=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3607/paper14
|storemode=property
|title=Perceptions of the gender gap in higher education and how to
improve female students' integration: A case study in two
engineering majors of UTPL
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3607/paper14.pdf
|volume=Vol-3607
|authors=Janneth Chicaiza,Soledad Segarra-Morales,Germania Rodríguez,Fanny Cevallos-Macas
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/lawcc/ChicaizaSRC23
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==Perceptions of the gender gap in higher education and how to
improve female students' integration: A case study in two
engineering majors of UTPL==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3607/paper14.pdf
Perceptions of the gender gap in higher education and how to
improve female students’ integration: A case study in two
engineering majors of UTPL
Janneth Chicaiza1, Soledad Segarra-Morales1, Germania Rodríguez1 and Fanny Cevallos1
1
Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, San Cayetano Alto SN, Loja, Ecuador
Abstract
Today, in some countries, women outnumber men in higher education enrolment, yet female
students still represent a minority in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
(STEM) majors. Among the reasons why we must address the problem of the
underrepresentation of women in STEM is because it affects the scientific development of any
country. According to UNESCO, greater participation by women strengthens the scientific and
engineering communities and can improve the quality and impact of research and technology.
Especially, engineering jobs tend to be prestigious and highly paid; therefore, promoting
greater diversity in STEM also helps to reduce social inequality. During the development of
the program in the present academic period, activities were carried out aimed at meeting a
specific objective: to identify the specific problems and barriers faced by young people who
choose engineering careers at Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL). In this
document, we describe the study carried out with the students of the engineering careers of the
UTPL and the results obtained regarding their perceptions of the gender gap in the university
context and their environment.
Keywords 1
Gender gap perceptions, higher education, students, women, engineering education.
1. Introduction
Nowadays, in some countries like Ecuador, women outnumber men in higher education enrolment,
although the general average is unfavourable for women. According to UNESCO [1], during the year
2015 worldwide, the enrolment average rate of female students, in higher education, was around 37%.
Unfortunately, in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) majors, the gender gap
is higher, because female students still represent a minority. According to the American Association of
University Women, women make up only 28% of the workforce in STEM, and men vastly outnumber
women majoring in most STEM fields in college2. The low participation rates of women in STEM
majors, and mainly in engineering fields, limit their professional development in the areas of
engineering and science.
The problem of the underrepresentation of women has been studied through different studies such
as [2]–[4]. In addition to identifying the causes and effects of gender imbalances in different contexts
and locations [5], [6], in higher education is important to identify negative attitudes, thoughts and
feelings that affect women when choosing and pursuing studies on engineering majors.
If fewer female students enter STEM majors, fewer women will have the chance to launch promising
careers in the fields of engineering, technology, and science. Jobs in these fields tend to be prestigious
and highly paid; therefore, promoting greater diversity in STEM also helps to reduce social inequality
[7]. In addition, according to [8], greater participation of women promotes the generation of a diverse
Proceedings XV Congress of Latin American Women in Computing 2023, October 16–20, 2023, La Paz, Bolivia
EMAIL: jachicaiza@utpl.edu.ec (A. 1); mssegarra@utpl.edu.ec (A. 2); grrodriguez@utpl.edu.ec (A. 3); fbcevallos@utpl.edu.ec (A. 4)
ORCID: 0000-0003-3439-3618 (A. 1); 0000-0001-9657-4532 (A. 2); 0000-0001-8932-9213 (A. 3)
©️ 2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
2
https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/the-stem-gap/
CEUR
ceur-ws.org
Workshop ISSN 1613-0073
Proceedings
range of innovative ideas and perspectives in STEM, thus, women could strengthen the scientific and
engineering communities and boost the social and economic progress of countries.
In the specific context of higher education, tackling the problem of the underrepresentation of female
STEM students involves two distinct challenges [9]. The first is to understand the factors that influence
women for selection of STEM majors; the second is to increase the retention of women who have
already chosen STEM studies and careers. The first step to understanding the problem is essential to
begin by knowing what perceptions students have regarding gender gaps in higher education.
