Skip to main content

LUP Student Papers

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Exploring the STEM Gender Ratio

Schalling, Linda LU (2022) EKHS21 20221
Department of Economic History
Abstract
Abstract: The gender-equality paradox is the phenomenon of finding more developed, egalitarian countries generally experience higher gender equality while, for example, having a relatively low share of female graduates from STEM fields in tertiary education. The presence of the paradox in several developed egalitarian countries indicates that the female share of STEM graduates must be influenced by other than gender inequality. This study explores women’s empowerment and economic opportunities relationship to the ratio of female STEM graduates in Europe and MENA. It also explores other contextual factors and their relationship to women choosing a STEM degree since the previous literature is more focused on the micro level and mainly having... (More)
Abstract: The gender-equality paradox is the phenomenon of finding more developed, egalitarian countries generally experience higher gender equality while, for example, having a relatively low share of female graduates from STEM fields in tertiary education. The presence of the paradox in several developed egalitarian countries indicates that the female share of STEM graduates must be influenced by other than gender inequality. This study explores women’s empowerment and economic opportunities relationship to the ratio of female STEM graduates in Europe and MENA. It also explores other contextual factors and their relationship to women choosing a STEM degree since the previous literature is more focused on the micro level and mainly having a mathematical achievement focus. This study builds a panel dataset of 39 countries in Europe and 11 countries in MENA. Through a stepwise developing pooled OLS regression, this study concludes that there is a weak positive relationship between women’s empowerment and economic opportunities, measured by the WBL index, and the female share of STEM graduates. Furthermore, a small regional difference between Europe and MENA is shown. This thesis concludes that further investigation of the field is of importance since there is no clear explanation to why some countries have higher female shares of STEM graduates. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Schalling, Linda LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A macroanalysis of Europe and MENA
course
EKHS21 20221
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
gender inequality, STEM, education, tertiary education, gender equality paradox, empowerment, women business and the law, Europe, MENA
language
English
id
9095996
date added to LUP
2022-09-15 13:15:00
date last changed
2022-09-15 13:15:14
@misc{9095996,
  abstract     = {{Abstract: The gender-equality paradox is the phenomenon of finding more developed, egalitarian countries generally experience higher gender equality while, for example, having a relatively low share of female graduates from STEM fields in tertiary education. The presence of the paradox in several developed egalitarian countries indicates that the female share of STEM graduates must be influenced by other than gender inequality. This study explores women’s empowerment and economic opportunities relationship to the ratio of female STEM graduates in Europe and MENA. It also explores other contextual factors and their relationship to women choosing a STEM degree since the previous literature is more focused on the micro level and mainly having a mathematical achievement focus. This study builds a panel dataset of 39 countries in Europe and 11 countries in MENA. Through a stepwise developing pooled OLS regression, this study concludes that there is a weak positive relationship between women’s empowerment and economic opportunities, measured by the WBL index, and the female share of STEM graduates. Furthermore, a small regional difference between Europe and MENA is shown. This thesis concludes that further investigation of the field is of importance since there is no clear explanation to why some countries have higher female shares of STEM graduates.}},
  author       = {{Schalling, Linda}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Exploring the STEM Gender Ratio}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}