García-Holgado, A., Verdugo-Castro, S., Sánchez-Gómez, M. C., & García-Peñalvo, F. J. (2019). Trends in studies developed in Europe focused on the gender gap in STEM. In Proceedings of the XX International Conference on Human Computer Interaction. New York, NY, USA: ACM.

1. Trends in studies developed in
Europe focused on the gender
gap in STEM
Alicia García-Holgado
GRIAL Research Group, Computer Science Department
Research Institute for Educational Sciences
University of Salamanca, Spain
aliciagh@usal.es
Sonia Verdugo-Castro, Mª Cruz Sánchez-Gómez, Francisco J. García-Peñalvo
GRIAL Research Group, University of Salamanca

2. Index
1. Context
2. Methodology
3. Research questions
4. Selection criteria
5. Sources
6. Data extraction
7. Results
8. Conclusions
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

3. Context (I)
Diversity lack and gender inequality is
a global problem in different sectors
but is especially latent in the context
of the STEM areas
We are worried about attracting
representative people from all
sectors of society, different cultures,
disabilities, ethnic groups, gender or
sexual orientation
Woman are one of the groups with
less representation in STEM, although
they represent 50% of society
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

4. Context (II)
• The low female participation in STEM has
been identified as a priority in the European
Union
• The gender gap is faced from early stages to
professional contexts
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
• This work aims to analysis the research projects in Europe focused
on this topic in order to have an overview of the progress working
on the gender gap in the STEM sector

5. Methodology (I)
• there is no established methodology that allows carrying out a
systematic analysis of the studies and progress made through
research projects in a specific area
• The high number of projects that are developed annually makes it
impossible to analyse all of them
• The systematic literature review proposed by Kitchenham and
Charters was adapted to the systematic research projects review
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

6. Methodology (II)
SLR
• Publications
• Databases prepared to support
searches and metadata
• Review process focused on
reading
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
SRPR
• Research projects
• Databases are not always
available and are
heterogeneous with no support
to search or
metadatasometimes
• Review process focused on
searching resources,
documents, publications

7. Research questions
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
MQ1: What are the trends in Europe on the study about the
gender gap in STEM?
MQ2: What types of institutions are involved in the project?
MQ3: In which countries the project was implemented?
MQ4: Which calls fund this kind of research projects?
MQ5: Which years cover the projects?
MQ6: How much money was invested in these projects?
MQ7: In which context is carried out the study?
MQ8: Which kind of studies – diagnosis or intervention - are
developed?
MQ9: Which kind of outcomes are provided by the projects?

8. Selection criteria
The website of the project is available?
The outputs of the project are available?
Is there more information in English or Spanish available
about the project than the project summary?
Are there scientific publications associated with the
project?
Does the main focus of the project in gender gap?
Was the study carried out in different countries?
Does the project carry out any evaluation process
focused on the gender gap?
Does the project provide a toolkit, framework, materials
focused on STEM?
Does the activity of the project continue (or is planned to
continue) after the funding period?
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

9. Sources
• There is no a unique database that collect
all the European projects
• No databases related to regional projects
in Europe
• CORDIS https://cordis.europa.eu
• Erasmus+ Project Results Platform
• CORDIS cover from 1990 to the
present, while Erasmus+ database
covers 2007
• KEEP for cross-border projects
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
Photo by Bradley Hook from Pexels
https://goo.gl/VbUxCx

10. Data Extraction
• The search terms: “gender
gap”, “gender”, “diversity”,
“woman”, “women”,
“STEM” and “Science,
Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics”
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

11. Results (I)
MQ2: What types of institutions are involved in the project?
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
Country
Institutions (N=236)
Italy 32
Spain 21
United Kingdom 19
Germany 16
Belgium 14
Netherlands 11
Turkey 10
Austria 9
Poland 9
Portugal 8
Finland 7
Sweden, France 6
Ireland, Denmark, Slovenia 5
Estonia, Cyprus, Greece, Romania 4
Czechia, Norway, Hungary, Switzerland 3
Slovakia, Chile, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Mexico
2
Iceland, Croatia, Ukraine, German, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Israel 1

12. Results (II)
MQ3: In which countries
the project was
implemented?
Projects coordinators
of the selected projects
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

13. Results (III)
MQ4: Which calls fund this kind of research projects?
18 Erasmus+
10 H2020
3 FP7
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

14. Results (IV)
MQ5: Which years cover the projects?
MQ6: How much money was invested in these projects?
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
Programme Investment
Projects
(N=31)
2014 6.101.001,04€ 7
2015 7.158.948,25€ 4
2016 12.721.942,25€ 10
2017 3.597.756€ 7
2018 1.092.634€ 2
2019 153.640€ 1

15. Results (V)
MQ7: In which context is carried out the study?
• The context has a strong relationship with the programme in which
the project is funded
• Erasmus+ are focused on educational context, from childhood
education to VET and higher education
• H2020 and FP7 develop their work in research institutions or
Research Performing Organisations (RPO) and Research Funding
Organisations (RFO)
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

16. Results (VI)
• Most of the projects carried out
interventions to increase the number of
women in STEM and achieve gender
equality or gender balance in STEM
contexts
• Only one project is focused on diagnosis
to asses Gender Equality Plans
• A set of projects (7) combines a first
diagnosis phase followed by a
intervention
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
MQ8: Which kind of studies – diagnosis or intervention - are developed?

17. Results (VI)
MQ9: Which kind of outcomes are
provided by the projects?
• Most of the projects provide toolkits to
support gender equality or to promote
STEM with a focus on diversity
• There are several projects with a
strong focus on identifying good
practices and educational materials to
be used in educational contexts
• H2020 selected projects are focused
on Gender Equality Plans
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019
Type of outcome
Projects that
produce it
toolkit 10
good practices 8
educational materials 6
Gender Equality Plans 5
framework 4
online course 4
software 4
guidelines 2
graduate degree curriculum 1
gender equaility plans 1
learning activities 1
STEM curriculum 1
instrument inventory 1
case studies 1
books 1
training programme 1
online platform 1
model 1
online communty 1

18. Conclusions (I)
• Gender gap in STEM is one of the priorities of institutions and
organizations in Europe
• There is a large number of initiatives developed during the last years and,
but there is a lot of work to do yet
• This study provides an overview of the trends in this topic
• The results allow to identify the lacks and opportunities to continue the
research to reduce the gender gap in STEM sector
• The results identified in the selected projects can be used in other
projects. There are toolkits, good practices, frameworks, guidelines and
educational materials that can be used in different contexts such as
schools, universities or labour market
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

19. Conclusions (II)
• The mapping study provides relevant information about the
countries working actively on this topic
• The analysis of the coordinators’ countries shows than Spain,
United Kingdom, Italy and Germany have a strong commitment to
reduce the gender gap in STEM
• Finally, highlight that several projects have continue their work in
some way after the funding period
GRIAL - University of Salamanca - Interacción 2019

20. Trends in studies developed in
Europe focused on the gender
gap in STEM
Alicia García-Holgado
GRIAL Research Group, Computer Science Department
Research Institute for Educational Sciences
University of Salamanca, Spain
aliciagh@usal.es
Sonia Verdugo-Castro, Mª Cruz Sánchez-Gómez, Francisco J. García-Peñalvo
GRIAL Research Group, University of Salamanca