In Iberoamerican countries, we found two studies in which students' perceptions about the gender
gap are tried to characterize. In [14], the authors analyse the perception of computing students
concerning the gender gap in computer science studies at two public universities in Costa Rica. For this
study, GENCE 2.0 (GENder perspective in Computer Engineering questionnaire, version 2.0) was
taken as a basis and adapted to the Costa Rican higher education context. Likewise, in [15], the social,
family, educational, and peer influences on university students' opinions about STEM studies were tried
to discover. Using a questionnaire, 115 university students participated in a pilot. In this case, responses
about five dimensions (gender ideology, attitudes, interests, perception & self-perception, and
expectations about science) reinforced the idea that different environments surrounding the people
condition whether they have gender stereotypes about STEM studies.
Therefore, the present study tries to find out what students think, feel, and have attitudes regarding
gender gaps in higher education. The study was carried out with a group of students enrolled in STEM
careers at the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), Ecuador, and is part of a larger initiative,
which aims to apply and evaluate a mentoring program for the new students of the STEM majors of the
university.
To identify the impressions of the students, we created an online questionnaire, which was structured
into four informative sections such as identification and demographic, study selection and university
experience, perceptions about the gender gap, and attraction and permanence of women in engineering
studies. Then the questionnaire was applied to the female and male students enrolled in the first year
and last year of the majors of Computing and Civil Engineering of the UTPL. Based on the results
obtained below, we identify the most important patterns regarding the feelings, thoughts, and
experiences of students.
2. Methodology
In this section, we describe how can get the perception of students who choose engineering majors
regarding the gender gap in this field. To achieve the objective, we carried out two fundamental
activities: 1) the definition of a questionnaire for data collection, and 2) the application of the
questionnaire. The following section describes the results found after the application.
2.1. Definition of the questionnaire
The definition of the instrument to determine the perceptions of the students enrolled in two of the
STEM careers offered by the Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (UTPL) was elaborated from the
selection and redefinition of items from other questionnaires. As inputs to prepare the questionnaire
applied in this study, we review three proposals:
• The Gender Equality Survey prepared by the Nevada Commission for Women of the United
States [10].
• The survey presented in [11], aims to explore student perceptions of gender inequality in the
university context through surveys conducted with students from the Universidad de Buenos
Aires.
• Survey prepared within the project W-STEM: Building the future of Latin America engaging
women into STEM [12].
From the review of each proposal, we create a list of items, which were reviewed by all the members
of the project. The objective of the review was to detect problems or errors in the language or writing
and decide the relevance of the items. Those items that were oriented to capture objective responses
(statements based on the Likert scale) and open about the perception of students about gender inequality
in STEM fields were selected and adapted. Then, the selected items were integrated into an online
questionnaire, which was applied to the first and last-year students of Computer Science and Civil
Engineering careers. Table 1 presents the structure and the most important features that make up the
questionnaire, which consists of 37 varied items.
Table 1
Structure and main features of the Questionnaire
Information category Main features Answer type Number of
items
Open 4
Student’ name, birthdate, birth city,
Identification and
marital status, gender, employment Multiple option 3
demographic
status, number of dependents Dichotomic 1
Open 2
Degree, academic level, reasons to
Study selection and choose the degree, knowledge of Multiple option 3
university experience university services, and integration in Dichotomic 2
classroom Likert – 5 levels 3
Attitudes, feelings and thoughts about Open 2
Perceptions about gender the gender gap and barriers that face Likert – 5 levels 13
gap women in society, university, and
classroom.
Recommendations 1) to attract more
women to STEM studies, 2) for teachers
to improve the integration of female
Attraction and permanence students in STEM studies, 3) to integrate
Open 4
of women in STEM studies or empower female students in STEM
careers and 4) of topics to provide
training or support all students of STEM
studies.
