How do you encourage women to remain active in science, technology, engineering and mathematics? One route seems to be in creating environments in which female students participate in small groups with high proportions of women, says a new study.
In a U.S. study, 120 female undergraduate engineering students were assigned into four-person groups that varied in gender composition. The researchers found female students spoke up more often in female-majority groups than in female-minority or gender-equivalent groups.
Additionally female students’ self-reported confidence and career aspirations were also higher in gender-equivalent and female-majority groups than in female-minority groups.
The authors finally observed that the presence of women in a group act as “social vaccines” to decrease women’s feelings of threat and increase their comfort speaking up.
Original research paper published in PNAS on April 6, 2015.
Names and affiliations of selected authors
