Toward Understanding Early Gender Disparities in STEM: Persistence on a Science-Based Task

Even with current efforts to increase engagement, Women remain significantly underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One reason for lack of progress in achieving gender equity in STEM is that we do not know that much about when differences in participation emerge. Developmental researchers are trying to explore if these gender differences in STEM participation may have origins from early childhood. Young children have been found to hold gender-science stereotypes (e.g., Master, 2021). Recent research has shown that girls aged four to seven years persist less than boys on science-related tasks (Gilligan et al., 2022; Kumar et al., 2023; Rhodes et al., 2019; Shachnai et al., 2022). However, many studies have not found this same finding (Rhodes et al., 2020) and the science tasks are administered digitally which can lead to confounding variables. This current study aims to clarify these findings, by administering an ecologically valid “sink-or-float” task to 106 children between the ages of five-to-seven years old (54 boys, 54 girls). The science task is testing whether there are gender differences in persistence, with girls persisting less than boys. The chance of giving up on the scientific task on a particular trial was estimated using mixed-effects survival models, which were predicted based on factors such as age, average task accuracy, gender, accuracy on a specific trial, and random intercepts for the subjects. No main effects were found for gender or age. There was no evidence that holding gender stereotypes predicted gender-differences in persistence. These findings raise many questions about the meaning of previous research that studies gender differences in science-task persistence in early childhood.

When you think of a scientist, what image comes to mind? Was that scientist a man or a woman? That is what we are asking 106 children between the ages of 5-7 to do in our project titled, “Toward Understanding Early Gender Disparities in STEM: Persistence on a Science-Based Task.” which I am completing with my mentor, Nicole Stucke. Instead of just thinking of a scientist, the children are tasked to draw a scientist and then are asked the gender of their scientist. So why is a child‘s perception of a scientist important? This is because there is extensive research on the lack of representation for girls and women in STEM fields. Additionally, throughout elementary school, boys and girls show similar engagement in STEM subjects, but in middle and high school a clear diversion happens, where girls are more likely to forgo STEM courses, while boys become more likely to pursue them. Developmental psychology research has the potential to offer insights about gender gaps in STEM participation by looking at possible originations in childhood. Our research aims to answer whether boys and girls show different patterns of persistence on a real-world science activity, with girls persisting less than boys. Children will complete an ecologically valid science-persistence task titled the “Sink-or Float Test” where they will be presented up to 30 objects and asked to make a prediction on whether the object with float or sink when dropped in a clear bucket of water. The child will then be asked if they would like to continue playing the science game or do something else (stop persisting). Children‘s persistence is the number of trials that they choose to continue playing the science task before opting to do something else, ranging from one to 30 trials. Research shows that girls are more likely to fall out of STEM fields, and we hope to compare the persistence levels between 53 boys and 53 girls who participate in the study. Ultimately, findings may shed light on the underlying knowledge gap surrounding the developmental origins of gender differences in STEM participation and provide insights that can inform strategies aimed at changing children‘s engagement with, attitudes toward, and self-efficacy in science domains”“”“before gaps in STEM achievement and participation emerge. Special thanks to my mentor Nicole Stucke for her leadership in this project and the Developing Minds Lab. As well as OSCAR for offering the opportunity to complete this project through the URSP. And thank you all for listening.