Considering the number of items included in the questionnaire, we tried to incorporate the largest
number of closed-response items (multiple choice, dichotomous, or Likert scale); As a result of
applying this strategy, 67.6% of the items were for selecting one response option, which in some way
helped to alleviate the effort required by the students to complete the instrument.
The items whose response is based on the Likert scale were formulated as an affirmation, in this
way we try to allow the student to express their feeling or level of agreement or disagreement with the
proposed expression. This feature of the questionnaire allows us to assess and measure how students
perceive certain thoughts, attitudes, or actions related to the gender gap in the field of higher education,
specifically in STEM studies.
2.2. Questionnaire Application
Once the questionnaire was defined, it was applied to all the students enrolled in the academic term,
October 2022 - February 2023. In this term, in the engineering careers: Computer Science and Civil
Engineering, the total of enrolled students was: 211 students in the first year, while in the last year 102
students were enrolled. To facilitate the dissemination and application of the questionnaire among
students, we created a web form using the Microsoft 365 Forms tool. The questionnaire is available at
this link.
Table 2 presents the number of students by major, the study year, and the percentage of female
students by the group. Here we can note the lower presence of women in the two degrees of study. In
Civil Engineering there are the highest rates of female students, even so, there is a considerable
imbalance, the worst rate is observed in Computing, in the last year of the degree, less than 7% of
students are women.
Table 2
Students enrolled to STEM majors
Degree Study year Total number of Rate of female
students students
Computer Science first 98 12,2
last 29 6,9
Civil Engineering first 113 17,7
last 73 31,5*
* The rate of students in the last year of this major is higher than that of the first year because female students
who were retained from previous cohorts and are currently in their last semester are included.
After the application, of the 313 students enrolled in the two majors, 28.4% of them filled out the
questionnaire, that is, approximately 1 out of every 4 students enrolled. Of the 89 students who
answered the questionnaire, 77.5% are men (n=69) and the remaining 22.5% are women (n=20).
Likewise, from Civil Engineering, 11 women and 30 men answered, and from Computer Science, 9
women and 39 men answered.
At the end of the questionnaire application period, we analyzed the collected data and organized the
results according to the 4 categories of information included in the instrument (see Table 1). In the
following section, the main findings found during the analysis are discussed.
3. Results
When the period for completing the questionnaire expired, we proceeded to download the responses
in Excel format and transform some data to facilitate their synthesis. To graphically summarize the
closed-response items (as a binary response, multiple choice, or Likert scale), we use the Tableau tool.
Regarding the analysis of the open-ended questions, human intervention was needed to try to classify
or summarize the comments of the students and then highlight the relevant ideas provided by them.
This section highlights the results found for each of the four categories of information that were studied.
3.1. Identification and demographic information
Regarding the demographic characteristics of the students, 100% of them are single, and 25,8% said
that they need to combine studies with work. In addition, 11,2% state that they have family
responsibilities, that is, one in ten students have children or other relatives that they oversee. Regarding
the nationality of the students, the majority were born in Ecuador (n=83), and to a lesser extent they
come from Spain (n=5) and the United States (n=1). Regarding the age of the students, the average age
is 20,6 years; being 18 and 19 years as the most frequent age in Computing and Civil Engineering,
respectively.
3.2. Study selection and university experience
In this category on information, we focus into know background for students’ selection of majors
and the experience of them in the classroom.
3.2.1. Major selection
To discover the main reasons that attract high school students to choose a engineering major, one of
the questions asked was: What was the main reason you chose the major? The form was configured to
receive free text responses, in this way, students had the opportunity to freely express their ideas.
