Women in STEM on TikTok: Advancing Visibility and Voice Through STEM Identity Expression

Abstract

This study investigated portrayals of women in STEM on TikTok focusing on their self-presentation of identity and use of platform features to promote audience engagement. This quantitative content analysis examined TikTok posts ( N = 400) from a 3-month sample of 100 TikTok accounts by individuals identified as women in STEM. Results for STEM-focused posts showed that these content creators provided positive portrayals of their work as women in STEM and frequent displays of their STEM identity, particularly displays of STEM competence and self-recognition. However, findings also indicated that this TikTok community displayed other social group identities less frequently and used relatively few TikTok platform features that would likely enhance audience engagement. Results suggest that positive portrayals of women in STEM on TikTok are helpful for challenging gender-STEM stereotypes, but the dearth of displays of social group identities highlights a need for more diverse women in STEM role models on TikTok. In addition, the infrequent use of popular platform features appears to be a missed opportunity for broader audience engagement. Implications for social media science influencers, science communicators, and informal STEM outreach professionals are discussed.