Interventions for gender equality in STEM education: A meta‐analysis

Background Although gender inequality in education is gaining increasing attention, female underrepresentation remains pervasive in STEM fields. Many studies have applied various interventions to narrow the gender gap in STEM education. Objectives In this study, we conducted a systematic meta‐analysis to examine the effectiveness of various interventions for gender equality in STEM education and tested the influence of moderator variables. Methods Ten databases—ERIC, IEEE, JSTOR, ProQuest‐Education, SAGE Journals, Scopus, Springer Link, Taylor & Francis, Web of Science, and Wiley Online Library—and seven high‐quality journals in related fields were selected as literature resources. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐analyses (PRISMA) process was used to identify eligible articles for the random‐effects meta‐analysis. Results and Conclusions The overall effect size (Hedges' g) was 0.434, indicating that the interventions promoting gender equality in STEM education had a near‐medium positive effect. There were significant differences by the type of intervention, but not by the type of intervention outcome. The results of the moderator analysis showed a significant difference in moderator variables, including country, educational level, form of experiment, intervention level, and different measurement methods, whereas there was no significant difference in the moderator variables, including economic development level and sample size. Implications This study examined the effectiveness of gender equality interventions and the impact on it of different types of intervention, intervention outcomes, and moderator variables. These results have implications for the design of gender equality interventions in STEM education. Lay Description What is already known about this topic Gender equality in STEM education is valuable in reducing barriers and underrepresentation of female students. Different interventions have been applied to promote gender equality, but their effectiveness varies. What this paper adds In STEM education, there were significant differences among the different types of interventions, but not among the different types of intervention outcomes. This study tested the significance of the moderating effect of the moderator variables in the gender equality intervention on the effectiveness of the intervention, including economic development level (developed or developing country), country, educational level, sample size, form