Intersectionality is a term that refers to the way categories of social membership (ie: race, gender, class) are co-constituted and individuals’ experience of social identity is informed by multiple systems of power. Intersectional equity is a term that refers to the provision of fairness in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities between multiply constituted social groups, such that disparities among and across groups are remediated.

The Gender Equity Research Lab (GERL) seeks to answer these overarching research questions:
●    To what extent has intersectional gender equity been achieved within the U.S. STEM workforce and higher education?

●    What programs and policy interventions demonstrate promising potential for achieving intersectional gender equity within STEM fields?

Women comprise 47% of the U.S. workforce (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022) and make up almost 60% of U.S. undergraduate students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2021). Yet, women currently account for only one-third of STEM workers overall and continue to be drastically underrepresented in many of the highest-paying STEM fields, including engineering and computing. Among all women in STEM, Black, Native, and Hispanic women face even greater disparities, in part due to the compounding effects of racism.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, over the next decade STEM jobs are projected to increase at nearly twice the rate of other jobs. In the changing landscape of work in the 4th Industrial Revolution, achieving intersectional equity in STEM fields is a crucial factor to achieving not only greater social equality, but also greater technological and scientific innovation to meet the challenges we face in the 21st century.

Using large national and regional datasets from a variety of sources, the Gender Equity Research Lab (GERL) undertakes intersectional feminist analyses of equity in U.S. higher education and in the U.S. workforce to determine the extent to which diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) metrics have been achieved within and across various STEM fields.

In addition, GERL conducts program evaluation to assess the effectiveness of promising local interventions along the K-16 STEM pipeline emanating out of the UArizona’s Women in Science and Engineering Program (see: wise.arizona.edu) that seek to increase the number of girls and women in the STEM workforce pipeline.

Through these combined efforts, GERL seeks to assess current progress toward achieving gender equity goals and to develop evidence-based recommendations for future DEI-related interventions focused on achieving gender equity.