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Factors Influencing Retention of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Undergraduate STEM Majors

*Address correspondence to: Jeffrey Maloy (E-mail Address: [email protected]).

Department of Life Sciences Core Education and Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095

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Monika B. Kwapisz

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

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Bryce E. Hughes

Department of Education, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717

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Terrell Morton, Monitoring Editor

Published Online:19 Jan 2022https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.21-05-0136

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Abstract

Despite calls for improved data-collection efforts tracking transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, there have been no reports of TGNC continuation in STEM majors at the university level. Using national, longitudinal data from the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, we analyzed the experiences of 20,910 students who indicated an initial intent to major in a STEM field and found that TGNC students (n = 117) continue in STEM majors at a rate ∼10% lower than their cisgender peers. This gap persists despite TGNC students’ high levels of academic ability and academic self-confidence. Through multilevel regression modeling, we found this difference is not explained by experiences that have predicted the likelihood of cisgender students leaving STEM. The only significant predictor of STEM attrition for TGNC students in our model was whether they sought personal counseling; TGNC students who more frequently sought personal counseling were 21% less likely to remain in STEM majors. Overall, TGNC students leave STEM at rates similar to or higher than other minoritized groups, building the case for a multifaced, intersectional approach to addressing diversity and equity in the preparation of the future STEM workforce.

Vol. 21, No. 1

March 01, 2022

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History

Submitted: 28 May 2021

Revised: 16 December 2021

Accepted: 21 December 2021

Information

© 2022 J. Maloy et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2022 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0).

We would first and foremost like to thank the TGNC undergraduate students who participated in HERI surveys for their willingness to be out and report their experiences in college; without their effort, this work would not be possible. We thank Maren Greathouse for her help in discussing potential issues facing TGNC people in STEM environments. We also thank Andrea Haverkamp for her critical feedback regarding how TGNC people are represented in this study. We also thank HERI at UCLA for assistance in preparing data sets. Data reported in this paper are collected and maintained by HERI at UCLA. These data were made available to the researchers through an agreement with HERI; inquiries about data access should be directed to the institute. HERI makes data that are more than 10 years old available to researchers at no cost via their website ( www.heri.ucla.edu), but more recent data are subject to a licensing agreement and fee. Please contact the institute for further information.

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