IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2005.06664.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Turing's Children: Representation of Sexual Minorities in STEM

Author

Listed:
  • Dario Sansone
  • Christopher S. Carpenter

Abstract

We provide the first nationally representative estimates of sexual minority representation in STEM fields by studying 142,641 men and women in same-sex couples from the 2009-2018 American Community Surveys. These data indicate 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 in different-sex couples; there is no gap observed for women in same-sex couples compared to women in different-sex couples. The STEM gap between men in same-sex and different-sex couples is larger than the STEM gap between white and black men but is smaller than the gender STEM gap. We also document a gap in STEM occupations between men in same-sex and different-sex couples, and we replicate this finding using independently drawn data from the 2013-2018 National Health Interview Surveys. These differences persist after controlling for demographic characteristics, location, and fertility. Our findings further the call for interventions designed at increasing representation of sexual minorities in STEM.

Suggested Citation

  • Dario Sansone & Christopher S. Carpenter, 2020. "Turing's Children: Representation of Sexual Minorities in STEM," Papers 2005.06664, arXiv.org.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2005.06664
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2005.06664
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christopher Carpenter, 2004. "New Evidence on Gay and Lesbian Household Incomes," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 22(1), pages 78-94, January.
    2. Erin A. Cech & William R. Rothwell, 2020. "LGBT Workplace Inequality in the Federal Workforce: Intersectional Processes, Organizational Contexts, and Turnover Considerations," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(1), pages 25-60, January.
    3. Dan A. Black & Seth G. Sanders & Lowell J. Taylor, 2007. "The Economics of Lesbian and Gay Families," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 53-70, Spring.
    4. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    5. Jon Freeman, 2018. "LGBTQ scientists are still left out," Nature, Nature, vol. 559(7712), pages 27-28, July.
    6. Dan Black & Gary Gates & Seth Sanders & Lowell Taylor, 2000. "Demographics of the gay and lesbian population in the United States: Evidence from available systematic data sources," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(2), pages 139-154, May.
    7. Ian Burn & Michael E. Martell, 2020. "The role of work values and characteristics in the human capital investment of gays and lesbians," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 351-369, July.
    8. Elizabeth Gibney, 2019. "Discrimination drives LGBT+ scientists to think about quitting," Nature, Nature, vol. 571(7763), pages 16-17, July.
    9. Coulter, R.W.S. & Kenst, K.S. & Bowen, D.J. & Scout, 2014. "Research funded by the National Institutes of Health on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(2), pages 105-112.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Reidy, Dennis E. & Baumler, Elizabeth R. & Temple, Jeff R., 2023. "Sexual violence against sexual minority women in STEM: Compound backlash," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sansone, Dario, 2019. "Pink work: Same-sex marriage, employment and discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Michael E. Martell & Peyton Nash, 2020. "For Love and Money? Earnings and Marriage Among Same-Sex Couples," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 260-294, September.
    3. Carpenter, Christopher S. & Gonzales, Gilbert & McKay, Tara & Sansone, Dario, 2020. "Effects of the Affordable Care Act Dependent Coverage Mandate on Health Insurance Coverage for Individuals in Same-Sex Couples," IZA Discussion Papers 13119, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Josef Montag, 2015. "What Drives the Gender Gap? An Analysis Using Sexual Orientation," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 577-608, November.
    5. Carpenter, Christopher S. & Sansone, Dario, 2021. "Cigarette taxes and smoking among sexual minority adults," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Stephan Humpert, 2012. "Somewhere over the Rainbow: Sexual Orientation Discrimination in Germany," Working Paper Series in Economics 245, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    7. Lennon, Conor, 2022. "Employer-sponsored health insurance and labor market outcomes for men in same-sex couples: Evidence from the advent of pre-exposure prophylaxis," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    8. Marieka Klawitter, 2015. "Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Sexual Orientation on Earnings," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(1), pages 4-32, January.
    9. Jepsen, Christopher & Jepsen, Lisa K., 2009. "Does home ownership vary by sexual orientation?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 307-315, May.
    10. Mary Eschelbach Hansen & Michael E. Martell, 2014. "Self-Identified Sexual Orientation and the Lesbian Earnings Differential," Working Papers 2014-13, American University, Department of Economics.
    11. Robin Fisher & Geof Gee & Adam Looney, 2018. "Same-Sex Married Tax Filers After Windsor and Obergefell," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(4), pages 1423-1446, August.
    12. Oreffice, Sonia, 2011. "Sexual orientation and household decision making.: Same-sex couples' balance of power and labor supply choices," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 145-158, April.
    13. Michael A. Ash & M. V. Lee Badgett, 2006. "Separate And Unequal: The Effect Of Unequal Access To Employment‐Based Health Insurance On Same‐Sex And Unmarried Different‐Sex Couples," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(4), pages 582-599, October.
    14. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Wooden, Mark, 2014. "What can life satisfaction data tell us about discrimination against sexual minorities? A structural equation model for Australia and the United Kingdom," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60278, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Thierry Laurent & Ferhat Mihoubi, 2012. "Sexual Orientation and Wage Discrimination in France: The Hidden Side of the Rainbow," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 487-527, December.
    16. Michael Martell, 2013. "Do ENDAs End Discrimination for Behaviorally Gay Men?," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 147-169, June.
    17. Christafore, David & Leguizamon, J. Sebastian & Leguizamon, Susane, 2013. "Are black neighborhoods less welcoming to homosexuals than white neighborhoods?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 579-589.
    18. Rebitzer, James B. & Taylor, Lowell J., 2011. "Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motives: Standard and Behavioral Approaches to Agency and Labor Markets," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 8, pages 701-772, Elsevier.
    19. James Alm & J. Sebastian Leguizamon & Susane Leguizamon, 2014. "Revisiting the Income Tax Effects of Legalizing Same‐Sex Marriages," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(2), pages 263-289, March.
    20. Rebecca DiBennardo & Gary Gates, 2014. "Research Note: US Census Same-Sex Couple Data: Adjustments to Reduce Measurement Error and Empirical Implications," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(4), pages 603-614, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2005.06664. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.