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Developmental interventions to address the STEM gender gap: exploring intended and unintended consequences
Advances in Child Development and Behavior
|October 28, 2014
Summary
Addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM is crucial for career equity and national workforce needs. This chapter reviews interventions designed to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Area of Science:
- Social Sciences
- Education
- Gender Studies
Background:
- Women and girls remain significantly underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields in the U.S.
- This disparity impacts career opportunities for women and the national talent pool for STEM professions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine interventions aimed at closing the gender gap in STEM.
- To review theoretical frameworks for gender development applicable to interventions.
- To provide a taxonomy of intervention goals and an illustrative review of sample programs.
Main Methods:
- Documentation of the current STEM gender gap.
- Review of change mechanisms from gender development theories.
- Categorization of intervention goals.
- Illustrative review of sample interventions.
Main Results:
- The chapter outlines a framework for understanding and organizing interventions.
- Identifies limitations in current intervention research.
- Proposes strategies for more rigorous evaluation of STEM interventions.
Conclusions:
- Enhanced systematic evaluation of interventions is needed.
- Future evaluations should include careful comparison groups, diverse outcome measures, and assessment of unintended consequences.
- Meta-analyses can synthesize findings to improve intervention effectiveness.
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