Understanding why women are under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) within Higher Education: a regional case study

Abstract

Participation rates of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is comparatively low and their attrition rates high. An obvious solution is to attract more women to study such subjects. In 2016 the authors undertook research to find out why so few women enrolled in STEM subjects and investigate ways of increasing their recruitment and retention in this area. The informants in our study were enrolled in a tertiary preparation course as well as nursing and education programs. A critique of the literature was used to develop a survey that informed focus group and interview schedules which were used in collecting data. Our study found that many of the factors that hindered women from applying for STEM courses twenty years ago still apply today and recommends actions that can help increase recruitment of women into STEM and assist their retention and graduation in those areas of tertiary education.

Women in Latin American science: gender parity in the twenty-first century and prospects for a post-war Colombia

“…In Colombia, previous studies have provided evidence of a gender pay gap in the areas aforementioned, both for undergraduate and postgraduate graduates (Franco-Orozco and Franco-Orozco 2018). Temporal trends in the gender gap in Colombia followed similar trends found in other countries (Ramakrishnan, Sambuco, and Jagsi 2014;van der Lee and Ellemers 2015;Christie et al 2017;Valentova et al 2017; van den Besselaar and Sandstrom 2017). The decrease in women's representation in medical and health science contrasts with the fact that it was the only research area to have reached gender parity in Colombia.…”

“…However, this study includes more recent data that show an increase in women representation, contrary to the decreasing tendency shown by 2013 (Daza, Farías, and Ariza 2016). Following similar trends found for other countries, the lowest level of women's representation was found in engineering, an area heavily dominated by implicit gender stereotypes, followed by the humanities and natural sciences (Ceci, Williams, and Barnett 2009;Ceci and Williams 2011;Meyer, Cimpian, and Leslie 2015;Christie et al 2017;Valentova et al 2017;Franco-Orozco and Franco-Orozco 2018). Gender inequality in the humanities has been reported in salaries and tenure promotion in the US, showing a lack of correlation with productivity and pointing to unconscious gender bias as a possible influencing factor (Ginther and Hayes 2003).…”

“…This could indicate that despite the differential impact that war has on women's rights, internal conflict is not the only limiting factor leading to women's underrepresentation in science, and so additional factors should also be considered. R&D expenditure has been discussed as a potential driver of women's underrepresentation in science (Ceci and Williams 2011;Christie et al 2017;van den Besselaar and Sandstrom 2017). Despite an increase in the percentage of GDP invested in R&D between 2000 (0.13) and 2013 (0.27) (World Bank 2018), COLCIENCIAS has seen a steady decrease in its annual budget between 2013 (430,000 million COP) and 2018 (337,000 million COP) (COL-CIENCIAS 2017).…”

“…As a consequence, there are now numerous ongoing debates in an effort to improve the working conditions on all of the different branches of R&D (Stirling 2007). Historically, science has been traditionally patriarchal, favoring the proliferation of a false assumption that men are innately more well-suited for R&D. In an effort to disprove this idea and encourage higher women's representation in R&D, studies have focused on the prevalence of unconscious biases and unfavorable conditions for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) (Christie et al 2017;van den Besselaar and Sandstrom 2017). The second half of the twentieth century represented a major shift in this paradigm when feminism and gender parity started being discussed within academic circles (Rossi 1965;Harding 1987).…”

Science capital or STEM capital? Exploring relationships between science capital and technology, engineering, and maths aspirations and attitudes among young people aged 17/18

“…Beyond these concerns with ensuring a sufficiently STEM literate workforce and citizenship, attention has also been drawn to the need to address the lack of diversity within postcompulsory STEM education and careers globally—but particularly in the physical sciences, technology and engineering, in which women, lower socio‐economic and some minority ethnic communities remain under‐represented (Campaign for Science and Engineering, ; Christie, O'Neill, Rutter, Young, & Medland, ; Kemp, Berry, & Wong, ; Millar, ; Millar & Osborne, ; Osborne, ; Royal Academy of Engineering, ). Taking gender imbalances as an example, in the UK the Institute of Physics () found that four times as many male students study physics at A‐Level as their female counterparts, a disparity reflected across engineering and technology.…”