SBP: Promoting Structural Understanding of STEM Gender Disparities in Early Childhood

Amemiya, Jamie, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and SBE's Science of Broadening Participation program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Lin Bian at the University of Chicago, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist studying STEM gender disparities. This research aims to promote young children’s structural understanding of gender disparities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). From early in life, children notice gender disparities and make sense of these patterns. Among the many possible causal factors, it is critical for children to consider structural causes, such as historical societal discrimination against girls and women in science. A structural understanding of gender disparities may enhance girls’ persistence in male-dominated fields by helping them realize that current gender inequalities do not simply reflect their group’s lack of ability or interest. Moreover, structural thinking may encourage children to rectify gender disparities and include their female peers more in STEM activities. Together, promoting structural thinking in early childhood may help mitigate later gender inequalities in STEM. The proposed research examines the cognitive mechanisms and behavioral outcomes of 5- to 7-year-old children’s structural thinking about STEM gender disparities. The studies will use a social-cognitive experimental approach in which we will randomize children to storybooks that provide different levels of structural information about gender inequality. Aim 1 will examine whether certain types of causal evidence support structural thinking. Results will provide insight into what types of information are most effective for educational materials on structural inequality. Aim 2 will include behavioral experiments to test whether structural explanations for a prior gender inequality in STEM have positive behavioral consequences for girls’ STEM persistence and children’s inclusion of their female peers. The findings will inform which outcomes can be improved through structural thinking interventions, and thus situate a structural thinking approach within broader efforts to increase women’s representation in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.