Girls’ Participation in STEM: Overcoming the Challenges and Barriers
By Oluwatosin Mayor-Olabiyitan and Oluwafemi Awopegba
Executive Summary
The underrepresentation of girls in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has become an increasing global concern. Sociocultural beliefs and practices, lack of access to digital infrastructure, disproportionate representation of females in STEM, and gender digital divide are the major barriers to girl’s participation in STEM. Despite the fact that young girls are having increased reach to STEM education and digital skills, this study revealed that the majority of the girls still suffer from limited access to and use of digital devices, while a number of them still have misconceptions about STEM that inhibits their STEM education. It is therefore recommended that:
- Young girls are continuously engaged in STEM education and awareness to make balanced and informed choices about their future, de-mystify ‘STEM beliefs’ and end the gender digital divide.
- STEM policy and programs are designed to address the needs of girls on STEM education. This can be implemented through effective collaborations and advocacy with various stakeholders.
Background:
Women remain largely underrepresented in most science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. The small number of women in STEM fields have variously been attributed to discrimination and differences in ability or choice. Additionally, women face differential entry barriers into the technical and scientific fields in STEM that discourage their participation (Rosenbloom, 2008).
Several studies have identified several key social and structural factors that discourage girls’ participation in STEM. These factors include: Sociocultural beliefs and practices, lack of access to digital infrastructure, disproportionate representation of females in STEM, gender digital divide amongst others.
Although there has been an aggregate increase in girls’ involvement in STEM, gender digital divide has yet remained critical across the globe (ITU 2019). The gender digital divide is composed of a skill gap and a gap of physical access to Information Technology (IT) between the females and males. Without access to digital technology device, it is difficult for women to develop technical skills needed in STEM courses and career. Findings by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) revealed that more than 50 percent of the world’s women are offline. This is more pronounced in developing countries, where internet penetration rate for adult women is 41 percent, compared to 53 percent for men. Globally, women are 8 percent less likely to own a mobile phone than men (ITU 2019).
Another gender issue that affects girls’ participation in STEM and use of ICTs resources is cultural beliefs and norms. Existent norms and values along with several different functions in the society can transfer various stereotypes for women. Internet can be seen as a critical place for women in having access to useful information but it is usually unavailable due to social and cultural norms (Dhegihan & Tridiminished, 2010). Cultural bias against girls studying or using information technologies and the erroneous notion that the ICT sector is a male enterprise still holds sway in Nigeria.
Girls may or may not be exposed to computer classes in schools in Nigeria, as participation in ICT/Computer Science courses and Internet laboratories are often optional. In many cases, this leads girls to self-select out STEM courses. Oftentimes, boys also are given more encouragement to participate. This cultural bias prevents girls from participating in STEM fields and using the ICT resources.
Girls’ exclusion from participation in STEM education means that they have limited access to jobs in STEM fields and this can affect their economic growth and socio-economic development (Frieze et al., 2015). The barriers and challenges associated with participation in STEM and access to ICT resources can limit women’s access to the full range of opportunities offered by ICT. To overcome these challenges STEM policy and programs can be designed to address the needs of girls on STEM education. The STEM policies and programs can enable girls to make balanced and informed choices about their future, de-mystify ‘STEM beliefs and also end the gender digital divide.
Evidence on challenges and barriers
In commemoration of the International Day of Girl Child 2022 which was themed “our time is now, our rights our future” Technology for Social change and Development Initiative (Tech4Dev) aimed at increasing the Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) knowledge amongst young girls within specific African countries by hosting an advocacy program that aimed to bridge the gap between girls and boys in STEM Education. The advocacy program could be said to have made far-reaching impact by enlightening a total number of 20,000 girls — across 13 countries in Africa — on career opportunities in STEM education. However, there can be severe or chronic challenges and barriers that these girls would encounter in their attempt to participate in STEM. This memo uncovers these challenges from the perspective of the girls’ prior access to STEM education and digital skilling opportunities.
A survey was administered at the various venues (schools, communities and religious centres) in which the advocacy drive took place, in order to learn about the girls’ perception and situation with regard to STEM education. From the 20,000 girls reached, about 1,841 girls were surveyed. Approximately one-third (1,196) of the girls were already studying a STEM-related course in school, while over half (1,017) of them had already taken a digital skill training in the past.
Although these figures look promising with respect to STEM and digital skills reach among young girls, the majority of the girls still suffered from limited access to and use of digital devices. The results from the survey indicated that the majority of the girls did not have access to a computer at home (53%), and neither could they use a computer on their own (61%). Moreover, only 13% of the girls had access to a computer on a daily basis. These results are also statistically significant between girls with to STEM education and not, and between girls with who had prior digital skills training and not. In other words, girls who did not have STEM education or who had not taken a digital skill training in the past stood at a disadvantage in accessing and using digital technologies.
Furthermore, we uncovered possible misconceptions about STEM that can limit the future career choices and participation of girls in a STEM-rich society. Although the vast majority of the girls (87%) believed that tech was the right career for them, only 44% of them felt acquiring technology skills was not expensive. According to the results, this problem served as the most critical barrier for the respondents. To a lesser degree, the difficulty of learning tech was the second most important barrier. On an optimistic note, most of the girls (95%) were convinced that digital skills were not for girls alone. This can be attributed to the impact of the advocacy program.
Conclusion
There is a diverse range of barriers that inhibit the engagement and retainment of girls in STEM-related pathways. Sociocultural beliefs and practices, lack of access to digital infrastructure, disproportionate representation of females in STEM, and gender digital divide are a few of the barriers to girls’ participation in STEM. Although findings from this study revealed that young girls are having increased reach to STEM education and digital skills, the majority of the girls still suffered from limited access to and use of digital devices. Additionally, a number of the girls still had misconceptions about STEM that inhibits their STEM education.
STEM education requires strategic and coordinated action. Engaging and sustaining young girls in a lifelong journey in STEM requires an intersectoral collaboration. It requires students being active participants in learning. Educators, industry, mentors and volunteers are the facilitators and enablers on this journey. Effective collaborations and advocacy will ensure the young girls thrive in a STEM ecosystem.
References
Dehghan, H., & Rahiminezhad, V. (2010). ICT and gender digital divide in Iran. In 4th international technology, education and development conference (INTED 2010).–2010.-Р (pp. 2820–2824).
Frieze, C., & Quesenberry, J. (2015). Kicking butt in computer science: Women in computing at Carnegie Mellon University. Dog Ear Publishing: Indianapolis, United States.
ITU, (2019). “Facts and figures”. Accessed 23 December 2022 at <https://www.itu.int/hub/publication/d-ind-ict_mdd-2019/>
Rosenbloom, J. L., Ash, R. A., Dupont, B., & Coder, L. (2008). Why are there so few women in information technology? Assessing the role of personality in career choices. Journal of Economic Psychology, 29(4), 543–554.
