College Major Choices of Women: A Pakistani Context
Abstract
This study investigates the college major choices among Pakistani women. Based on the survey of 500 women from different regions in the country, the paper analyzes different factors associated with the major choices of these women. The results show that women are underrepresented in STEM majors and are overrepresented in non-STEM majors, and factors such as the family’s low annual income, parents’ low education, post-graduation plans such as weighing family over career, and belonging to a less developed region affect women’s choice of non-STEM majors over STEM majors. The findings also show that out of the aforementioned factors, post-graduation plans are the most important factor influencing the major choices of women.
Keywords: college; culture; income; major; pakistan; parental education; post-graduation; region; women.
Introduction
The government of Pakistan has made it a priority to provide education to all Pakistani citizens. It has dedicated large sums of the budget for the education sector and the adult literacy rate of females has increased from 14.77% in 1981 to 42.73% in 2015 (Our World in Data 2015). Despite this, inequalities still exist in accessing STEM majors, especially for women due to their family responsibilities, social norms, and above all, status in Pakistani society.
The social expectations by both genders, male and female, play a significant role in influencing the college majors of women. For example, due to socialization in Pakistan, women are considered homemakers, and men are considered to be breadwinners. Due to this reason, many women choose to study non-STEM majors which in the long run will help them to be involved in a career that will have flexible and fewer working hours so that they can fulfill their responsibilities as homemakers. On the other hand, men choose STEM majors which are more technical and can help them in attaining high-paying jobs through which they can support their families.
Outdated research in Medicine and Psychology has tried to explain the gender differences in education and jobs by linking them to neurological and biological reasons. Some research shows that greater cortical areas are used by boys and mechanical and spatial functioning is dedicated by them (Kimura 2000). Also, more of the brain’s part of females is devoted to emotional and verbal functioning. Hence, in quantitative and technical majors women underperform so they end up being disengaged in technical majors. (Killgore and Todd 2004; Lenroot et al., 2007).
However, the latest research has found these results to be false. In some countries such as Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore women perform equivalent to men and attain higher grades in quantitative subjects than men in other countries. Women are also able to secure high-paying STEM jobs and become effective CFOs, quantitative researchers, engineers, and doctors. This proves that the gender gap in the pursuance of STEM majors by gender is not due to biological reasons. Also, according to Favara (2002), the strong beliefs held by the masses i.e., men are more skilled than women in STEM majors are unfounded and hence, not true. This is because men and women perform similarly in the chosen majors.
As a result, this study aims to focus on the underlying reasons behind the lack of Pakistani women choosing STEM majors as compared to non-STEM majors in colleges.
The paper will begin with the significance of this research section which will explain how this capstone can be utilized by the readers. Then, there will be a literature review section which will explain the scholarly work done on this area and the conflicting opinions held by different scholars on this topic. The literature review will help in forming hypotheses for this research paper which will later be tested through primary research. Finally, this paper will be concluded along with the discussion of policy implications, significance and limitations of this research.
Competing Approaches to Major Choices of Women
Introduction to Literature Review
I want to study the reasons why more women study non-STEM majors as compared to STEM majors. To look at the reasons in detail, a variety of literature areas will be considered. Even though most of the available sources are not based in the context of Pakistan but the ones from the developing world are highly relatable as developing countries share similar socioeconomic characteristics.
In this section firstly STEM majors will be defined along with the explanation of the importance of STEM majors. Next, the existing literature on the major choices of women in several countries around the world will be looked at. Following that the gap between males and females in higher education will be analyzed and then the reasons influencing the major choices will be discussed i.e., the influence of income, the effect of parent’s education level, post-graduation plans, and belonging to a certain region. The literature on these reasons will be used to extract the hypotheses for the reasons behind the overrepresentation of women in non-STEM majors and lack of representation in STEM majors.