Figure 1 shows the six categories into which we classify student responses. By each category, the
proportion of responses is indicated, differentiated by gender, and the last column contains the most
common words or phrases used by students in their sentences. In the list, the most common response
from students was "I like what is related to...", the complement varies depending on the major. In the
case of Computing students, the most common word was technology, while the word most used by Civil
Engineering students was construction. Another aspect that can be seen in the figure is that, in general,
in each category, the proportion of male and female students is somewhat similar, that is, the reasons
or motivations that they had to choose STEM studies are common, regardless of their gender. The
highest difference in percentages corresponds to the fourth category, that is, almost 15% of female
students (versus 6.8% of male ones) chose to study Computer Science or Civil Engineering because
they want to develop skills to create useful solutions that improve the quality of life of people or the
environment.
Figure 1: Main reasons why students chose to study STEM majors
Another question that is related to the choice of major is, did you have the influence or motivation
of any person or character when choosing the career? The answers to this question are summarized in
Figure 2. Here, note that one of every two students made the decision of their own free will and
motivation; Second place, the Civil Engineering female students said that they felt influenced by their
mother; while, in the case of men, the second most chosen option was the father. Regarding Computer
Science, both male and female students were influenced or motivated by external characters that are
not related to their immediate environment.
Figure 2: Entities who influenced or motivated students to start a STEM career
The last question related to the choice of career was, have you regretted choosing the degree in which
you are enrolled? In this case, most students said that they did not and that they felt comfortable in each
degree. Only two responses were marked as YES; one case corresponds to a first-year male Civil
Engineering student, who stated that she chose the major because it was a family suggestion; and the
other case corresponds to a female Computer Science student, in her last year of majoring, who stated
that she studied by obligation.
3.2.2. Level of integration and interrelation in the classroom
To find out the level of integration of students in their classroom, we asked them two questions: 1)
indicate your level of integration and interaction with your classmates of the same gender, and 2)
indicate your level of integration and interaction with your classmates of another genre. The responses
to these questions were configured as a five-option Likert scale. Figure 3 provides insight into how
students have felt in their classrooms with peers of the same or opposite gender. At a general level,
Civil Engineering students have felt more confident with their peers of the same gender, although there
is also a high level of interrelationship with peers of the opposite gender; a low percentage of female
students felt a low level of integration with their male partners. In the case of Computer Science
students, the responses were more divided, and at different levels they were interrelated with peers of
the same gender and of the opposite gender.
Figure 3: Level of integration and interaction of students in the classroom
To confirm the answers regarding how the students felt in the classroom, two more Likert-base items
were raised: 1) I felt better working in a group with peers of the same gender, and 2) I felt comfortable
with all my classmates. Figure 4 highlights that almost one in four students feel good working with
peers of the same gender, the others do not give much importance to this aspect; rather, three out of
four students feel comfortable working in heterogeneous groups.
Figure 4: Feelings regarding coexistence in the classroom
3.3. Perceptions about the gender gap
To determine the perceptions about the gender gap, the questionnaire included 10 affirmative
sentences related to this topic, in this way the students were able to express their level of agreement or
disagreement with what was stated. Figure 5 highlights the responses for each item.
Figure 5: Level of agreement related to gender gap perceptions
The items on perceptions were organized according to three categories: a broad context for students
(Society), an intermediate setting (University), and a more specific setting (Classrooms). For each
category, 3 items were raised, which were written as sentences with a negative sense towards gender
equality; therefore, in the responses, the most expected value was Strongly Disagree (SD). As can be
seen in Figure 5, the items that had unexpected answers were those related to Society: 50% of the female
students believe that there is gender inequality in society. Likewise, one in three female students
believes that it is more difficult for women to remain in studies or careers due to their role as mothers
or home caregivers. Regarding the University category, it seems that there has also been a certain
negative perception on the part of female students because they have seen some situation of inequality
or some favoritism towards men; these perceptions have been expressed by one in every 3 female
students (see column A in Figure 5). Finally, in the more specific environment of the students, the
classroom, it seems that, in general, the experiences have not been negative, because both male and
female students state that they disagree with the fact that there has been differential treatment in favor
of men, or negative that minimizes female students, in short, it seems that there is respect, although a
closer study is required to discover behaviors or thoughts that affect coexistence in the classroom.
