Analysis of country-level data concerning female participation and performance in STEM-related TVET and STEM-related occupations.
Based on the analysis of the available data at global and national level, the following trends are visible.
The Cracking the Code report (UNESCO, 2017) contains data
relating to the participation of girls and women studying
STEM-related subjects in higher education (ISCED levels 5 to
8) at a global level (see Figure 1).
While these do not relate
specifically to TVET (often most closely associated with ISCED
5 – tertiary short-cycle education), they are at least indicative
of broad trends.
The data show an overall under-representation of girls and
women in STEM subjects in higher education, especially in
ICT and engineering, manufacturing and construction. The
Cracking the Code report also notes significant national and
regional variation in the proportion of female students in
higher education enrolled in natural sciences, mathematics
and statistics, ranging from 16 per cent in the Ivory Coast
to 86 per cent in Bahrain. Further, while high proportions of
female students are enrolled in engineering, manufacturing
and construction in South-East Asia, the Arab States and some
European countries, much lower proportions are found in subSaharan Africa (see also World Bank, 2019).
Looking at the different country case studies, an underrepresentation of girls and women in STEM-related TVET is
visible (see Figure 2).
The data from the case countries cannot simply be compared
to each other due to the differences in STEM and TVET
definitions. In Germany, for example, only core STEM subjects
are considered STEM areas, whereas in Lebanon health- and
commercial-related subjects are added to STEM. Figure 2
therefore does not aim to compare countries, but the countrylevel data do underline the under-representation of women
and girls in STEM-related TVET in general.
Looking in more detail at the TVET system of individual
countries, one can see the representation of girls and women
in STEM-related TVET and other types of TVET studies (non-STEM). In Chile, for example, 19 per cent of STEM-related TVET
students are women, which is the same percentage as women
studying non-STEM TVET. When looking at the Netherlands, a
different division becomes visible where girls and women are
clearly over-represented in TVET programmes considered nonSTEM and under-represented in TVET programmes considered
STEM. Of all girls and women in the Netherlands starting their
TVET education in academic year 2018/19, only 8.4 per cent
chose a STEM-related course and 91.6 per cent a non-STEMrelated course (VHTO, 2019b).
Figure 1. Share of female and male students enrolled in higher education by field of study, global average
Another interesting finding in the country case study data is
that the under-representation of girls and women in STEM
programmes is specifically evident in TVET programmes
compared to STEM subjects in other types of education. This
statement is evident when looking at the student intake for
academic year 2018/19 in STEM subjects on three education
levels in the Netherlands (see Table 2)
- Country-level data collected by UNEVOC centres support the global trend of under-representation, although there is significant variation in the nature of gender disparities with respect to subject areas. In general, the country data show that girls and women are represented more equally in STEM related TVET programmes that aim to qualify students to work in STEM-related areas that are not considered core STEM, for example in the healthcare and media sector.
- Data from Australia reveal that females in the broad field of natural and physical sciences are actually over-represented (>60 per cent in 2018) as many train as laboratory technicians and assistants, mainly in health- and medicine related diagnostics.
- In Chile, data collected by the Ministry of Education show marked gender imbalances in secondary vocational education (known in Chile as Professional Technical Media Education). Even though the gender gap is minimal when it comes to the total enrolment of girls in TVET in 2019 (49 per cent of TVET students are female), a difference becomes visible when considering the kind of STEM-related subjects girls and women participate in: 25 per cent of students in construction are female, for metalworking this is 11 per cent, for electricity 13 per cent, and for technology and telecommunications 24 per cent. The highest percentage of girls and women can be found in the area of mining, at 43 per cent.
- Institutional-level data from Ghana collected across five higher education institutions show that women are underrepresented in all areas, with the exception of applied health sciences where they make up a majority (76 per cent).
- Data from Jamaica reveal a similar picture with female overrepresentation in STEM-related TVET in health sciences, most areas of teacher education and communication studies, and in some areas of science and sports (e.g. actuarial and applied science). Under-representation is evident in the more core STEM fields such as built environment, engineering and computer science.