Defining STEM major
Ramaley coined the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) acronym in 2001. STEM is defined by the National Science Foundation as a major in which the students can bring a solution to the problems of the real world through critical thinking and inquiry (Daugherty 2013; Banks and Sokolowski 2010). However, differing opinions exist in defining STEM and the classification of majors under the STEM category (Bybee 2010; Banks and Sokolowski 2010; Kimmel et al., 2012).
Importance of Studying STEM Majors by Women
It is very important to have equal participation of women in STEM majors as it would not only empower women but it would also allow women to bring their unique perspectives, skills, and talent into the field. The lack of representation of women in the STEM fields holds back the country’s progress and can have negative and life-threatening impacts on society. For example, Hill et al., (2010) emphasize that “Engineers design many of the things we use daily — buildings, bridges, computers, cars, wheelchairs, and X-ray machines. When women are not involved in the design of these products, needs, and desires unique to women may be overlooked” (p. 3). This can be confirmed from an example of an instance in which the airbags of the car were designed by male engineers and hence, only keeping the male body in mind. Due to this, in road accidents, many women lost their lives because the airbags could not be deployed properly for them. However, if there are more women in the STEM field then they could work with the male colleagues to design products in a way in which both genders are taken into consideration (Margolis and Fisher 2003).
STEM fields should also be promoted amongst women because working in such fields would enable them to earn a higher salary as compared to working in a non-STEM field. According to statistics, it is predicted that the jobs related to STEM majors would increase by 17% over a decade’s time whereas, non-STEM-related jobs in the market will rise by only 9.8%. Also, data shows that the employees in the STEM-related fields earn about 26% higher than the employees working in the non-STEM-related positions (Langdon et al., 2011). As a result, if women will work in the STEM field then they would earn high incomes along with higher chances of securing jobs. This would help women in many ways i.e, they would be able to better educate their children, become empowered and help in improving Pakistan’s economy as well as help in increasing their family’s standard of living.
Comparison of Women’s Major Choices in Different Countries
In this section, I will look at the scholarly work on the major choices of women in countries other than Pakistan. Firstly, this will help in understanding the research topic broadly and then support in narrowing down the topic. Secondly, taking into account the research work done in other countries is important as it would also help in understanding the major choices of women in different regions of Pakistan and the role factors such as income, parent’s level of education, and post-graduation plans play in choosing in college majors.
According to Vincent-Lancrin (2008), in countries such as Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, there is a greater number of women who are enrolled in universities and are pursuing STEM majors as compared to less developed countries. It can be seen that in the developed countries where women are encouraged to do STEM work, they tend to do more of it and vice versa. Thus, explaining that the development of a country or region plays an important role in encouraging women to choose between STEM and non-STEM majors. This section would then later in the study help in explaining differences in the major choices of women in different regions of Pakistan.
However, in Sweden, the case was different because women were treated unfairly earlier as they did not receive monetary benefits in attaining higher education. However, with time, the number of females in universities increased due to improved labor laws and labor markets for women as the status of women greatly improved.
On the other hand, in Germany, the case was different as compared to Sweden where the status of women in the labor market improved but the representation of women in the German universities did not increase. This is because women opted for vocational education instead of university education as this would help them to secure better employment than studying in universities. Also, jobs available for individuals who opt for vocational education can help them maintain a balance between their public and private responsibilities. Moreover, women do not study complex majors i.e., STEM majors because of the gender stereotypes associated with women. Hence, women choose soft majors like humanities, education, etc and men choose technical majors like mathematics, engineering, etc (Vincent-Lancrin 2008).
If we look at the case of Turkey we can see that the gender difference by major is very low in higher education. In the United States of America, the number of women studying non-STEM majors has also greatly increased over the last decade. Finally, if we look at the case of Israel then we can say that most of the women choose to study in colleges where they can study literature and humanities rather than joining universities because it helps prepare the women to start a teaching career. After all, this profession is mostly associated with women (Vincent-Lancrin 2008).
