Abstract

Science, as an educational and career domain, is socially constructed as a masculinized in-group identity space, causing females to be both self-perceived and socially perceived as outsiders and undermining their participation and sense of belonging. We examine mixed-gender experiential learning interventions as a novel, scalable educational service that not only improves science learning outcomes but also reduces gendered perceptions
of who science is for. Leveraging a large-scale field implementation of a Mobile Science Labs (MSL) program across multiple rural public schools in India, we estimate the causal effects of this experiential science program using a quasi-experimental approach.
We estimate a treatment effect that corresponds to a 14 point improvement in science knowledge and a 0.6 point decline in bias favoring boys in science. Moderation analyses reveal that the reduction in gendered perceptions of science is particularly pronounced among boys, who initially endorse stronger gender stereotypes, and among students attending larger schools, where gender-based sorting tends to be more prominent. We employ online experiments to study the plausible mechanisms underlying these effects.
Taken together, our results provide rigorous evidence that mixed-gender experiential learning operates not only as a pedagogical intervention but also as a social process capable of reshaping gendered perceptions surrounding science participation.

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