STEM Learning and Learning Environments  

Broadening Participation in STEM

The Development of Gender Stereotypes About STEM Abilities: A Meta-Analysis

Effective Years: 2019-2024

This project will study the origins of beliefs and motivational processes that could potentially limit the full participation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Specifically, this synthesis project aims to clarify mixed findings about how gender stereotypes about STEM abilities first develop and how these stereotypes relate to gender gaps in STEM. Some studies of children have found the expected stereotype of superior male ability in mathematics and science, but others have found only in-group bias or even stereotypes of female superiority. This project will synthesize more than 25 years of empirical research across the world to understand how demographic, contextual, and measurement factors explain these mixed findings. For instance, children's STEM ability stereotypes may increasingly favor boys and men as children age and learn messages in their environments. Knowledge of these developmental trajectories can help intervention researchers and practitioners target the earliest ages when children begin to believe that girls and women are inferior in STEM. This project consists of two meta-analyses that will analyze variation in (a) mean levels of children's gender stereotypes about STEM abilities and (b) these stereotypes relation to motivational STEM outcomes such as confidence and interests. In both meta-analyses, focal moderators will include child demographics, cultural contexts, and measurement characteristics. Knowledge generated by this project will help bring clarity to the mixed developmental literature on STEM ability stereotypes. Understanding why one study finds stereotypes strongly favoring males, whereas another study finds the opposite, will be critical to foster cumulative, replicable science and build integrative theories of stereotype development. Furthermore, synthesizing how ability stereotypes relate to outcomes such as confidence and interests can build fundamental knowledge on how these beliefs might relate to gender gaps in STEM participation. 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.