"I just got a vibe": How women and LGBT+ physicists assess workplace inclusivity

Physics Education Research (PER) has made great strides in gender and LGBT+ equity work in recent years, but this research has primarily focused on the discriminatory experiences people face and the failures resulting from them. While this work is critical for naming and revealing the prevalence of discrimination in physics, its solutions react to discriminatory environments instead of producing proactive solutions for creating inclusive environments. This study combines social network analysis with feminist, asset-based theoretical frameworks to qualitatively characterize the professional support networks of women and LGBT+ physicists, find which types of support and network ties contribute to job satisfaction and retention in physics, and compare results between job sectors. This talk will discuss preliminary findings from 54 interviews of women and LGBT+ physicists with PhDs working across academia, industry, and government sectors. Specifically, we will focus on the supports, policies, and practices that participants consider to be key when looking for and creating inclusive environments, factors that impact their decisions when navigating their careers.