The above literature shows that in every country there are different underlying reasons for the majors women choose to study in colleges. As a result, this suggests that it is important to look closely at the case of Pakistan instead of making any generalizations and applying the findings of other countries to Pakistan.
Gap by Gender in the Higher Education and College Major Choices in Pakistan
Pakistan is a developing country and has made many efforts to improve its development and increase its prosperity. One important barrier to economic development which Pakistan chose to tackle was the low literacy rate in the country. In order to deal with this Pakistan adopted many progressive policies including funding new schools and propagating the importance of female education in the media. As a result, the literacy rate in the country improved to some extent, however, later it started to decrease (Economic Survey 2011) because of a lack of consistent efforts by the government. Hence, the initial gap between the education levels of males and females persisted.
Although education is considered to be a basic human right for both genders but women remain deprived of this right to a large extent. This does not come as a surprise because women are constantly deemed inferior to men. Women are provided with less than fifty percent of the top positions in the administration and academic fields (Verma 2006). These women are allocated with lower positions partly due to a lack of diversity in the major choices. Moreover, there are thousands of female university students who are not able to find a job that matches their qualifications because they are unable to meet the technical requirements set by the employers (Baki 2004).
STEM majors such as natural sciences, statistics, physics, and mathematics are not studied by women because of ethical and social norms (Channa 2000). It is thought by families that these technical majors take longer to study and hence women are encouraged to study majors like arts, humanities, etc. Moreover, studying non-STEM major results in shorter studying periods allowing women to graduate earlier and hence fulfill their traditional roles such as becoming good wives and educated mothers. It is noted by Blackstone et al., (1975) that parents who have understood marriage as their priority for their daughters are not very concerned about the careers that their daughters want to pursue. Moreover, parents allow their daughters to get some education so that their daughters can be self-sufficient in the unlikely case that their married life is not successful. As a result, such parents want their daughters to study non-STEM majors which would result in education being completed earlier which would then lead to a quicker marriage, and if in case the marriage fails then their daughter would still be independent.
In addition, when families are unsure whether their daughters can perform equally well in STEM majors as compared to their sons then the girls start believing that they are not as competent as men and would not be able to perform well in advanced science and mathematics courses which are quite challenging. As a result, women choose to drop STEM courses (Kutz-Costes et al., 2008). According to Booth and Nolen (2012), women mainly avoid competitive places and are likely to be risk-averse as compared to their male counterparts. This can be attributed to the cultural factors.
According to a study conducted by Sultana (2010), most of the females as a product of socialization and sexism opt for the traditional ideology which is that women should take traditional roles as homemakers and become good housewives and mothers instead of choosing STEM majors and weighing their career over family. Only a few women held the non-traditional belief that they can choose any majors and later they are suited for all types of careers.
Some people believe that women in Muslim countries choose non-STEM majors over STEM majors because of Islam. Vidyasagar and Rea (2004) argue that the traditional explanations regarding the religion practiced by Muslims play a major role in associating gender roles and stereotyping females. According to these conservative interpretations, women should not take the role of their husbands and instead let their husbands earn the money and provide for them, allowing women to be in the comfort of their homes. These interpretations are however not the true depiction of Islam because according to the Holy Quran women are allowed to carry their professions and can continue to work as long as their professional work does not harm their families, children, husband, and personal life. According to Charrad (2011), Islam gives equal rights to both men and women. The above is further solidified by the fact that the first wife of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Hazrat Khadija was a successful tradeswoman who successfully managed the caravan business in the Middle East. Thus, it can be seen Islam allows women to work and conduct their businesses as well.
In addition, some liberal Islamic scholars believe that women should not only take upon the traditional roles i.e., of a good wife or child-rearing instead both men and women should share the responsibilities of the household (Jacobs 1998). This makes it equally important for Muslim women to study the STEM majors as women would need to earn and share the responsibilities with their husbands after marriage as well. Thus, debunking the preconceived notion by many individuals that women in Muslim countries such as Pakistan do not take up STEM majors as a result of the teachings of their conservative religion Islam and Quran (Holy book).
