Sexual Minorities and Inequality of Opportunity

A voluminous body of research has documented how sexual minorities experience discrimination and stigma in society.

At the same time, we know surprisingly little about the extent to which these processes lead to different socioeconomic and family outcomes for sexual minorities.

This project will be the first to systematically document cross-national and cross-temporal differences in the socioeconomic and family outcomes of sexual minorities and investigate the conditions under which opportunities vary.

To achieve this goal, the project will innovate by exploiting information on sexual orientation that has recently been incorporated in several large-scale representative surveys.

This breakthrough allows the project to answer foundational questions regarding inequality of opportunity experienced by sexual minorities, on many occasions for the first time.

For instance, the project will document social mobility patterns and the partnering dynamics of sexual minority individuals.

The project will also study the outcomes of minority groups that have often been overlooked, such as bisexual individuals and individuals identifying as sexual minorities from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

The second part of the project consists of studying the mechanisms that pose obstacles for sexual minorities to attain outcomes in life. Can gender egalitarianism reduce inequality of opportunity experienced by sexual minorities? How large is the impact of hate crimes and legislation on the family life of sexual minorities?

Contextual information on regional differences in attitudes, hate crimes and laws will be compiled and connected to surveys to document their relationship to socioeconomic achievements and the family life of sexual minorities.

The principal investigator will form a multi-disciplinary team consisting of a postdoctoral researcher (five years), a data technician (two years) and a doctoral student (four years).