From promise to practice: gendered labor divisions in STEAM activities

This study examines how gendered labor divisions persist or are challenged in STEAM education through the design and use of educational toolkits. We analyze data from a three-day kinetic sculpture workshop in which 24 middle school students used the Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino to create motorized art projects. Drawing from video observations, student interviews, and a gender-sorting task, we explore (1) the key STEAM practices involved in kinetic sculpture creation, (2) how gendered patterns shape participation in mixed-gender and female-majority groups, and (3) how students navigate the gendered sociohistories embedded in electronics kits. While participation time was nearly balanced across genders, deeper analysis revealed persistent divisions: girls primarily engaged in artistic tasks, while boys dominated technical ones. A focal case study of two students – one boy and one girl – whose perceptions and behaviors reflected broader group patterns, illustrates how gendered expectations around circuitry and art shaped collaboration, even when both students had prior experience in coding and art. Our findings suggest that toolkits perceived as ‘neutral’ may still carry gendered assumptions, and that disrupting traditional divisions requires more than interdisciplinary design – it requires deliberate integration of arts and technology from the outset to foster inclusive STEAM learning environments.