Lesbians in the UK in 2024: What do we know?

The Lesbian Project is delighted to publish the fourth of six reviews of evidence about lesbian wellbeing by researchers Matilda Gosling and Diane Stoianov.

In what we believe to be a unique project of its kind, these researchers have reviewed hundreds of existing pieces of publicly available research in order to pull out information about lesbian wellbeing in the UK and beyond, building a picture of what is already known or hypothesised as well as where the gaps are.

The result is a fascinating series on life for lesbians today; but one which also indicates where future research is needed, as well as illuminating some important methodological issues hampering robust findings in research on lesbians specifically.

The workplace

The fourth of our reviews covers the workplace.  We found that, for instance:

• There is evidence that lesbians are less satisfied at work than heterosexual women, but more satisfied than gay men. Wage and promotion prospects are particular areas of dissatisfaction for lesbians.

• Lesbians move more quickly between jobs than heterosexual women do, and their spells of unemployment are shorter.

• Lesbians are more likely to be discriminated against when applying for jobs – when everything else is equal, they are less likely to be shortlisted for an interview. Discrimination against lesbians is more likely in Europe than in North America.

• Equality legislation may have contributed to lesbians feeling more comfortable to be out at work. Benefits of sexual orientation disclosure for lesbians include having more chance to succeed in male-dominated occupations and avoiding male sexual harassment.

Limitations in existing research

Alongside our reviews, we are also publishing a Research Overview, detailing the approach taken by our researchers in compiling the evidence reviews and discussing important limitations they discovered on the robustness of research findings. This document is written to be read alongside our evidence reviews.

As the researchers conclude: “Even the highest-quality evidence – systematic reviews and meta-analyses – are often poor quality when they summarise data about lesbians, due to problems with the underlying studies that inform them.”

They identify several large issues with methodology, quality, and evidence gaps, meaning that it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about lesbians in the UK in many areas.

In future work, the Lesbian Project intends to lobby for better evidence-gathering about lesbian life, as well as commissioning independent research of its own (subject to funding).