It’s widely established that it is valuable to have more gender diversity in STEM and that women are currently under-represented. Research from Yale suggests that play-based interventions could help to reduce the gender gap in STEM fields by improving the engagement with science girls have at a young age.

“Children as early as age 6 start to think boys are smarter and better at science than girls,” the researchers explain. These gender stereotypes steer girls away from science activities, contributing to gender gaps in STEM. “Our work aimed to promote girls’ engagement in science to counter the disparities.”

Pretend play

The researchers explored the use of pretend play to allow young children to embody particular role models. All of the children in the experiment played a science-based game, with some playing the role of either Marie Curie or Isaac Newton, and others asked to play the game as a scientist role model.

After each round, the participants said whether they wanted to play again or move on to something else. The results show that boys were consistently motivated regardless of the conditions, and completed 14 rounds of the game on average. Girls, however, only completed five rounds when playing as themselves, but this increased to nine rounds when playing as Marie Curie and 12 rounds when pretending to be a scientist.

“Our study is the first to show that pretending to be a woman role model, rather than merely hearing about her, can help close early-emerging STEM gender gaps,” the researchers explain.

At a distance

The researchers believe that by using pretend play, it can help to distance girls from negative gender stereotypes concerning their abilities in STEM subjects. This is especially important as even using role models can prove ineffective if children perceive the role model as different from them, and therefore unattainable.

“Our findings suggest that we may want to take representation one step further,” the authors explain. “Rather than merely hearing about role models, children may benefit from actively performing the type of actions they see role models perform. In other words, taking a few steps in the role model’s shoes, instead of merely observing her walk.”

For instance, pretend-play activities that include role models could be introduced into areas like schools and museums, where children often interact with science at an early age. If we are to improve the gender diversity of STEM fields, it’s perhaps worth considering.