Gender Gaps in STEM: Teacher Practices and Biases, Other-gender Peer Relationships, and Children’s Stereotypes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Gender inequality in STEM has been pervasive for decades. Women and girls are underrepresented in STEM due to many factors, such as teachers’ gender biases and classroom practices, and children’s stereotypes and exclusive peer dynamics. The aim of this symposium is to highlight recent research examining contributing factors related to gender inequality in STEM in primarily elementary school contexts within the U.S. The first paper examines Pre-K and elementary teachers’ gender-role attitudes and related gendered classroom practices (i.e., promotion of gender salience, gender segregation, and gender integration), with implications for STEM. The second paper adopted an experimental design to investigate how teachers’ feedback and gender biases vary based on the gender composition of learner groups during a spatial learning task. Using a short-term longitudinal design, the third paper examines how classroom gender integration is related to 3rd and 5th graders’ STEM achievement one semester later. Drawing from a multidimensional framework of gender stereotypes, the final paper investigates whether children’s endorsement of occupational and STEM gender stereotypes depends on stereotype construct and gender role with two groups of racially diverse students. Collectively, results from these studies have implications for a wide range of topics aimed at closing gender gaps in children’s educational experiences and outcomes. Specifically, findings have implications for the promotion of gender inclusive classroom practices and teacher professional development, for gender bias interventions and stereotype reduction efforts in teachers and children, and for the promotion of gender-integration and other classroom practices to narrow gender gaps in STEM.

Sub Unit

• Sex, Gender

Chairs

• Flora Farago, Stephen F. Autstin University

• Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy

Individual Presentations

• Teachers’ Gender-Role Attitudes and Gendered Classroom Practices - Presenting Author: Flora Farago, Stephen F. Autstin University; Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University; Kristen Granger, Vanderbilt University; Carlos E. Santos, University of California - Los Angeles; Cindy Faith Miller, Texas State University

• Gender Biases in the Teaching and Learning of Spatial Tasks - Presenting Author: Kingsley Schroeder, Springfield College, Springfield, MA; Emily F Coyle, Saint Martin's University; Megan Fulcher, washing

• Improving STEM Success in Elementary School Students Through Gender Integration - Presenting Author: Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy; Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University; Laura D Hanish, Arizona State University; Dawn DeLay, Arizona State University; Richard A Fabes, Arizona State University; Krista Oswalt

• Children’s Endorsement of Occupational and STEM Gender Stereotypes: A Multidimensional Examination - Presenting Author: Cindy Faith Miller, Texas State University; Lorey A Wheeler, University of Nebraska - Lincoln; Bobbi Woods