Case Study Descriptions from Four Predominately Muslim Countries with High Participation of Women in

Dr. Jennifer DeBoer & Zahra Atiq School of Engineering Education [email protected] [email protected]

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Please open this URL: http://etc.ch/opf2

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Quiz Question 1: Answer

• Women earn the majority (50% or more) of science, , engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees in which of the following? A.Germany B. Japan C. Jordan D. Quiz Question 1: Answer

• Women earn the majority (50% or more) of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees in which of the following? A.Germany B. Japan C. Jordan D.United States Quiz Question 2: Answer

• Women have the highest levels of economic participation and political empowerment in which of the following countries? A.Jordan B. Malaysia C. Saudi Arabia D.Tunisia E.United States Quiz Question 2: Answer

• Women have the highest levels of economic participation and political empowerment in which of the following countries? A.Jordan B. Malaysia C. Saudi Arabia D.Tunisia E.United States Quiz Question 3: Answer

• The percentage of women graduating from US undergraduate engineering programs in 1993 was 16%. In 2012, this number was: A.16% B. 25% C. 19% D.48% E.5% Quiz Question 3: Answer

• The percentage of women graduating from US undergraduate engineering programs in 1993 was 16%. In 2012, this number was: A.16% B. 25% C. 19% D.48% E.5% • The US has… • allotted tremendous economic resources to increase women’s STEM representation • relatively high levels of gender equality in areas such as education, politics, labor force participation

• Predominantly Muslim Countries (PMCs) like Jordan, Malaysia, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia have… • NO systematic funding source for attracting women to STEM • relatively low levels of general gender equality

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer The Paradox

• Minimal national impact with respect to increasing women’s participation in engineering in the US

• Meanwhile, women’s participation in engineering has expanded significantly in many PMCs with minimal or no national efforts expended in this direction

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer So…why do we have Gender Disparity in Engineering in the United States?

There are many factors …

What can we learn from four PMCs (Tunisia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia) to better understand women’s participation?

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Why These Countries? • Different constraints and opportunity structures from the USA • Each country represents a distinct geographical sector of the Muslim world: the Middle East (Jordan), Southeast Asia (Malaysia), the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (Saudi Arabia), and North Africa (Tunisia). • In these countries women’s engineering representation is already notably higher than the US with one exception—Saudi Arabia (computing participation is notably higher, though). • These four countries vary substantially in the level of gender equality in their economic, educational, socio-cultural, legal, and political spheres.

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer In the U.S. • Individualism: cultural of individualism (i.e., one that encourages self-expression, being “true” to one’s self). • Gender: gender essentialism (women have people and nurturing skills and men possess technical, scientific reasoning-based skills) • Educational structure: supports and encourages gendered self- expression • Gender-labeling of academic and occupational fields: Labeling engineering as “masculine” biases women’s and men’s self- assessment of their engineering competence. • Economy: Greater gender labeling of curricular fields than countries with weaker economies. Curricular and career choice in less economically developed countries is more influenced by economic and prestige factors.

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Why These Countries?

US Tunisia Jordan Saudi Malaysia Arabia % Muslim 0.90% 99.5% 97.2% 93.0% 63.7%

2014 GDP per capita $54,629 $11,124 $12,050 $54,606 $24,714

2013 female (ages 15-64) LFP rate 66% 27% 16% 21% 47%

Hofstede’s individualism score 91 NA 30 25 26 (100=high) Year women obtained suffrage 1920 1957 1974 2015 1955

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer The four countries

• Similarities: • Predominantly Muslim Countries • Higher participation of women in engineering • Differences: • Ecosystem and diversity of each country •

Hence, we study them as separate cases

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer The cases • Tunisia • Overall educational enrollment figures are approx equal for women and men: secondary (89% boys & 93% ) and tertiary (25% men & 21% women) levels (UIS, 2015). • Researchers in STEM fields are nearly half women (UIS, 2015). • Jordan • In 2010, women accounted for 30.9% of registered . • The proportion of women in other STEM disciplines (e.g., chemistry, biology, physics, and math) is as high as 75%. Less than 25% of Jordanian STEM researchers are women (UIS, 2015). • Saudi Arabia • Saudi Arabia experiences near parity in the youth literacy rate and higher overall female tertiary enrollment (46% female vs. 41% male), and fewer than 2% of researchers are women (UIS, 2015). • Malaysia • Nearly half of STEM researchers are women (UIS, 2015).

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Country profiles

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Tunisia

Developing Islamic Country Area: 163,610 km2 Population: 10.9 million Principal Language: Arabic & French GDPPC: $11,651 Comparable to: Wisconsin (169,639 km2) http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Tunisia

• Tunisian national policymakers have explicitly embraced equality for women • The French education system is seen as having a leveling effect on educational opportunity • Tunisia’s has an explicitly secular and strong civil institutions such as the National Tunisian Women’s Union (Ater Kranov et al., 2014)

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Jordan

Developing Islamic Country Area: 88,780 km2 Population: 6.5 million Principal Language: Arabic GDPPC: $5,641 Comparable to: Indiana (94,321 km2) http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Jordan

• Over its history, women’s participation in engineering began at a much lower proportion but has increased in recent years (Ater Kranov et al., 2014). • Choice of a discipline may be largely influenced by future possible careers, unemployment rates, and expected entry salary (Abu-lail et al., 2012)

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Saudi Arabia

Developing Islamic Country Area: 2,149,690 km2 Population: 30.7 million Principal Language: Arabic GDPPC: $53,624 Comparable to: Alaska (1,717,854 km2) http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Saudi Arabia

• Gender segregated schooling is viewed as a vehicle for education of ~80% girls interested in engineering’ (Ater Kranov et al., 2014). • Currently, there is more representation in Computer Science than in engineering. • Saudi government now offers one of the world's largest scholarship programs for women (Islam, 2014).

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Malaysia

Developing Islamic Country Area: 329,740 km2 Population: 28 million Principal Language: Bahasa Malay & English GDPPC: $15,116 Comparable to: New Mexico (314,915 km2) http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Malaysia

• Malaysia’s education system draws historically from British colonial system and has now integrated state efforts to modernize and support global competitiveness (Ater Kranov et al., 2014). • National Education Policy = equal treatment

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Questions What motivates women to How do women perceive choose and persist in and characterize engineering as a curricular engineering and its and/or career path? subfields?

What economic, How do women perceive educational, socio-cultural, themselves as engineers at legal, and political factors different stages of study or do women perceive as professional practice? affecting their choice to enter and persist in engineering?

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Local and international collaborators

USA

Malaysia Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)

Jordan University of Science and Technology Jordan (JUST)

Saudi Arabia King Abdulaziz University (CS + Eng.) (KAU)

National Engineering School of Tunis (ENIT) Tunisia

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Working with local and international collaborators • Multi-national, multi-institution research team • Conduct focus groups (3 – 4 people) and interviews (individual) with:

Three groups represent women engineers in different times in their career, or pursuing different types of careers. http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer What is a focus group?

• A form of group interview • Capitalizes on between research participants • Useful for exploring participants’ experiences Exemplar questions

• Motivation to pursue engineering • Tell me the story of HOW you decided to pursue engineering as a field of study. • Perceptions of engineering • When you hear the term “engineer,” who do you picture? • Societal perceptions of engineering • What is the public image of engineering in ? What Do We Hope to Achieve?

• OBJECTIVE #1: Identify the conditions shaping women’s choice to enter and persist in engineering as a curricular field or career in our four predominantly Muslim countries (Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, & Tunisia).

• OBJECTIVE #2: Use these findings to extend existing theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of women’s engineering representation elsewhere, particularly the US.

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer We also hope to:

• Help the US increase women’s participation in engineering • Help these countries: • Better understand women’s participation in their countries • Possibly start local or national level initiatives to facilitate women’s participation in engineering • Build bridges between countries • Increase research collaborations

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer Thank you! Questions?

http://womeninengineeringpmcs.org & www.deboer-lab.engineer