Can Female Role Models Reduce the Gender Gap in Science? Evidence from Classroom Interventions in French High Schools with Clémentine Van Effenterre

Women are underrepresented among technical degree holders and STEM workers, and the gender segregation in these occupations has remained fairly consistent over time. How can we design interventions that might help fix the gender gap in science? WAPPP Postdoctoral Fellow Clémantine Van Effenterre presented the results of her study on the effects of STEM role models in the classroom.

SETTING

This study focused on French high school students in year 10 and year 12. At the end of year 10, students choose to specialize in a science, social science, or humanities track, conditional on performance in these areas. At the end of year 12, students sit for their graduation exam, the Baccalauréat, which is the gateway to pursuing higher education. In order to gain entry to certain higher education tracks, year 12 students can opt to pursue highly selective prep classes (classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles), including in science.

Women are slightly overrepresented in year 10 science courses, but are underrepresented in science in year 11 and year 12, as well as in the selective science classes préparatoires.

DESIGN

This study was a large-scale randomized experiment, with control groups and treatment groups of year 10 and year 12 students.  Students in treatment groups had a one-hour session with a female STEM role model, either a “professional” (private employees in a STEM field) or a “researcher” (PhD candidates or post-doctoral students in the sciences). The role models presented on career prospects and wage rates in the sciences versus the humanities, the diversity of jobs in the sciences, and the underrepresentation of women in STEM jobs.

In addition to sharing their own experiences, the role models showed two videos. The first emphasized that men and women have the same “science potential” and that there are no biologically-determined sex differences with respect to science aptitude. The second video focused on how much workers in STEM occupations enjoy their workplace culture and work/life balance, as well as the shorter-than-expected duration of many science degree programs.

Dr. Van Effenterre and her colleagues surveyed students on the intensity of their stereotypical views of STEM jobs and women in science and their choice of school tracks, and collected data on their grades and higher education admission outcomes.

RESULTS

Beliefs

Students in the treatment group, both male and female, changed their beliefs regarding careers in science and women in science. Female year 10 students were less likely to think that studying for a science degree takes a long time, that science jobs are dreary or solitary, or that it is hard to achieve work-life balance in STEM. With respect to women and science, the intervention emphasized underrepresentation and debunking biological essentialism. While students reduced their stereotypical beliefs in this area, they were more likely to think that “women like science less than men” and that “progress for women in science is slow.”

This is an interesting result: after the intervention, students are aware that men are disproportionately represented in science, but that the reason is not biologically determined. To make sense of this state of affairs, Dr. Van Effenterre and her colleagues hypothesize, students think that women must either not like science and not pursue it, or go into STEM fields and face discrimination or other obstacles to success in the field.

The effect sizes were larger for female students, but male students changed their beliefs too; the intervention may have been more salient for female students, but had an effect for all treated students.

School Tracks

This study revealed no change in track choices for year 10 students, but year 12 students in the treatment group significantly increased their likelihood of pursuing selective preparatory STEM programs: male students’ participation increased by 38% and female students’ by 20%, which are large increases over the low baseline for these selective programs.

Dr. Van Effenterre and her colleagues were initially puzzled by the lack of movement for year 10 students, but realized that student’s track choices are in some ways predetermined by past academic performance and other social factors, and are likely very hard to change with a small intervention. 

MECHANISMS

The role models may have impacted students’ beliefs and choices in a variety of ways: students may have been inspired to increase their effort to gain access to science jobs or may have experienced a boost in self-confidence or sense of fit in STEM roles after interacting with role models.

Dr. Van Effenterre and her colleagues examined the impact of the treatment on the grades the students obtained on the Baccalauréat, compared to students’ grades on other standardized exams. On average, there was no significant response to the treatment in terms of grades on the Baccalauréat for male or female students, and so the “increased effort” mechanism does not necessarily explain the observed effect.

Role models in the “professionals” category had a greater impact on both the decision to choose a science track and admittance to it compared to “researchers” for both male and female students. One limitation of this study was that the role models were only quasi-randomized, but it appears that the “professionals” may have been more relevant and compelling to students than the “researchers,” which presents additional questions about how to tailor the best type of role model for students to achieve the intended effect.

CONCLUSION

Experiences with female STEM role models can be an effective policy tool to change beliefs and outcomes for male and female students, even in a limited, one-hour intervention. Dr. Van Effenterre emphasized that closing gender gaps today impacts the next generation: if they can see it, they can be it.

French Feminism Revisited

The Woman: Muriel Rouyer, Visiting Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

The Talk: A Transatlantic Perspective on the Strauss Kahn Affair: French Feminism Reexamined

The Question: Did the Dominique Strauss Kahn affair alter French feminism?

To answer this question, the jury is still out. The Dominique Strauss Kahn (DSK) affair of 2011 challenged more than the cultural ideals of French feminism; it exposed the intimate relationship between journalists and politicians, and unraveled the social fabric protecting French political elites. At its root, the affair and the reactions to it, challenged French feminists to reflect on what Rouyer calls the “culture of rights” found in the US and European Union.

Seduction, conspiracy and indignation

Professor Rouyer began her talk with images from French Newspapers two days after the DSK affair became public. Photos of a distraught and upset DSK were interwoven with quotes from prominent intellectuals and journalists about the flippant nature of the accusation. Ranging from seduction (“He is a seducer, not a rapist) to conspiracy (“Why would a presidential candidate do this? He would have to be crazy.”) to outright indignation (“How is it legal to subject an innocent man to the indignities of the ‘perp walk’?!), French critics of DSK were at first seemingly few. But they were not alone. A poll of the French public two days after the arrest found 57 percent believed DSK was the victim of a conspiracy. But why?

“Malestream discourse” vs. “Culture of rights”

The ability of French reporters to investigate and publish personal information about public officials is strikingly limited compared to the US. In France, two strict libel and privacy laws restrict papers from publishing information that could be loosely defined as “private”. What happens, says Rouyer, is that “French journalists often lack journalistic courage. The interests of the powerful are still embedded and protected by the press.”

The inability to report on personal affairs creates a culture of silence and prevents journalists from writing critically. Moreover, this sentiment permeates the greater public discourse as it becomes socially and culturally taboo to hold politicians accountable for seemingly “private” matters. In essence, “Many in France did not seem to realize this was a serious matter, that bodily integrity is part of your individual rights.”

She believes American and European laws reflect a more profound “culture of rights” for the individual. “There is a deep sentiment in American democracy that this was her right [to report the sexual assault]; many in France did not appear to believe this. They seemed to be entangled in the hierarchies of the old social order.”

Paradoxically, Rouyer finds the same culture of omertà that contributed to DSK’s ultimate fall could have saved him. She asserted, “Had journalists been allowed to keep him ‘in check’, then these women would not have been subjected to this [sexual assault], and ironically, JSK would have been protected from himself [and thus able to run for president].”

It appears the DSK affair challenged many French feminists to re-evaluate what they consider sexist in French political culture. Ideally from this discourse, perhaps a third-wave of transatlantic and transnational feminism will occur.

Melissa Sandgren is a MPP1 at the Harvard Kennedy School and a participant in WAPPP's From Harvard Square to the Oval Office program.

* Photo taken on International Women's Day 2008 in Paris, France; courtesy of Looking4Poetry.