Does Encouragement Matter in Improving Gender Imbalances in Technical Fields? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Does encouragement help address gender imbalances in technical fields? We present the results of one of the first and largest randomized controlled trials on the topic. Using an applied statistics conference in the social sciences as our context, we randomly assigned half of a pool of 3,945 graduate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPloS one Vol. 11; no. 4; p. e0151714
Main Authors Unkovic, Cait, Sen, Maya, Quinn, Kevin M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 20.04.2016
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Adult
Applied statistics
Careers
Clinical trials
Congresses as Topic
Demographic aspects
Dosage
Education policy
Employment
Female
Gender differences
Gender equality
Graduate students
Humans
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Observational studies
People and Places
Political science
Professional Competence
Program Evaluation
Randomization
Research and Analysis Methods
Research methodology
Researchers
Role models
Science education
Science Policy
Sex Factors
Social Sciences
STEM education
Students - psychology
Studies
Technology
Women
United States
United States > US
California
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Summary:Does encouragement help address gender imbalances in technical fields? We present the results of one of the first and largest randomized controlled trials on the topic. Using an applied statistics conference in the social sciences as our context, we randomly assigned half of a pool of 3,945 graduate students to receive two personalized emails encouraging them to apply (n = 1,976) and the other half to receive nothing (n = 1,969). We find a robust, positive effect associated with this simple intervention and suggestive evidence that women responded more strongly than men. However, we find that women's conference acceptance rates are higher within the control group than in the treated group. This is not the case for men. The reason appears to be that female applicants in the treated group solicited supporting letters at lower rates. Our findings therefore suggest that "low dose" interventions may promote diversity in STEM fields but may also have the potential to expose underlying disparities when used alone or in a non-targeted way.
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Competing Interests: The authors of this manuscript have read the journal’s policy and have the following competing interests: Kevin M. Quinn served as the President of the Society for Political Methodology when this experiment was conducted (non-financial interest), and Maya Sen served as a member of the Society for Political Methodology Diversity Committee when this experiment was conducted (non-financial interest). This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Conceived and designed the experiments: CU MS KQ. Performed the experiments: CU MS KQ. Analyzed the data: CU MS KQ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CU MS KQ. Wrote the paper: CU MS KQ. Participated in the design and execution of the randomized controlled trial, and also in the data analysis: CU MS KQ. Participated in the writing of the article: CU MS KQ.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0151714