From the above literature, it can be confirmed that the gap between men and women in higher education in Pakistan is due to the lack of sincere efforts by the government. Moreover, culture plays an integral role in influencing the major choices of women. However, Islam does not play a role in shaping and guiding the major choices of women.
In the next section, to narrow down the influence of culture, I will look closely at the influence of the chosen socio-economic factors on the college major choices of women.
Determinants of College Major Choice: Research Hypotheses
Influence of household Income
Hossler and Gallagher (l987) conducted a study that shows that economic factors play a major role while parents choose the colleges for their children. In the study, there is a three-stage conceptual framework of college choices. The first stage focuses on the monetary, societal, and familial factors. The second stage is the exploratory stage which focuses upon choosing an institution considering the aforementioned factors. Finally, the last stage is the one in which the students need to decide on a college of their choice. This research paper will be taking into account the economic factors from the first stage such as considering parent’s annual income when choosing a college because every college offers different majors, for example, STEM colleges have much higher tuition than non-STEM colleges. Thus, this framework shows that parents with high annual income can easily afford to send their daughters to STEM colleges; however, parents whose annual income is low might face financial barriers and then decide to send their daughters to non-STEM colleges.
According to Van de Werfhorst (2017), there was a strong difference between the major choices of disadvantaged women and well-off women in the Netherlands. The well-off women studied STEM majors i.e., majors related to health whereas, women from disadvantaged families (families with lower annual income) picked non-STEM majors. In addition, this is also supported by research conducted by Campbell who says, “embedding the stereotype that poorer children are inherently less able — their methods and means of implementation should be reconsidered” (Campbell 2015). The findings of this research show that belonging to a family with low annual incomes affects the way intelligence is defined in an individual and as a result of these ‘less able’ stereotypes many women from disadvantaged families opt for non-STEM majors.
Finally, another crucial factor impacting female education and college major choices is the rise in the number of Madrassas in Pakistan. Madrassas are defined as high school “educational institutions in which formal religious education is provided” (2017) along with non-religious education. According to statistics, there are about 16000 madrasas that are registered in Pakistan and countless madrasas that are unregistered (GoP 2006). There has been a rise in Madrassas in the country because females from low-income families study there as Madrassas provide almost free college-preparatory education to individuals. For example, an advertisement was published by a famous Madrassa foundation named ‘Quran Foundation’ and it explained the importance of free religious education along with worldly education. In the advertisement, specifically for women, it was indicated that being a part of this madrassa will prepare them for life after marriage and help them become good wives and mothers. (Al-Mohsinat Trust newsletter 2007). As a result, low-income parents get their daughters enrolled in the madrassas which provide free but sub-par primary and secondary education, focusing mainly on religious education as that would enable women to perform well in the household chores. As a result, those women who complete their middle and high school in such madrassas do not develop the skills required to pursue STEM majors in colleges and this then forces women to choose non-STEM majors when they enroll in colleges.
However, there have been contending views on the correlation between income and college major choices. According to Hu and Wu (2017) belonging to advantaged families means that an individual would “demonstrate a significantly stronger propensity in majoring in liberal arts rather than in STEM”(p.17). This shows that belonging to a high-income family would influence individuals to pursue non-STEM majors.
Thus, in the light of the above literature review on parental income the following hypothesis is proposed for testing in the context of Pakistan:
Hypothesis 1: Women with low-income parents are highly likely to study non-STEM majors
Influence of parental education level
Polavieja and Platt (2014) conducted a study on children from Britain and their research findings are that there are differences in the career beliefs held by parents with different education levels. The parents who are highly educated do not hold strong career beliefs which are gendered whereas, parents with low levels of education hold strong stereotypical beliefs. Moreover, a study was conducted by Maple and Stage (1991) on male college students who were black. The findings of the study showed that if an individual has an educated mother then the likelihood of the individual choosing a STEM major in college increases. If we look specifically at women, the studies conducted by Grauca et al., (1988); Wate et al., (1985), and Moakler et al., (2015) found out that parental education has a direct correlation with college major choices or in other words, opting for STEM majors.
