Going All In: Simultaneously Breaking Down Barriers for Women in the STEM Workforce

Last registered on February 02, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Going All In: Simultaneously Breaking Down Barriers for Women in the STEM Workforce
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012934
Initial registration date
February 01, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
February 02, 2024, 4:29 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
India
Region
Nationally Representative, Hyderabad, Online

Primary Investigator

Name
Saloni Gupta
Affiliation
Columbia University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-01-01
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Education, Gender
Additional Keywords
STEM, Higher Education, Higher-Order Skills
JEL code(s)
I21, I23, I25, J16, J24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This RCT aims to measure the impact of a 24-month STEM training initiative designed for first-generation women engineering students in India. Deployed nationwide by an Indian education start-up, the program employs a holistic strategy to overcome multifaceted barriers faced by women in STEM fields. By fostering a women-only environment, providing online accessibility, and emphasizing self-directed learning, the initiative seeks to address cultural, institutional, and psychological challenges hindering women's success in STEM. This study will evaluate two cohorts of the program: 2024-2026 and 2025-2027. The study, spanning 2023-2028, aims to evaluate the WE program's efficacy in enhancing participants' technical and higher-order skills, ultimately influencing their labor market outcomes once these women graduate college. The study will be conducted in India. The data collection will predominately be online.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Gupta, Saloni. 2024. "Going All In: Simultaneously Breaking Down Barriers for Women in the STEM Workforce." AEA RCT Registry. February 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12934-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention is a 24-month online learning experiential program in India implemented by an Indian Ed-tech start-up. It aims to select, train, and nurture first-year disadvantaged women in STEM for top engineering jobs. Selected participants receive a 100% scholarship covering the entire program fee, along with a US$1200 one-time stipend for students to cover their expenses. The program typically starts in March every year, and the final selected students are announced in Feb every year. Applicants and program participants are engineering students who are in the first year of their degrees. This program has been in operation for 4 years. This study will evaluate two new cohorts of the program: 2024-2026 and 2025-2027. The study, spanning 2023-2028, aims to evaluate the WE program's efficacy in enhancing participants' technical and higher-order skills, ultimately influencing their labor market outcomes once these women graduate college.
Intervention Start Date
2024-01-01
Intervention End Date
2025-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Technical skills (evaluated through a coding assessment, evaluating quality of code-writing, coding presentation, group projects)
College GPA,
Labor market outcomes (evaluted through mock interviews conducted by recruiters and labor market outcomes including earnings, etc.)
Confidence: self report and perceived (self report confidence measured through generalized self efficacy scale and perceived confidence measure through scale provided to interviewers in mock interview sessions)
Collaboration Skills (evaluated through self-report measures, reading the mind in the eyes test, and an adapted version of the lab-in-the-field experiment developed by Weidmann and Deming (2021))
Professional Network Measures (such as LinkedIn network growth)



Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Problem-solving and critical thinking (measured through Sudoku puzzles and Logical Reasoning Questions)
Grit (adapted from the Alan et al. (2019))
Big five personality traits
IQ Scores (Using Raven's Advanced Matrices Test)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The program is oversubscribed. For each cohort (2024 and 2025), we will randomize 400 participants who reach the final phase of the selection process to be part of the 24-month online learning experiential program. We will randomly select 200 participants to be part of the program and the other 200 to serve as the comparison group. We will do this for two cohorts. In total, we will randomize 800 participants across two cohorts.

Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done by researchers using statistical software
Randomization Unit
Individual Student
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
800 (pooled across two cohorts)
Sample size: planned number of observations
800 (pooled across two cohorts)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
400 participants in each arms (treatment = 400, comparison = 400)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We will set alpha at 0.05 and power at 80%. With 400 individuals in each treatment arm (pooled across 2 cohorts), we can detect a Minimal Detectable Effect (MDE) of 0.15
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Teachers College, Columbia University
IRB Approval Date
2023-12-21
IRB Approval Number
24-119
IRB Name
DAi Advisory
IRB Approval Date
2024-01-30
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan