1st Edition
Gender Equity in STEM in Higher Education International Perspectives on Policy, Institutional Culture, and Individual Choice
This timely volume brings together a range of international scholars to analyse cultural, political, and individual factors which contribute to the continued global issue of female underrepresentation in STEM study and careers.
Offering a comparative approach to examining gender equity in STEM fields across countries including the UK, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Africa, and China, the volume provides a thematic breakdown of institutional trends and national policies that have successfully improved gender equity in STEM at institutions of higher education. Offering case studies that demonstrate how policies interact with changing social and cultural norms, and impact women’s choices and experiences in relation to the uptake and continuation of STEM study at the undergraduate level, the volume highlights new directions for research and policy to promote gender equity in STEM at school, university, and career levels.
Contributing to the United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, this text will benefit researchers, academics, and educators with an interest in science education, higher education, and gender equity in STEM fields. The text will also support further discussion and reflection around multicultural education, educational policy and politics, and the sociology of education more broadly.
Chapter 1: Introduction: Gender Equity in STEM in Higher Education: International Perspectives on Policy, Institutional Culture, and Individual Choice
Hyun Kyoung Ro, Elizabeth J. Ramon, and Frank Fernandez
PART I: Demographic Trends and National Initiatives
Chapter 2: A Cross-National Analysis of Women Graduates with Tertiary Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, 1998-2018: Commonalities and Variations
Seungah S. Lee, Christine Min Wotipka, and Francisco O. Ramirez
Chapter 3: The Rise of Women in STEM Higher Education in China: Achievements and Challenges
Liu Lingyu, Shen Wenqin, and Li Chao
Chapter 4: The Higher Education Trajectories of Taiwanese Women in STEM: A Longitudinal Analysis
Yuan Chih Fu, Amelio Salvador Quetzal, and Yuehluen Hu
Chapter 5: STEM Bachelor’s Degree Attainment among Women of Color in the United States: Using Geographic Analysis for Gender and Racial Equity Research
Hyun Kyoung Ro, Yi Meng, and Qiong Zhu
Chapter 6: A Comprehensive Approach to Addressing Gender Equity in STEM Subjects at Four-Year Universities in England
Hyun Kyoung Ro, Frank Fernandez, and Benjamin Alcott
PART II: Women’s Choice and University Contexts
Chapter 7: Women in STEM in Chilean Higher Education: Social Movements and Institutional Transformations
Jeongeun Kim and Sergio Celis
Chapter 8: Examining Gender (In)Equality in German Engineering: Considering the Importance of Interest, Perceptions, and Choice
Jennifer Dusdal and Frank Fernandez
Chapter 9: Gender Equity in STEM Higher Education in Kazakhstan
Anna CohenMiller, Aray Saniyazova, Anara Sandygulova, and Zhanna Izekenova
Chapter 10: Black African Women in Engineering Higher Education in South Africa: Contending with History, Race and Gender
Yeukai Angela Mlambo
Chapter 11: Approaches for Attracting, Retaining, and Progressing Women in Australian Undergraduate Engineering: Curricular Innovation Focused on Humanitarian and Human-Centered Design Concepts
Andrea M. Goncher and Shara Cameron
Chapter 12: Aspiring and Becoming STEM Teachers in Hong Kong: A Gender Perspective
Hei-hang Hayes Tang, Derek Wai Sun Chun, Iris Chi Yan Leung, and Thomas Siu Ho Yau
Chapter 13: Conclusion: Unique but Transferable Approaches for Pursuing Gender Equity in STEM in Higher Education across the World
Hyun Kyoung Ro, Elizabeth J. Ramon, and Frank Fernandez
Biography
Hyun Kyoung Ro is Associate Professor of Counseling and Higher Education at the University of North Texas, USA.
Frank Fernandez is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Florida, USA.
Elizabeth J. Ramon is a PhD student in Counseling and Higher Education at the University of North Texas, USA.
"Gender, STEM, and education are mainstays of global economic and development agendas, but finally Ro, Fernandez, and Ramon have created a broadly representative collection of empirical and conceptual work that addresses issues of access at the institutional level alongside accounts of the experiences and choices that individual women make as part of their everyday experiences and inequities as they participate in STEM education and eventually in their professional lives as well. This volume bridges the macro-to-micro gap better than any I’ve seen on this topic."
– Alexander W. Wiseman, Professor of Educational Psychology & Leadership, Texas Tech University, USA
"The editors and contributors of this penetrating volume fill a hole in the comparative higher education literature. Readers will appreciate the attention to the worldwide pipeline, to intersectionality, and to policy approaches that may effect greater gender equity in STEM at a global level."
-- David M. Post, Professor of Education at Pennsylvania State University and Past-President of Comparative and International Education Society, USA
"A talented group of emerging scholars have spearheaded a timely contribution to STEM higher education on six continents. It will, undoubtedly, make significant contributions to factors affecting linkages among gender and university enrollments and degree completions. This anthology impressively discusses topics – culture, demographics, geography, and statistics – as variables, contributing to enhanced comprehension of STEM and its impact on higher education among different types of university structures."
--Beverly Lindsay, Co-Director and Principal Investigator of Ford Foundation Grant, University of California, USA
"Gender Equity in STEM provides a balance and much needed examination of gender and STEM at the global level, and, across ten countries. The balance of statistical analyses of patterns over time, and deeper qualitative examinations of specific dynamics offers readers a nuanced understanding of gender and STEM beyond assumptions about lack of preparation for girls, gender stereotyping, and chilly climates within STEM fields. It is an important book for moving our thinking beyond equality toward understanding and action for equity. The collection of case studies, both quantitative and qualitative, contextualize how gender in STEM fields plays out and what inhibits or enables equitable practices and outcomes."
--Karen Monkman, Professor Emerita of Education Policy, DePaul University, USA
"Science is the hope of the world yet most of the world is excluded from it. Gender is as a barrier everywhere and more so for those emerging women scientists that must contend with English as a second language, patchy infrastructure and opportunities and the brutal embedded heritage of racism that permeates many post-colonial settings. In this important and timely volume Hyun Kyoung Ro, Frank Fernandez and Elizabeth Ramon help us to respect what has been achieved and also remind us how far there is to go."
--Simon Marginson, Professor of Higher Education, University of Oxford, UK, and Joint Editor in Chief of Higher Education