This is further supported by Social Cognitive Theory (1989) by Bandura. He pointed out that humans are impacted by their interaction with the social environment, emotional experiences, and behavior which then influences their behaviors and decisions. In Triadic Reciprocal Determinism he showed that there are exchanges between the individuals, behavior, and environment and those exchanges are not unidirectional but bidirectional so each of these plays a role in exerting an influence on the other. As a result, it can be said that there is a correlation between Bandura’s social cognitive theory and the major choices of women. The education level of the parents affects the parent’s behavior such as actions, reactions, etc towards their daughter’s major choices. For example, parent’s with low education would hold different expectations, and gendered career beliefs about their daughters and would want them to perform the gender roles associated with their gender due to their exchanges.
Thus, in the light of the above discussion the following hypothesis is proposed for testing in the context of Pakistan:
Hypothesis 2: Parent’s with low education influence their daughters to study non-STEM majors
Influence of post-graduation plans
According to Metcalf (2004) due to gender roles, many women have to give up on their careers to get married as their husbands do not wish to let their wives continue as professionals. They want them to take up the gender roles associated with females and give ample time to their families and not juggle between work and family. Hence, the husband’s beliefs, wishes, and weaknesses associated with women such as not being capable of solving problems and handling difficult situations convince many women in choosing non-STEM majors.
Moreover, according to Woods (1976) career aspirations have a direct influence on the major choices of individuals. The women who study STEM majors are ambitious and have a clear route as they desire to be doctors, engineers, etc., whereas, the women who opt for non-STEM majors do not have clarity regarding their future goals.
Hence, the following testable hypothesis is formulated:
Hypothesis 3: Post-graduation plans correlate with the major choices of women
Influence of Regional differences
In this section, I will discuss the regional differences and their effect on college major choices.
Regional differences exist in terms of levels of development, literacy rate, employment rate, access to universities, culture, and traditions in the various regions of Pakistan. In this paper, the level of development in a particular province has been associated with its literacy rates (as confirmed by figure 1 below). This means the more developed an area is, the better the labor laws etc will be applied which would lead to an increase in the female’s enrolled in universities (Vincent-Lancrin 2008). This also means that with better labor laws not only the female literacy rate can improve but it is also possible that more women will opt for STEM majors.
From figure 1 above it can also be seen that Islamabad and Punjab have the highest literacy rate. This literacy rate partly stems from wealth generated through fertile lands which have enabled families to invest in education. Moreover, these two regions have the highest number of individuals living abroad pursuing education and jobs. Thirdly, Sindh is a province that is in the southeast of the country. The capital of this province is Karachi and it is a metropolitan city with a very high literacy rate. Fourthly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is considered as a land of Pathans where the tribal system is followed and has been under the high influence of the Taliban’s and hence, terrorism prevailed there so the literacy rate is lower in comparison to the aforementioned provinces. Finally, we have Balochistan Province which is in the southwest. Although it covers the highest proportion of land of the country, it is scarcely populated due to its hilly nature, lack of infrastructure, and opportunities for individuals. Although in Balochistan the literacy rate improved over the years but it is still the lowest in comparison to other provinces of Pakistan.
Thus, the data suggest that due to differences in regional development there are differences in the female literacy between different regions of Pakistan. This also signals towards the disparity in the major choices of women in these regions.
As a result of the above discussion regarding the regional differences, the following hypothesis is proposed to test:
Hypothesis 4: Belonging to a certain region can affect the major choices of women.
