Gendered Journeys: The Trajectories of STEM Students and Graduates Through Higher Education and Into Employment: Qualitative Data Interview Summaries, 2021-2023

This project investigated how far, and in what ways, gender may have an influence in the progress of students through higher education, graduation and progression into skilled employment in the STEM sector in India and Rwanda. This is important because science has a critical role in supporting global sustainable development that will not be realised unless it makes better use of the potential skills of women and girls. At present, girls and women are markedly under-represented in STEM areas both as students and in the workforce in most countries across the globe. At Higher Education level, only 35% of students enrolled in STEM studies internationally are women (UNESCO, 2017a). Addressing this problem is vital in ensuring equitable access to quality education and meaningful work, and is crucial for countries seeking to prioritise equitable economic development, speaking directly to UN SDGs 4, 5, and 6. Both our countries of focus, India and Rwanda, currently have a severe under-representation of women STEM students in HE, and in relation to the skilled workforce (WEF, 2018), and there is a limited amount of research in these countries, as in many global south contexts, on gender and STEM issues post-secondary school (for an overview see e.g. UNESCO, 2017a). What is particularly under-researched is the gendered journeys of students once they have accessed university, and beyond into skilled employment (UNESCO, 2017a, EGHE, 2018). Moreover, most lower and middle-income countries do not collect detailed disaggregated data to document access, retention, transfer/dropout, and successful graduation at HE level, especially by institution and discipline (see Chanana, 2007). Neither is there information on the onward journeys of students after they leave education Our research thus sought to address these gaps. The data archived in this collection consists of summaries of the qualitative interviews conducted for the project (quantitative data has been archived in a separate collection). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with undergraduate and postgraduate students studying in STEM fields, and graduate employees in STEM fields, in India and Rwanda. Ethical approval was applied for and granted from the University of Glasgow (where the PI was based). In Rwanda 83 participants were interviewed (56 self-defined as female and 27 as male). In India 97 participants were interviewed (85 self-defined as female, 2 as non-binary, and 10 as male). Analysis of these data strongly indicated the pervasive dominance of normative gendered discourses (or ‘stereotypes’) concerning the appropriate or expected pathways for study and employment in STEM, in both India and Rwanda. In both countries, certain STEM disciplines were considered more appropriate for girls/women to study, such as ‘social’/’caring’ subjects such as biology, medicine, health), whilst less appropriate disciplines included those seen as physically challenging or unsafe (e.g. engineering, especially mechanical engineering). Discourses of safety, security and risk were often articulated to regulate/proscribe women’s movement/access to facilities and locations. Some of these discourses relate to all women students, for example curfew times for being on/off campus or in/out of hostels. Some relate specifically to STEM, for example women not being picked for jobs where ‘their safety can’t be guaranteed’. Concerns over the precarity of the job market in STEM was also a common theme. There was evidence of discouragement of, and sometimes overt discrimination against, employment pathways for women graduates in some STEM fields. There was also evidence of gendered spatial forms of marginalisation on campus, from the lack of women’s restrooms, to the perceived dominance of male students in recreation areas. Qualitative findings also indicated a strong intersectional aspect to gendered experiences, referencing multiple facets of identity. Both Indian and Rwandan data show the exacerbation of difficulties if a student is also constrained financially, or if an employee does not earn enough for a decent standard of living. In India, as well as strong indications of gendered harassment of women, strong findings emerged of discrimination in relation to sexuality, language, being from out-of-state or from a rural area, and caste background. These dynamics intersected with gender to generate more specific forms of harassment or discrimination, exacerbating feelings of marginalisation for women and others from less privileged identity positionings.