Gender Differences in AI Literacy Workshop Outcomes and Deepfake Engagement

Synthesis: Examines gender differences in AI literacy, safety awareness, and STEM career aspirations among Australian secondary students (Years 7, 8, 10; N=199) from two co-educational government schools after a one-day AI literacy workshop. Male students reported higher STEM career interest; female students were more likely to use AI for schoolwork and seek AI advice. Males were more likely to have created deepfake content. Both genders improved post-intervention, but females showed richer gains: wider conceptual understanding, greater confidence, and increased AI/CS career interest partially narrowing the gender gap.

• Single-day AI literacy workshops partially narrow gender STEM gaps; males need targeted deepfake safety education.

Key Findings

• Pre-workshop, male students reported significantly higher STEM career interest across all three domains measured (AI, computer science, and engineering), controlling for year level and school.
• Female students were significantly more likely to use AI for schoolwork and to seek advice from AI tools.
• Gender-differentiated patterns emerged in deepfake behavior: males were significantly more likely to have created or shared deepfake content.
• Both genders improved in AI knowledge after the one-day workshop, but females showed a richer profile of gains: wider conceptual understanding, greater confidence, and meaningful increases in AI and computer science career interest that partially narrowed the gender STEM gap.
• The authors conclude that even single-day workshops can narrow gender gaps in STEM aspirations and AI confidence, and highlight the need for deepfake safety education targeted at male students.

Study Design & Method

The study surveyed Australian secondary students in Years 7, 8, and 10 (Npre = 199, Npost = 136) from two co-educational government schools who participated in a one-day AI literacy workshop. Statistical regression methods controlling for year level and school were used to examine gender differences in AI literacy, safety awareness, and STEM career aspirations before and after the intervention.

What this means for practice

• Instructors. Treat the one-day workshop as an equity lever but schedule follow-up: female students showed significant gains in AI and computer science career interest while male interest remained static, yet neither group's average response reached the "interested" level across all three career domains.
• Instructors. Aim deepfake safety education explicitly at male students and cover the ethics of sharing synthetic media: males were more likely to have shared deepfake content (23.2% vs. 10.0%), while female students were more likely to have reported deepfakes (14.1% vs 24.0%).
• Instructors. Differentiate the workshop instead of delivering it uniformly, because entry behavior already diverges: female students were significantly more likely to use AI for schoolwork and to seek advice from AI tools, and male students reported significantly higher STEM career interest.
• Researchers. Disaggregate workshop outcomes by gender in K-12 AI Literacy evaluations: results that are not disaggregated hide the gender-differentiated pattern found here.

Limitations

• The sample is two regional, co-educational government schools in New South Wales; single-sex schools and Year 9 were excluded to avoid a gender-school confound, which limits generalizability.
• Attrition between waves was large: Npre = 199 against Npost = 136, with straight-line responses removed (npre = 5, npost = 9) and students with nonbinary, declined, or other gender labels excluded at n ≤ 9.
• Surveys were administered anonymously on paper and could not be paired, so the reported gains are group-level and may be subject to self-reporting bias.
• The deepfake measure was a multi-select item that did not differentiate benign from harmful content such as sexualised imagery, so the male-sharing rate mixes both.

Citation

Jake Renzella, Christian Bergh, Natasha Banks, Alexandra Vassar (2026). Gender Differences in AI Literacy Workshop Outcomes and Deepfake Engagement. arXiv preprint.