Methodology
To test the four hypotheses, an online survey was designed. Surveys are utilitarian tools that enable the researcher to gain “rich accounts” from a large number of people in a very fast and cost-effective manner. In addition to the rich accounts, the surveys maintain the anonymity of the participants so that participants can answer all the sensitive questions with ease (McGuirk and O’Neill 2010). However, there are some limitations regarding the distribution of online surveys i.e., the non-availability of gadgets in rural regions to take online surveys.
The survey for this research paper contained 12 questions related to the background information, 5 questions related to the factors affecting the major choices of women, and finally, 4 questions related to the post-graduation plans. All the questions included in the online survey were deeply connected to the research question so that all the questions asked from the participants were purposeful (McGuirk and O’Neill 2010).
Firstly, in the ‘background section’, questions related to the age, province, family’s income, number of siblings, the gender of siblings, education, and occupation of the parents were asked. Secondly, in the ‘factors affecting the major choices of women’s section’ the following questions were raised: inquiries related to the motivation of the study; the reaction of the parents to the individual’s chosen major; if the decision to study a particular major was influenced by cultural and social factors and the reason for the increased unemployment. Finally, in the ‘after graduation plans section’, questions related to marriage, future plans, and how one weighs family over career were asked.
Findings
Household annual Income
This section will explain whether income influences the college major choices in Pakistan or not. Firstly, to test hypothesis 1, we looked at the family’s annual income of 500 women employed in this research. Figure 2 below shows that out of 500 women surveyed, 22 women had an annual family income below $500, 70 women had a family’s annual income between $500-$1500, 158 women had a family’s annual income between $1500-$3000, 98 women came from the families which had an annual income between $4000-$8000, 122 women belonged to the families which annual had between $8000-$15000 and finally, 30 women belonged to the families which had an annual income of $15000 and above.
In the figure below I will show the major choices corresponding to income.
Hypothesis 1 was confirmed: It can be seen from figure 3 above that when the family’s income is more than women belonging to those families would pursue studying STEM majors and in the families where the annual income is lower than the majority of the women would study non-STEM majors. This means there is a direct correlation between the family’s annual income and major choices (Hossler and Gallagher l987; Van de Werfhorst 2017).
Moreover, the annual income of the families also affects the perception people hold about the individuals. During the survey, many women pointed out that they study the non-STEM majors because due to their family’s economic status they were considered inferior and less able as compared to women whose parents had a higher annual income. Hence, due to these stereotypes, many women opted for non-STEM majors as it was instructed to the females from lower annual income families that the STEM majors are for the ‘able’ and ‘brainy’ individuals who belonged to advantaged families (How stereotypes reinforce inequalities in primary school 2021).
An important thing noted in the survey results was that in some middle-class families STEM majors were greatly appreciated by the parents as they wanted their sons to be engineers and girls to be doctors. This shows that the daughter’s decision to opt for a STEM major was influenced by her parents. However, in some cases, even if the household annual income was high but the women still opted for non-STEM majors and it was mainly because the decision to choose a certain major was taken by the daughters themselves and their parents did not influence their decision.
Parental Education
Hypothesis 2 was confirmed: Figure 4 below shows the highest level of education attained by the parents and the major choices of their daughters. It can be seen that there is a positive correlation between the high education level of the parents and the daughter choosing a STEM major in college. The parents whose education is middle school and high school, their daughters mainly study non-STEM majors. Whereas, the parents who are highly qualified and have attained master’s and Ph.D. degrees, their daughters mainly study STEM majors. Moreover, it can be seen that the parents who are not educated at all, a very high percentage of their daughter’s study non-STEM majors. Concerning the above findings, it can be said that the parent’s education level has a positive correlation with the major choices of women and this confirms the parents with low education influence their daughters to study non-STEM majors. This conclusion is also supported by Bandura’s (1989) Social cognitive theory as environment, behavior, and people are all correlated bidirectionally.