- In the Philippines, the highly technical areas of engineering and technology are traditionally male-dominated, with women accounting for no more than 30 per cent of graduates in any academic year during the past 10 years. Similarly, women constitute a small percentage (less than 4 per cent) of those with TVET qualifications in automotive, electrical installation, or metals and engineering.
- In Germany, less variation is visible, mainly due to the definition of STEM being synonymous with the term MINT to signify the disciplines of mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and technology. Here, health sciences are not included as a discrete category of STEM. Nonetheless, the distribution of women in STEM-related studies is not equal: while the proportion of women in natural sciences is almost 50 per cent, in informatics the proportion is only 26 per cent, and in technology only 22.5 per cent. Consideration of country-level data provides nuance when analysed against global trends. Firstly, as discussed earlier, it underlines the importance of how STEM is defined in different contexts. In some contexts, like in Germany, STEM is not seen as part of health and care areas and data therefore do not take these areas into account.
- In Jamaica, more ‘soft’ or ‘social’ study programmes with STEM elements are included in STEM education. This shows the importance of having national-level data that can capture differences between countries that can be linked to differences in their economic trajectories and labour markets as well as to patterns of inequality based on gender.
There are differences in female participation even within some
subject areas.
- Data gathered from the University of Mining and Technology in Ghana show not only that women are under-represented in engineering subjects but that there is variation across different sub-disciplines of engineering, ranging from 11 per cent female enrolment in renewable energy engineering to 35 per cent enrolment in environmental engineering.
- In Lebanon, women are under-represented by a ratio of about 20:1 compared to men in subjects that fall within the broad ‘industrial’ category. A closer inspection of the data, however, reveals a more nuanced picture. For many programmes that fall under this category, female enrolment is zero for all three years that data are available. There are, however, three STEM categories where women in fact outnumber men, namely optometry, agri-food industries, and design and manufacture of jewellery.
- ‘Industry’ is marked as an economic sector for the National Training Institute’s TVET programmes in Costa Rica. In this industry programme, 39 per cent of the participants in 2019 were female. Within this industry category, different subjects are distinguished, with female participation percentages varying, such as electrics (15 per cent), food industry (66 per cent), vehicle mechanics (8 per cent), textiles (94 per cent) and material technology (21 per cent). Looking at these participation figures, the diversity within the industry sector is remarkable.
These differences, while broadly consistent with the overall
trend of female under-representation in some disciplines, may
be significant in better understanding why girls and women
are attracted to different programmes within disciplines. The
high participation rates of girls and women in some fields
– for example in textiles in Costa Rica and mining in Chile –
come from gender-related occupational choices that can be
observed over time. Problems arise when girls and women
face barriers accessing certain fields seen as STEM.
It is important to understand the trends over time in female
participation in STEM-related TVET. Some of the country
data show there has been modest improvement over time.
However, some countries have only been gathering data for
a couple of years, thus limiting the time frame. Germany and
Australia are an exception, with Germany having gathered data
since 1993 and Australia since 2003. The following paragraphs
and figures show female participation in a few countries in
recent years.
For example, data from Lebanon have shown a slight but
very irregular improvement in participation of girls and
women in secondary and post-secondary STEM-related TVET
since 2011. Figure 3 is based on the statistics from the Centre
for Educational Research and Development and shows that
though female enrolment in STEM trades in the industrial
category is increasing, this is subject to drastic fluctuations.
This can mainly be explained by the fact that often the
initiatives to promote female participation are temporary
and in many cases linked to donor-driven incentives.
- In the Netherlands, a modest increase is visible in the number of girls and women participating in a STEM-related TVET programme. This increase is visible in both objective and relative terms. In the Netherlands for the study year 2013-2014, 12.7% of students were female, and in 2017-2018 this was 14.1%. However, in order to truly understand and assess such trends, data should be gathered for a longer period of time.
- Even though there is no national data on student enrolment in STEM-related TVET programmes for Costa Rica, the Unidad de Planificación y Evaluación (the Planning and Evaluation Unit) has collected data on the number of male and female students in the National Training Institute’s STEM programmes since 2015. An increase in relative and absolute terms is visible: the female enrolment rate increased from 13.8 per cent in 2015 to 19.2 per cent in 2019.
