By Lucía Rosich, Guillermina Suárez, Irina Sánchez and Irene González
Women in STEM
The gender gap in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is still a worrying reality that requires action. In 2021, in the United States, women were only 35% of the STEM workforce and 16% of engineers, even when they represented half of the working-age population. This process ends in a workforce gap but begins much earlier. A recent study by Speer found that this gender gap in STEM careers is distributed along the process: 35% due to men having greater preparation in STEM subjects before college, 26% because they are more likely to start in a STEM major, and 41% because men are more likely to enter STEM jobs after graduation.
The United States case is just an example of a global issue, and Uruguay is no exception. Even with tens of thousands of tech job openings per year, women are disproportionately underemployed. The Uruguayan Information and Computer Technology (ICT) sector requires 24% of the national labor force and has a gender gap of 58%. Moreover, this sector is characterized by better wages and labor conditions. Therefore, it is essential to guarantee everyone access to tech training. Since 2016, Ceibal’s “Jóvenes a Programar” (JaP) training program has been contributing to this goal. This initiative offers thousands of young adults the skills they need to seek employment in the ICT sector.
There’s a group of studies that focuses on a specific factor that could be playing a role in this challenge: women underperforming on high-stakes exams. Ayuso et al. observed significant differences by gender in the perception of self-efficacy and test anxiety in math for primary school students, and an increase in this gender gap as they grow up. In a similar approach, Cotner et al. found that female students tend to express more test anxiety, which has a negative impact on their performance. Arias et al. attribute this performance gap to differences in risk aversion, self-confidence, preferences for competition, and reaction to time pressure.
Ceibal’s program JaP is directly affected by this issue. Given the high demand for the program, candidates must pass a self-administered online entrance exam in order to be admitted. Women tend to achieve lower scores and leave more questions unanswered, even though incorrect answers do not result in point deductions. This disparity reduces their admission chances, generating inequity in the selection process.
Hopefully, literature suggests that some adjustments can be made to reduce this gap. Several strategies have been proposed to reduce the perceived risk, such as implementing mixed assessment methods with low-stakes evaluation instances, re-takes, focusing on assessing intrinsic aspects of learning, or removing penalties for wrong answers in multiple-choice tests. These strategies suggest that reducing women’s test anxiety can help close the gap. Moreover, evidence demonstrates that a brief writing exercise about the anxiety generated by the exam just before it begins improves students’ results, especially for those anxious about test-taking. Asking students to perform a stress reappraisal exercise has also been proven to work. Far from having adverse effects, these interventions could also benefit male students.
The Intervention
Committed to providing equal opportunities for all, the evidence motivated Ceibal’s Behavioral Insights Lab to implement a stress management intervention at the JaP entrance exam. The goal was to reduce the gender gap in the exam’s performance and the disparity in the number of unanswered questions.
To this end, two interventions were designed, implemented, and evaluated, named as sanitized and stress reappraisal. Both interventions were proposed as adjustments to the online tool where applicants take the test regularly. In the sanitized intervention, the topic title from each block of questions was removed, a progress bar highlighting how close the student was to finishing the test was added, and a message explicitly clarifying that incorrect answers were not penalized was also included. The stress reappraisal intervention includes all these adjustments and additionally incorporates an exercise to reduce participants’ anxiety before starting the test. Taking as reference the assignment used by Harris et al., students were asked to take a few moments to read a short passage about how the arousal present in stressful situations can improve alertness and performance and to write a couple of sentences that imply a positive interpretation of stress arousal. Given that it is a two-hour exam, this version also incorporates a passage in the middle motivating students to take a moment and implement a technique such as mindfulness, deep breathing, and cognitive reframing to reduce stress.
The two interventions were assessed through a randomized controlled trial, which involved three groups: sanitized, stress reappraisal, and the traditional test (control). A total of 6,094 young adults who took the test were randomly assigned to one of seven equivalent test versions with the same difficulty level. Each of these seven versions corresponds to a treatment group: four versions of the test were assigned to the sanitized intervention, one to the stress reappraisal intervention, and the remaining two to the control.
Results suggest that both the sanitized and stress reappraisal interventions successfully reduced gender gaps in skipped questions and overall performance (proportion of correct answers out of answered questions). As expected, results were better for those who received the stress reappraisal intervention, almost eliminating the gap in performance and reducing the gap in skipped questions by more than half compared to the control group.
Results
These results highlight the importance of designing educational settings that take into consideration both gender needs. By enabling more women to access and benefit from the JaP program, more equitable opportunities and empowerment of women in STEM are promoted. It is crucial to continue developing and applying strategies that foster an inclusive and equitable educational environment for everyone.
To Conclude
Given the multitude of factors contributing to women’s underrepresentation in STEM, the necessity of stress management interventions becomes even more apparent for academic journeys. This study demonstrates that targeted strategies, such as stress reappraisal interventions, can significantly improve women’s performance in high-stakes exams.
The success of the interventions implemented by Ceibal’s Behavioral Insights Lab underscores the potential for similar initiatives to be adopted more widely. By addressing the psychological barriers that disproportionately affect women, we can create a more inclusive and equitable educational environment. This, in turn, will enable more women to pursue and thrive in STEM careers. Developing and refining these interventions is crucial for promoting equal opportunities and empowering women in STEM fields.
This article was edited by Lindsey Horne.
Lucía Rosich
Guillermina Suárez
Irina Sánchez
