A recent study conducted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) revealed that nearly a third of the young LGBT community avoided careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) due to the fear of judgment and discrimination. Thirty percent of the LGBT community in the UK would not choose any of the STEM careers and the rest would hide their sexuality. Why? Quite a few conjectures have been formed based on the study.
For one, the researchers feel that the fear of both LGBT citizens and women is backed up by gender stereotyping which is very much alive in these professions. As much as people deny it, getting judged often for being different is something that damages one’s self-esteem even if one chooses not to show it. This, in turn, prevents diverse talents from entering the industry. Apart from that, it can be attributed to the environment where people ridicule the LGBT community or even think of them to be diseased in a way which prevents them from coming out and showing who they really are.
The results of this study fall in line with the results of a similar study conducted in 2015 which stated, ‘homophobia in engineering was costing billions of pounds every year’. According to these results, over half of the LGBT community in engineering fields chose to remain in the closet, and 33% of the gay engineers interviewed said that they felt their sexuality had somehow acted as a barrier in their career progression.
“All these findings, coupled with the fact that there is an estimated annual shortfall of 59,000 technicians to fill engineering roles, clearly demonstrates a need for action.”, said Jo Foster, the Diversity and inclusion manager at the IET. Both these studies later documented the impact of open and free LGBT people being involved in a working environment. Researchers found that companies that had adopted such an approach had experienced a happier and more cooperative environment resulting in a 30% increase in productivity of openly LGBT employees. Read more via Techquila