- Data from Australia paint a different picture. Figure 7 and Figure 8 show gender disparities in participation in three core STEM areas between 2003 and 2018.
- Data from Australia paint a different picture. The chart below shows gender disparities in participation in three core STEM areas between 2003-2018.
Taken together, data from the different country case studies
highlight the importance of context for understanding
changes in participation over time. They also indicate the
potential value of longitudinal data in evaluating the effects
of different interventions. However, the data need to be taken
with caution because they are not sufficiently detailed to allow
for a consideration of the effects of different interventions
on different stages of STEM-related TVET (they are not
disaggregated by ISCED level for example).
Country-level data in general show a gap between the
participation of girls and women in STEM-related TVET and
their participation in STEM-related occupations in the labour
market.
For example, drawing on an analysis of data from the
Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth by Lim et al. (2009), we
can observe the following trends for Australia:
- Undertaking STEM subjects in Year 12 4 is by no means a good indication of continuing education in STEM subjects, particularly for females. y Of women doing STEM subjects at school, less than 10 per cent end up in STEM TVET programmes. This percentage is relatively low compared to about 60 per cent of males that continue in such programmes.
- This is most likely due to the nature of STEM courses in TVET (licensed trades, engineering areas) which are typically maledominated. y Not doing Year 12 STEM subjects does not exclude individuals from undertaking STEM post-school: in terms of TVET-level courses in STEM, 20 per cent of males and 10 per cent of females (similar proportion to those who undertook Year 12 STEM) studied TVET STEM post-school.
- In terms of TVET courses and STEM occupations, 40 per cent of males remain in a STEM career; however, for females, only 20 per cent remain in a STEM career at age 25. The findings by Lim et al. shed light on the ‘leaky pipeline’ phenomenon, i.e. the extent to which girls and women drop out of STEM-related areas during the transition from one TVET level to another and during the transition between TVET and STEM-related careers. The findings are consistent with some of the key messages regarding the participation of girls and women in STEM subjects contained in the Cracking the Code report: gender gaps begin in science- and mathematicsrelated early childhood education and girls appear to lose interest in STEM subjects with age, particularly between early and late adolescence (UNESCO, 2017).
In addition, the Australian Chief Scientist – providing high-level
independent advice to the Prime Minister and other ministers
on matters relating to science, technology and innovation –
regularly provides data on the TVET STEM qualified workforce
by gender. The latest 2020 data show that only 8 per cent of
the TVET-level STEM qualified labour force is female (Australian
Government, 2020b).
In Costa Rica, the National Training Institute carries out regular
monitoring, resulting in reports on female graduates entering
the labour market in non-traditional areas in the period
2013–16 (Evaluación de la inserción laboral de mujeres egresadas
del INA en áreas no tradicionales para su sexo en el periodo
2013–2016). This report shows some interesting conclusions:
- After training provided by the National Training Institute in non-traditional areas, 35 per cent of the women responding to the survey were employed, and the job placement rate in an area related to their studies was 23 per cent.
- The highest labour market entry rates were in the following sectors: motor vehicles and bicycles, transportation by water and precision mechanics.
- The main reasons why women who sought employment have not managed to find a job are lack of experience, no job opportunities where they live combined with unwillingness to travel or to move to another place, continuation of studies, jobs in their area of study are considered specialities for men, and lack of money to set up a workshop.
- Of the population already working, improvements could be seen in terms of salary increases, though they still vary a lot, from 100,000 Costa-Rica-Colón to more than 300,000 CostaRica-Colón.
There were also changes in the position and work area: ten
women who previously worked outside the field in which
they studied got a position within it, increasing their salaries
to the aforementioned range.
Several other country case studies observe a similar
phenomenon. In Chile, 80 per cent of men that study a STEM
subject continue to study in a STEM-related subject or enter
a STEM career, compared to only 17 per cent of women.
