The Lost Futures of Gender Diversity in STEM: Developing a diffractive methodology to study acts of disappearance

Abstract

Gender segregation in STEM labour markets remains a problem despite the immense attention to the issue in recent years. This article studies diversity initiatives aiming to amend the lack of women in STEM by helping girls and young women to develop STEM career aspirations. Inspired by Karen Barad, we develop a novel diffractive methodology designed to address the intricate acts of disappearance through which knowledge, identities, and experiences are made absent from organisational realities. We demonstrate this methodology by reading Danish STEM diversity initiatives diffractively through taxidermied animal specimens. This allows us to identify the practices through which gender diversity disappear and show how harmful gender stereotypes are reproduced within the very attempts to counter them. Thus, the contribution of the article is two-fold: We offer a novel methodology apt to encounter and engage with absences and to experiment with the new meanings that can emerge when what has been erased is re-introduced into the analysis. Moreover, we show that despite well-meaning intentions and substantial funding, contemporary diversity initiatives cannot be expected to push beyond or transgress the current constraints on viable gendered identities in STEM.