Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students’ Likelihood of Graduating College: Penalized or Privileged? by Leigh E. Fine, Ph.D.
We know that social identities, such as gender, social class, and race, affect Americans’ likelihood of completing a four-year college degree. Using gender as an example, women have been outpacing men in college completion for decades now. This “female advantage” today is so pronounced, we are seeing nearly two women college graduates for every one man who completes a bachelor’s degree. Given the amount of research done on educational attainment generally – and given that education is an important determinant of one’s future life chances – it is surprising that little attention has been paid to how sexual identity affects bachelor’s degree completion.
As another social identity that has effects on people’s life experiences, it stands to reason that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people might have different levels of educational attainment than heterosexual people. If sexuality serves as a hindrance – or a help – in terms of educational attainment, those who wish to promote educational access for diverse groups of students would be very interested in such information.
Very few studies examine LGB people’s education levels; those that do tend to suffer from methodological shortcomings that prevent them from being generalizable. What literature does exist indicates that gay and bisexual men tend to be more likely than heterosexual men to have bachelor’s degrees, which is curious given the prevailing narrative that LGB people encounter social obstacles that heterosexual persons largely do not. Almost no literature exists that examines sexual minority women’s educational attainment.
My study in the American Journal of Education, “Penalized or Privileged? Sexual Identity, Gender, and Postsecondary Educational Attainment,” seeks to fill this gap in the literature. Using the National Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) dataset, I examine the effects of gender and sexual identity on educational attainment. This dataset is particularly useful because of its sample, particularly of sexual minority respondents: it is relatively large, nationally-representative, and contains information on background characteristics that also affect educational trajectories. I then ask two questions. First, is there a difference between heterosexual and sexual minority respondents’ likelihoods of earning a bachelor’s degree? Second, how does the combination of gender with sexual identity lead to different potential educational outcomes?
The Add Health data support prior literature’s findings regarding gay and bisexual men’s educational attainment: they are, indeed, more likely than heterosexual men to graduate from college. In fact, of all gender and sexual identity combinations, gay and bisexual men have the highest predicted probability of college completion: 44 percent, which is well above the national average for bachelor’s degree completion of 32 percent – and well above heterosexual men’s predicted probability of 28 percent. Sexual minority women, on the other hand, are the least likely group to have completed college. Their predicted probability of completing a bachelor’s degree is 25 percent, well below the national average – and well below heterosexual women’s predicted probability of 34 percent. All of these group differences were found to be statistically significant. (It should be noted that a more stringent statistical test indicates that there is no difference between sexual minority women’s and heterosexual women’s educational attainment levels – a matter I address in more detail in my paper.)
What do these findings mean for promoting equity in educational access and ensuring diverse students can complete college successfully? First and foremost, the lack of attention to sexual minority women is troubling, given their low predicted likelihoods of completing college. If sexual minority women are not earning higher-level degrees at a level rates comparable to their heterosexual peers, this disparity could lead to a potential loss of income, self-esteem, and social capital that could lead to better life conditions.
Second, the lack of data on sexual minorities in general, but sexual minority women in particular, presents a gap in our understanding of how sexuality as a social force influences one’s life chances. Even in my study, the comparatively small sample of sexual minority women translated to an inability to meet the highest, most robust standards of statistical significance. More data collection on sexual minorities, especially at the collegiate level, could enhance faculty, staff, and researchers’ ability to create data-driven, successful interventions for students.
Third, more research is needed to untangle the complicated relationship between educational attainment and sexual minority identity. Presumably, gay and bisexual men face discrimination in a world that assumes and enforces heterosexuality – even on college campuses. It is curious, then, that sexual minority men manage to outpace heterosexual men in terms of educational attainment. How do sexual minority men navigate forces of discrimination they may encounter to actually enjoy great success in educational contexts? For sexual minority women, knowing the mechanisms by which graduation rates are depressed could allow the development of programs, offices, and policies that could make higher education more accessible.
Leigh E. Fine is an assistant professor in the Staley School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University.
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While it may be true that lesbian women are less educated than their male counterparts, and based on my personal anecdotal experience, I wonder what the percentage of lesbian owned businesses or lesbians self-employed are compared to their female hetero sexual counterparts?
Sexual minority men navigate discrimination simply by the fact they are men. Lesbians not so much, being as since they are not heterosexual they do not even enjoy the advantages that opposite sex-oriented females are afforded.
