Exposing students to professionals working in male-and female-dominated sectors: Effects of an online experiment on Italian high-school students

Studies on the effect of role models have gained momentum, especially in the STEM sector. However, they have not yielded consistent results. This study contributes to this theme by testing exposure to female and male professionals’ video interviews in an online experiment on 325 Italian high-school students. Participants were shown video interviews with professionals working in male-dominated (STEM) and female-dominated (humanities, psychology) sectors. They were randomly assigned to one of the following conditions: (1) only counterstereotypical exemplars (women working in STEM, men working in humanities), (2) both stereotypical and counterstereotypical exemplars (a man and a woman for each sector), or (3) (gender-neutral) transcripts of the interviews. Results were mixed and varied depending on students’ gender. Female participants exposed only to counterstereotypical models were more aware of the gender gap in some, but not all, humanistic and engineering-related studies. As regards male participants, those exposed to both counterstereotypical and stereotypical role models tended to perceive a reduced gender gap in psychological studies, while those assigned only to counterstereotypical role models were more likely to perceive a greater gender gap in physics-related studies. Finally, the study did not find statistically significant effects on implicit and explicit gender stereotypes.