Increasing women representation in Economics: A field experiment in academia

To design an effective intervention, it was crucial to understand the reasons behind women's reluctance to become teaching assistants or to continue in this role after trying it for a semester. To achieve this, we first conducted a series of focus groups targeting different populations: undergraduate and master's students and current and former teaching assistants. Results from these groups revealed that women's lack of self-confidence in their abilities is one of the main reasons for their low participation as senior teaching assistants. Based on these results, we designed a brief intervention focused on improving confidence and assertive communication skills. The first pilot of this intervention will be carried out in April-May 2025.
Intervention:
A. Treatment group: This group will participate in a two-session workshop focused on self-confidence and assertive communication. The sessions will provide tools and techniques to improve assertive communication and increase participants' confidence in their abilities to summarize, master filler words, and understand the importance of voice when conveying a message. Each session has a duration of one hour and 20 minutes.
Assertive Communication and Self-Confidence Workshop:
• Improve students' ability to communicate messages concisely and connect emotionally with the audience.
• Strengthen students' confidence in expressing their ideas and skills.
• Learn to use tools that improve the organization of ideas and their assertive presentation.
Session Content:
• Basic rules of communication and structure.
• Tools to improve synthesis and presentation skills.
• Feedback on filler words and voice.
Activities:
• Initial assessment of communication skills.
• Activities to improve synthesis and argumentation skills.
• Filler word correction activity.
B. Control Group: This group will participate in a two-session "placebo" workshop focused on the importance of economic analysis in society. The workshop will be informative and unrelated to the primary objective of strengthening the students' confidence and communication skills. It is designed to match the treatment group in terms of time commitment and academic value, without targeting communication or confidence-building skills.

2025-04-29

2025-12-31

Aplication for TA positions and other positions that requiere public speaking.

The primary outcomes we aim to measure are the increase in the number of women applying for Senior TA positions and the subsequent rise in the number of women serving as Senior TAs within the Department of Economics. Information regarding TAships will be disseminated to students at the end of each academic semester, immediately following the announcement of grades and academic performance. We will collect data on TAship applications and take-up rates at the beginning of every academic term.

A post-intervention evaluation phase will be implemented approximately one month after the workshops. Participants from both the treatment and control groups will be invited to respond to a series of calls for applications or vacancies to participate in additional experimental projects led by Uniandes ME-Lab. These calls will offer real academic or professional opportunities—such as roles as Experiment Assistants or Student Support staff in faculty courses. All applications will be submitted virtually, while tasks related to these roles will be carried out primarily in person.

We will construct standardized indices to measure secondary outcomes related to psychological and skill-based changes. Specifically, we will construct indices for self-efficacy and self-esteem, academic and career attitudes, and communication skills. These indices will be developed using survey data collected before and after the intervention.

Participants will be selected and invited randomly to the workshops of the control and treatment groups. Selected participants are drawn from a sample of students who expressed their interest in participating in lab experiments. Approximately 150 participants will be recruited for the pilot phase.

Not available

Randomization done in office by a computer.

Individual.

No

Pilot: 150 individuals.
Total: (for future stages, we will consider expanding the sample to additional universities and randomizing at the university level to further minimize spillover effects and enhance external validity).

Pilot: 150 individuals. Total: (for future stages, we will consider expanding the sample to additional universities and randomizing at the university level to further minimize spillover effects and enhance external validity).

Pilot: 75 individuals control, 75 individuals treatment.
Total: (for future stages, we will consider expanding the sample to additional universities and randomizing at the university level to further minimize spillover effects and enhance external validity).