Can the culture of STEM help reproduce inequality? The professional
cultures of STEM, which give each discipline its particular “feel” and
unite discipline members under a taken-for-granted system of meanings
and values, are not benign. Drawing from several NSF-funded survey and
interview-based studies, I argue that these professional cultures can
have built within them disadvantages for women, racial/ethnic
minorities, and LGBTQ persons in STEM. In this talk, I will discuss
the role of three particular cultural ideologies—schemas of scientific
excellence, depoliticization, and the meritocratic ideology—in
producing these disadvantages. I will end by explaining why decisions
that partially rely on assessments of individuals’ “fit” with
professional cultures are particularly important to critically examine
for their potential to contribute to inequality.