Male secondary students report significantly higher STEM career interest than female students across AI, computer science, and engineering at baseline¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q3 · i3 large
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2031: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i3 At baseline, male students reported significantly higher interest in engineering (d=-.81), computer science (d=-.68), and AI (d=-.58) careers than female students, controlling for year level and school. → Jake Renzella 2026

Evidence¶

Jake Renzella 2026¶

Jake Renzella, Christian Bergh, Natasha Banks, and Alexandra Vassar. (2026). Gender Differences in AI Literacy Workshop Outcomes and Deepfake Engagement. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.14718 doi:10.48550/arxiv.2606.14718

q3 · i3 · causal · r1

Baseline OLS regression on pre-workshop survey data from Npre = 199 Australian secondary students, controlling for year level and school, with gender dummy-coded. Males scored higher on all three career-interest items; the article reports "d=−.81" for engineering as the largest difference.

"The largest gender differences emerged in STEM career aspirations, with male students reporting significantly higher interest in engineering (MM = 2.86vs.M F = 1.94, d=−.81,p=<.001), computer science (M M = 2.31vs.M F = 1.61,d=−.68, p=<.001), and AI (M M = 2.06vs.M F = 1.55,d=−.58,p=<.001)."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Gender — predictor: outcomes differ by group: a gap reflecting circumstances and treatment, not a cause

Related Claims¶

• Girls show less confidence and interest in math and science from early adolescence, and a strong math/science self-concept predicts course choice and performance for both genders — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• Female students show broader post-workshop gains than males, including significant increases in AI and computer science career interest, while male career interest remains unchanged — related
• Female students are significantly more likely than male students to use AI for schoolwork and to seek advice from AI tools — related
• New Mexico CTE enrollment shows breadth over depth and demographic underrepresentation, with females only 19% of STEM CTE enrollment versus 49% of the total population — related
• Deepfake behaviours show gender patterns: males more likely to have shared deepfakes, females more likely to have reported them — related
• Male secondary students report higher self-efficacy than female students after learning from video modeling examples, without higher performance — related