By 6, kids think boys are better than girls at computer science. These programs aim to change that
Stereotypes 'impact interests and future career directions,' says girls' STEM club founder
During lunch recess at Arnott Charlton Public School in Brampton, Ont., girls tinker with coding small, colourful LED lights-and-circuits kits or compose music on laptop computers. A laughing trio of fourth graders fine-tunes a small wheeled vehicle with an extendable arm as they "rescue" a duck.
They're engaged and having fun — exactly the point for teacher-librarian Kristofor Schuermann, who founded Megabrights, a coding and technology club for girls at schools within the Peel District School Board west of Toronto.
The need for such a club first hit Schuermann when his own daughter was young: curious but also anxious about diving into tech.
Offerings "weren't necessarily targeted toward her or really connected to her passions, and even when we did manage to find a program, she was often the only girl," he recalled.
At age six, kids are typically building up their reading skills and starting to discover interests, but some also already hold the stereotypical belief that boys are better than girls at computer science and engineering, according to a recent study from the American Institutes for Research. Initiatives both inside and outside schools work to counter gender biases, but educators say earlier efforts are needed to make STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) a space where girls can thrive.
Stereotypes impact interest
David Miller and colleagues at the American Institutes for Research conducted a meta-analysis into five decades of studies examining children's beliefs and stereotypes about STEM, including responses from 145,000 kids in 33 countries, that was published in the academic journal Psychological Bulletin.
They found that gender stereotypes are not the same for all STEM subjects: More kids believe boys are better than girls in computers and engineering by age six, but the results were more evenly divided for math.
That was a surprisingly nuanced finding, Miller said from Chicago.
He's concerned, however, that male bias could increase as kids age, causing girls to prematurely turn away from subjects they might enjoy or excel at.
That's what Larissa Vingilis-Jaremko has encountered with the Canadian Association for Girls in Science, a long-running STEM club she founded in 1992.
Stereotypes "are actually a stronger predictor of interest in STEM fields than a child's actual abilities in STEM," she said. "Stereotypes can impact interests and future career directions."
In some countries, ongoing financial investments and policy change within STEM fields and education over the years have improved the gender balance. In Canada, there hasn't been a lack of support and investment, yet it's inconsistent, she noted.
Vingilis-Jaremko feels it hurts both women and the country when fewer girls pursue STEM, especially when these fields — with highly paid jobs in fast-growing sectors — are short of labour.
As women represent less than 30 per cent of the Canadians working in STEM, "it's really important to make sure that these systemic barriers ... are broken."
Sparking excitement at a younger age
Boosting diversity in STEM introduces different perspectives, which contributes to creativity and problem-solving, says University of Waterloo computer science professor Sandy Graham.
With "creative pursuits, the more diverse your base for those creations, the better the final product will be."
Graham entered computer science in the late 1980s — beginning her studies just after the high period when women were nearly 40 per cent of computing grads in the U.S. and Canada — but she's since seen much lower enrolment.
Women represent nearly 40 per cent of enrolment in postsecondary STEM programs, according to Statistics Canada, but in math and computer science the proportion is lower, hovering around 28 per cent. (Engineering enrolment is even lower.)
Graham sees few teen girls during her visits to high school grades 11 and 12 compsci classes these days, which underlined a need to spark interest and excitement about the field in younger students.
So, she and colleagues at Waterloo now stage a program for Grade 8 students called CS Escape. The virtual workshop introduces coding fundamentals to participants, who then craft a digital escape room.
"They're working in a graphical, three-dimensional environment, creating programs that are very interactive and visually exciting and shareable," Graham said.
Toronto teen Keira Pincus was thrilled with how accessible, interactive, challenging and supportive she found the workshop, since the video-game fan and budding creator felt discouraged with past attempts to learn coding on her own.
"They addressed so many things in these one-hour sessions. They showed us the format. They showed us the why," she explained. When learning how to code, "I think learning the why is the best way."
Encouragement to partner up — isolation is another computer science stereotype Graham seeks to dispel — was also appreciated by both Pincus and Annabel Spencer, her friend and classmate.
"I really enjoyed troubleshooting with her," said Spencer, whose own interest was piqued by their dad's work in the field.
Problem-solving together "made it a lot easier because you had two views of the coding," they said, adding that it paid off since the pair won a silver medal in the final challenge.
Safe spaces, diverse role models needed
Establishing space for girls to discover connections between their interests and STEM — away from prevalent, "aggressive" tech and computing stereotypes, notes Peel teacher-librarian Schuermann — is one important way to make change. At Megabrights, girls have created projects directly inspired by their interests or aim to help their communities.
"They're developing Android apps or they're developing empathy toys," he noted. "Fashion design ... relevant to future conditions, [like] 'Does the garment cool down when it's hot? Does it light up at night for my safety?'"
American researcher Miller thinks universal access to compsci and engineering learning early on in elementary schools is another key step. "Too often it is just left up to outside organizations or museums that play a very critical role, but [not everyone can] take advantage of those opportunities," he noted.
Making STEM learning fun, hands-on and ensuring kids have diverse role models also counteracts stereotypes, says CAGIS founder Vingilis-Jaremko, who suggests adults ask themselves: "If my child or my students are getting exposed to STEM, who are they seeing within those fields?"
After doing CS Escape with the Waterloo team, Toronto teen Spencer is eager to learn more about computer science and imagines combining that with a career in medicine one day.
Without more success in engaging girls in STEM, they said, "[we'll miss out on] women who can make huge breakthroughs ... that just don't get the chance to because they never learned it."
With files from Deana Sumanac-Johnson and Nazima Walji