However, most country case studies show that there is a gap
in availability of data regarding the transition of girls and
women from STEM-related TVET to STEM-related occupations
in the labour market. In the Netherlands, for example, some
individual companies do collect this data for their own use
and diversity policies but data are not yet systematically
collected. In Jamaica, both the HEART (Human Employment
and Resource Training) Trust NTA and the Statistical Institute of
Jamaica collect labour market data that are disaggregated by
gender. However, the data on specific industries/sectors are
not disaggregated by gender. Additionally the HEART Trust,
which specifically targets TVET programmes, collects students’
profile data based on gender but not based on industries/
sectors. These examples show that it would be promising to
focus more on generating data at the intersection of STEM related TVET and the jobs/occupations that connect to STEM areas.
These findings are significant for highlighting the importance
of context including geographical location and level of
education and training system for understanding differences
between boys and girls in learning outcomes. They also
highlight the strides that have been taken in closing the
gender gap in performance. To date though, these successes
have not been reflected in large increases in participation of
girls and women, particularly in traditionally male-dominated
STEM subjects and at higher levels of the education and
training system.
The findings relating to differences in the application of
knowledge and skills between girls and boys may have
implications for STEM-related TVET (see below). It should be
pointed out, however, that measures of learner outcomes of
girls and women in STEM-related TVET subjects are almost
entirely absent from the global and country-level data
available. This is in contrast to the availability of data relating
to performance in STEM subjects in academic education as
measured in international assessments. The availability of such
data would help to provide further context for understanding
gender disparities in STEM-related TVET.
A further limitation of many existing performance data,
including those collected through national and international
assessments, is that they are cross-sectional rather than
longitudinal in nature, making it difficult to track the relative
performance of individuals and groups of learners over time
and to then be able to calculate the value added provided by
different kinds of STEM-related TVET to the performance of
girls and women.
- It is difficult to make generalizations concerning genderparity in participation and performance at a global level due to the lack of robust comparative data and indicators. In particular, there is a lack of data relating to participation at TVET levels. There are no global indicators that can be used to measure learner outcomes specifically in STEM-related TVET.
- Country-level data are useful for measuring gender parity in relation to nationally determined priorities and indicators. Country-level data have the potential to complement global data by linking issues of gender parity to nationally relevant understanding of STEM linked to local labour market realities. The availability and quality of national-level data is extremely variable across case study countries. y Government policies that focus on STEM-related TVET often tend not to take gender into account, or only to a limited extent.
- Countries have different definitions for both STEM education and TVET education. National definitions of STEM-relatedTVET often do not exist. y In particular, there is a lack of longitudinal data that could potentially be used to track progress over time in meeting gender parity targets, calculate the value added by different levels of TVET to learner outcomes, and/or trace the trajectories of learners between levels of TVET and entry into the labour market.
- Nonetheless, it is possible to observe the following global trends relating to gender disparities in enrolments in STEM related TVET: » Overall, female participation in STEM-related TVET is significantly lower than that of males at all levels of STEM related TVET. » There is considerable variation across STEM-related subjects. In areas such as health, welfare, education and some areas of the service sector such as hospitality and tourism, women are often over-represented, while in other areas typically linked to male-dominated occupations in the labour market such as engineering, construction, metal working, electrics and computer science women are under-represented.
- There is some evidence, e.g. from Ghana, that even in maledominated disciplines such as engineering, there is some variation in the participation of women across different subdisciplines and this may be worthy of further investigation.
- There is evidence in some countries (Germany, Costa Rica, the Netherlands) of improvement in participation rates of girls and women over time.
- There is evidence of a leaky pipeline between different levels of STEM-related TVET and the labour market. It accords with evidence from the wider literature of a dropping off in interest and participation in STEM subjects by girls as they get older and is therefore worthy of further investigation. The phenomenon of the leaky pipeline, if found to be widespread, might suggest a focus for further research on the transition points between different levels of STEM related TVET and between STEM-related TVET and the labour market.
- Even though there is evidence of the existence of a leaky pipeline, overall, there is a data availability gap regarding the transition of girls and women from STEM-related TVET to STEM-related occupations in the labour market.
- There is also evidence in some country contexts of improvements in the performance of girls and women in STEM subject disciplines, although this is not even and does not appear to have been translated into noticeable changes in participation in many male-dominated areas in many instances.
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