GEDI: GEnder stereotypes, Disciplinary Identity and academic performance

One of the priorities of the EU strategy, for an intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth, is to overcome educational and employment gender inequalities, by developing inclusive approaches in research and innovation and bringing young minds closer to science. On a national scale, the call for actions to encourage female students towards STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines is one among the ten final recommendations of the MIUR's document entitled "Indications for Positive Actions on Gender Issues in University and Research". Nevertheless, the gender gap in STEM persists and is fuelled by a complex set of gender stereotypes that affect women's interest, self-efficacy and, in turn, their educational and professional choices. The GEDI project aims to analyze the role of gender stereotypes in conditioning the construction of Disciplinary Identity (i.e. the ability to identify oneself with the discipline and to have science career aspirations in the same area) of STEM students. Through a multidisciplinary approach, which involves research on psychological well-being methods and tools, combined with methodologies of educational research in science and physics, the project proposes a general structural model to explore the role of gender stereotypes as precursors of disciplinary identity and further psychological and metacognitive variables, that can in turn affect the disciplinary identity itself. The project will investigate the evolution of Disciplinary Identity among students during the first three years of university and how such identity affects the persistence and performance in studies. The GEDI project aims to provide ideas for positive actions and specific programs for promoting gender equality in science, as a fundamental prerequisite for individual, social and organizational development and well-being. For this reason it has been included in the Gender Equality Plan of UNINA.