Another item based on the Likert scale that was consulted is “You believe that women have the same
opportunities to progress as men”; the responses are shown in Figure 6. Considering the gender of the
students, we can observe that three out of four male students (responses Agree + Strongly Agree)
answered that it is possible; while in the case of female students, half of them think so (responses Agree
+ Strongly Agree). However, it is possible that fewer female students believe that women have the same
opportunities to progress as men because the 35% of them preferred to remain neutral with respect to
this sentence (response Neither Agree nor Disagree). Therefore, a deeper study is needed to detect if
there are misconceptions, or if there are real barriers that reduce women's chances of progressing in
STEM careers.
Figure 6: Perceptions about whether women have the same opportunities to progress as men
To try to find out what behaviors or actions have been experienced or seen by students regarding
gender inequality or barriers, we posed one open question, “In what specific aspects have you felt that
men and women are not treated equally in your classes?” The most common response was "In no case
have I experienced such treatment", which now produces a feeling of relief. However, it is also
necessary to continue investigating and trying to detect micro-sexist actions, which were able to be
gathered in more detail through open-ended questions. These actions tend to go unnoticed or are not
well known.
To further identify students' perceptions of whether there is equal treatment of men and women
during their classes, an open-ended question was administered, resulting in 88 responses. Of these, 74%
believe that there is equal treatment regardless of gender, while 26% have perceived certain
discriminatory situations. Figure 7 shows the most frequent phrases in the open-ended questions as
follows: male classmates treated me as if I had no idea what I was doing (5%), teachers prefer women
(7%), classmates don't let women participate in class (3%), preference for men as team leaders (2%),
professors think this career is for men (2%).
Figure 7: Gender preference in the classroom
Although most students perceive equal treatment within the classroom, the responses of those who
perceive gender discrimination in the classroom, which are less frequent in the responses but important
to mention, include: harassment received by a group of men (1%), inappropriate comments from
teachers (1%), teachers who think engineering is for men (2%), underestimating women's ability in
academics, leadership, sports, and physical strength (4%), and the need to prove otherwise, considering
that women are incapable of solving difficult cases. Similarly, within their class, they perceive that their
teachers treat men and women differently (10%).
To analyze the perception of students in other environments outside of their classroom, the following
open-ended question was administered: "Have you perceived or been told about cases where men and
women are not treated equally?" 88 responses were obtained, of which 65% of respondents consider
that there is equal treatment, while 35% consider that there is no equal treatment between men and
women. Figure 8 shows the most frequent phrases in the responses, as follows: men and women equally
(65%), doubt women's ability (13%), job preference for men (8%), and discrimination against women
(8%).
Figure 8: Gender preference outside the classroom
When comparing the responses inside and outside the classroom, it is evident that 75% of women
mention that there is equal treatment within the classroom and 55% mention that there is equal treatment
outside the classroom. On the contrary, 25% of women consider that there is discrimination within the
classroom, and 45% consider that there is discrimination outside the classroom.
3.4. Recommendations to improve integration of students in Engineering
majors
In this section there are four questions answered by the respondents, as follows: (i) What
recommendations or ideas can you share with us so that our careers can attract more women to STEM
careers? (ii) Can you provide any suggestions and/or strategies that we teachers can apply to improve
the integration of incoming students (first degree cycle)? (iii) To foster the integration/empowerment
of female students in STEM careers, what activities can you suggest us to carry out? and (iv) Can you
propose topics for training through workshops and other events, to support all students (men and
women) in STEM careers in their insertion into the university?
Figure 9.a) presents key recommendations for enhancing efforts to attract more women to STEM
majors. It is noteworthy to mention that there are other responses that, while not significantly
represented in the figure, suggest that universities should offer compelling, dynamic, and practical
degree programs as a means of attracting more women to STEM majors.
