Assessing and Improving Girls' and Women's Math and STEM Identity (2025-2026)

Women remain underrepresented in STEM fields in part because of persistent barriers, including stereotypes, discrimination, hostile environments and lack of female role models. This project addressed these challenges by focusing on increasing awareness of systemic obstacles women in STEM face and developing both practical strategies for responding to gender bias and fostering positive STEM identities. 

Building on the work of the 2024-2025 project team, team members hosted 30 middle school students for a two-week program in Summer 2025 – Girls Exploring Math – where participants engaged in hands-on mathematical exploration and visited labs and workplaces of women in STEM on campus. 

The team also tackled the gender visibility gap on Wikipedia by creating new articles and updating existing ones about women in STEM. Team members participated in an updated “preparation for bias” curriculum that included discussions of salary negotiation, work-life balance, stereotypes, mentoring and workplace dynamics. In Summer 2025, the project team hosted 30 middle school students for a two-week program, where participants engaged in hands-on mathematical exploration and visited labs and workplaces of women in STEM on campus.  

Timing 

Summer 2025 – Spring 2026 

Team Outputs

Girls Exploring Math: A Duke Bass Research Project

Wikipedia page on Helen Bozivich

Wikipedia page on Daphne Gilbert

Wikipedia page on Vivienne Esta Morley

Wikipedia page on Winifred Davenport

Wikipedia page on María Cristina García-Sancho

Wikipedia page for Katharine Berry Richardson

Wikipedia page for Barbara Stimpson

Wikipedia page for Ruth Pater (draft)

Duke Bass Connections GEM Instagram

Americans’ Belief about the Causes of the Gender Gap in STEM: Demographic Correlates, Policy Consequences (Manuscript in progress)

Americans’ Beliefs about the Causes of the Gender Gap in STEM: Demographic Correlates, Policy Consequences (American Sociological Association 2025 Annual Meeting; Chicago; IL; July 2025)

Gender Equity in STEM: Research, Outreach, and Preparation for Bias (Research Symposium for Pratt Mechanical Engineering; Durham, NC; May 2026)

Presentation at Duke Women’s Weekend Student Showcase (Durham, NC; May 2026)

Assessing and Improving Girls’ and Women’s Math and STEM Identity (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 15, 2026)

Grant application submitted (Mary Duke Biddle Foundation)

Grant application submitted (TRANE)

Grant application in progress (NSF HER CORE)

This Team in the News

From Labs to Libraries: Tales of Duke Engineering Summer Outreach

See related teams, Aspiring STEM Professionals Promoting Gender Equity in STEM (2024-2025) and Assessing and Improving Girls’ and Women’s Math and STEM (2026-2027).

_{Image: Participating middle schoolers (GEMs) creating their own Eulerian graphs, courtesy of Sophia Santillan}