I believe that graduation rates are depressed among lesbians because of implicit bias. I would like to see a study done about the outward appearance of those lesbians that graduated, as opposed to the appearance of those who did not.
My personal experience and observation has been that lesbians who appear stereotypically heterosexual are treated with less bias than sexual minority women who fit the stereotypical concept of a lesbian.
Homosexual men might be a sexual minority, but they are still men. In addition if they are white as well, that put this group right up there in the most protected class, of course they are going to excel.
I would also be interested in knowing what the percentage of minorities were in the study of the percentages quoted, regarding female and male sexual minorities graduating.
Based on the statistics that listed in your article, I think the percentages of college completion of four different sexual identity groups are interesting and meaningful —— gay and bisexual men have the highest rate which is 44%, heterosexual men is 28%, heterosexual women is 34%, and sexual minority women is 25% which is the lowest.
It makes me curious why lesbian and bisexual women are the least likely group to finish their college while women have better college completion rate than men according to many studies? What advantages that gay and bisexual men can gain that helps them finish their college?
I have studied the topic of dropout rate of college students in America, many articles provide the factors as well as the recommendations, but just like what you mentioned, little research talk about LGBTQ people’s educational attainment.
I also took a gender and politics class which mainly talked about the influence of gender and race affect candidates and voters in the elections, campaigns and voting. From the reading in this class, lesbian and bisexual women as candidates actually gain more benefits than gay and bisexual men because voters believe gay candidates are less honest and lack of masculinity. Because these two results are quite different which makes me come up with many other questions: how sexual identity affect LGBTQ people’s education levels and their career? Is there any relation between these two areas?
The rising amount of LGBTQ people requires educators to examine their education levels since they play a huge role in our society. As a wonderful beginning of this aspect, I think your research evokes my interest in this field. If I can, I would like to do some research on sexual minority women’s educational attainment.
Thank you for your research which is thoughtful and interesting!
I personally think our current society does not allow much opportunities for the sexual minorities to study in a safe environment. Most of minority students hide their sexual identity to prevent discrimination they get from the society. The biggest reason the sexual minority students dropout of college is due to unfair treatment they receive from the society. The school has a right to protect all of their students regardless of their gender identities, but the process is never smooth due to stereotypes created upon them, increasing the number of dropouts. Regardless of my opinion, I think the statistics on college completion by each sexual identities were really interesting. According to your statistics, bisexual men had the highest predicted probability of college completion with 44%, higher than the heterosexual men’s and the sexual minority women had the lowest probability of college completion with 25%, lower than heterosexual women’s probability of 34%. This number had intrigued me about why the male minorities have higher probability of college completion than women minorities while they go through the similar societal obstacles. How do women and men react differently toward the difficulties they face and what is the major factor that directly influences the depression of college completion for women minorities? It would be really helpful to further research on these questions to find out the way to support sexual minorities in completing their education which is correlated with their further careers and life quality. I personally think the schools can support sexual minorities students by strengthening the minority communities within schools and develop programs that are focused to LGBTQ to help them be more accessible to higher education. Thank you for your research!!
I personally think our current society does not allow much opportunities for the sexual minorities to study in a safe environment. Most of minority students hide their sexual identity to prevent discrimination they get from the society. The biggest reason the sexual minority students dropout of college is due to unfair treatment they receive from the society. The school has a right to protect all of their students regardless of their gender identities, but the process is never smooth due to stereotypes created upon them, increasing the number of dropouts. Regardless of my opinion, I think the statistics on college completion by each sexual identities were really interesting. According to your statistics, bisexual men had the highest predicted probability of college completion with 44%, higher than the heterosexual men’s and the sexual minority women had the lowest probability of college completion with 25%, lower than heterosexual women’s probability of 34%. This number had intrigued me about why the male minorities have higher probability of college completion than women minorities while they go through the similar societal obstacles. How do women and men react differently toward the difficulties they face and what is the major factor that directly influences the depression of college completion for women minorities? It would be really helpful to further research on these questions to find out the way to support sexual minorities in completing their education which is correlated with their further careers and life quality. I personally think the schools can support sexual minorities students by strengthening the minority communities within schools and develop programs that are focused to LGBT to help them be more accessible to higher education.