Figure 9: Recommendations to attract women and improve their integration into STEM majors
Similarly, Figure 9.b) clearly illustrates the responses to the question on suggestions and strategies
that educators can implement to enhance the integration of incoming students. Group activities and
recreational initiatives emerge as the most effective approaches to familiarize students with the
university and their academic programs. In addition, there are unique responses, such as the suggestion
that no recommendations are needed as the current offerings are satisfactory, and that faculty are already
effective instructors. Furthermore, there are recommendations to motivate students to participate in
university clubs, offer introductory courses, and facilitate the sharing of experiences from senior
students to newcomers. In conclusion, it is evident that new students benefit from exposure to
experiences and engagement in university activities to foster a smoother integration into the academic
environment.
On the other hand, Figure 10.a) shows the results obtained regarding recommendations to promote
the integration and empowerment of female students in STEM careers. The students mostly suggest:
raising visibility of women in STEM careers and projects; integration activities, internships, and
projects with participants of both sexes; increased publicity of STEM women in all media; events and
spaces to share experiences of women in STEM careers; workshops that allow for experimentation with
STEM careers; more information on STEM careers in women's colleges; equal treatment and
opportunities; diversification of creative and recreational activities, as well as field trips, visits to
companies or laboratories.
Finally, Figure 10.b) shows the recommendations regarding the main training topics that they
suggest for better integration into the university, including gender-related topics, female leadership,
teamwork, basic programming, as well as advice on jobs, applications, and the labor market.
Figure 10: Recommendations to promote the integration, empowerment, and training of women
4. Conclusion
To reduce the gender gap in STEM majors, it is important to break down the barriers or problems
that discourage female students from pursuing studies in these fields. The first step to meet this objective
is to identify what students perceive during their studies in STEM careers, and how differential
treatment due to their gender affects them. Therefore, through this study, we try to find out what
thoughts, actions or feelings have been experienced by first and last-year students of two STEM majors
at a university in Ecuador. Based on the perceptions of students regarding the gaps and barriers
experienced by female students, it is important to reflect on and promote the change of stereotypes and
behavior that limit the development of women in STEM careers.
The results obtained are consistent with previous studies, which have found that men and women
generally perceive equal treatment, despite the normalization of micro-sexism and behavior patterns
that favor men for decades. In academic fields related to civil engineering and computer science, there
is still a prevailing belief that they are male-dominated careers. Women, on the other hand, tend to
accept discriminatory treatment due to having heard it from an early age. Men often fail to recognize
unequal treatment towards women, as they tend to perceive women as weak people incapable of
carrying out intellectual or physical activities until they prove otherwise.
Women in STEM fields generally perceive equal treatment between men and women, however, there
are women who perceive discriminatory treatment from their male peers and teachers within the
classroom. Women's perception of equal treatment between men and women outside the classroom
reveals a greater perception of discrimination. In addition to being discriminated against and
underestimated by their peers and teachers, they also face inequality in salary matters and discrimination
in assigning engineering and computing jobs to women.
It is necessary to work hard to change women's perception, as there is often resistance to recognizing
gender discrimination in their own environment. This lack of recognition can worsen the normalization
of gender disparity and limit women's opportunities, as they may not believe they deserve them. There
is a lot of work to be done to eliminate patterns that normalize this type of discrimination and enable
women to fully develop in STEM fields.
Through this study, we have been able to detect certain behaviors and perceptions of our students
regarding the gender gaps that produce an underrepresentation of women in STEM careers. With the
results found, all of us who make up the academic community should reflect and change attitudes that
negatively affect to the integration, sense of belonging and continuity of our engineering female
students.
As future work, it is expected to carry out an intervention process with students, both men and
women, in such a way that we can raise awareness about the problems or barriers that affect female
students, and the way in which they can be reduced.
5. Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Department of Innovation, Training and Teacher Evaluation of the
Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja of Ecuador for sponsoring this innovative project.
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