quantifies LGBQ Representation in STEM Degrees, Jobs

One of the first analyses of its kind finds a smaller proportion of men in same-sex couples earn STEM degrees than do men in heterosexual couples. It’s a different story for women.

Written byMax Kozlov

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Research has long shown the existence of persistent gender and racial gaps—women and non-whites tend to be underrepresented—for achievements in STEM. While anecdotal evidence and some studies have shown a similar pattern with regard to the LGBQ community, few studies have directly compared STEM outcomes by people in the LGBQ community to those of heterosexual individuals because of a lack of detailed data about sexual orientation.

A report published today (November 18) in PLOS ONE studied US census data of 142,641 individuals in same-sex couples to quantify their representation in STEM and found a large difference between the proportion of men in same-sex couples and men in heterosexual couples who have STEM degrees or occupations. The data show that men in same-sex couples are 12 percentage points less likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree in a STEM field compared to men partnered with women.

The researchers ...

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Meet the Author

Max Kozlov
Max is a science journalist from Boston. Though he studied cognitive neuroscience, he now prefers to write about brains rather than research them. Prior to writing for The Scientist as an editorial intern in late 2020 and early 2021, Max worked at the Museum of Science in Boston, where his favorite part of the job was dressing in a giant bee costume and teaching children about honeybees. He was also a AAAS Mass Media Fellow, where he worked as a science reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Read more of his work at www.maxkozlov.com.
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