The reasoning behind the above correlation is that the education level of the parents is directly linked to the ideas the parents hold about the gender norms, and they then pass on such beliefs, norms, and roles to their daughters from a very early age as well. Moreover, from the above data gathered through the survey we can say that the less educated the parents are, the more traditional views they will hold about the roles of gender. In the online survey one woman studying at LUMS university, which is the most expensive private university in Pakistan gave a detailed response regarding her major choice. She said, “both of my parents work and hold a master’s degree。 I believe their experiences and high education helped them in supporting me in breaking the stereotypes and shielding me from all the traditional stereotypes that women are only able to excel in non-STEM majors”. This shows that increased support, encouragement, adequate advising, and mentorship from the parents enable many women to pursue STEM majors and thus, breaking the traditional beliefs regarding the major. This conclusion is further supported by Astin and Sax (1996) who say that there is a greater chance for a girl to pursue a STEM major if either of her parents were from the STEM field because having a mentor or a role model in the form of parents is highly important in decision making (Seymour and Hewitt 1997).
Post-graduation plans
Hypothesis 3 was confirmed: The figure 5 below shows how the post-graduation plans affect the major choices of women. The data shows that if women are ambitious and want to work then there are higher chances that they would be opting for a STEM major as compared to women who do not intend to pursue their careers and plan to get married and then stay at their homes and obey their husband’s wishes (Metcalf 2004 and Woods 1976).
In addition, during the in-depth surveys, I also found that many women who planned to get married right after their graduation believed that graduating with a STEM field may make it difficult for them to get married and have children. They believed that studying technical majors would bring them at a disadvantage in the “marriage market” as compared to the females who would be studying non-STEM majors. Moreover, some said that even though studying for a STEM major would not have an effect on them getting married but a career in such technical fields would definitely influence their chances of having children and making a family. Hence, “it’s these differences in fertility over the life-cycle which are sort of pushing females out of science and business and into humanities” (Zafar 2013).
Regional Variations
Hypothesis 4 was confirmed: It can be seen from Figure 6 below that 100 women were surveyed per region. The highest number of women who study STEM majors is in Islamabad which accounts for 44%. It is also important to note that as mentioned earlier, ICT also has the highest literacy rate. After Islamabad, the highest number of women studying STEM majors are in Punjab province which is 40%. After that comes the Sindh province which has 37%, then comes the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where only 17% of women study STEM majors. Finally, the lowest number of women studying STEM majors are from the Baluchistan province which is 3%. Again as noted above there seems to be a high correlation between literacy rates, development of the region, and women studying STEM majors in that region. The more developed a province is, the more likely the women will be literate there and pursuing STEM majors.
With the help of the online survey, some other key findings were also noted regarding why belonging to a certain region affects the major choices of women. A female studying at a university in Balochistan answered that “I was interested in majoring in mathematics but I could not do so because the university in Balochistan did not offer Mathematics and my parents could not afford to send me to a university in another province that offered a STEM major”. Hence, she decided to pursue a major in psychology. Another girl studying in a university in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province answered that she was now studying literature but at first she wanted to major in Biology. She could not major in Biology because “the university which offered this major did not offer any hostel facilities and since I did not belong to an affluent family which could help me rent a house nearby so I decided to study at the university which offered a hostel at affordable rates. However, the university which offered hostel facilities did not offer a Biology major”. This shows that the lack of STEM universities, resources in the region, and hostel facilities which are also the determinants of the prosperity of the region leave women with a difficult choice to choose the majors which are only available to them at ease and those are namely non-STEM majors.
The most important factor which influences the college major choices of women
In this section, I will analyze the aforementioned four factors which affect the college major choices of women in Pakistan in order to find out which is the most important factor which influences the college major choices of women in the country.
Figure 7 above shows that all of the factors i.e., family’s annual income, parental education, post-graduation plans, and belonging to a certain region play an important role in influencing the major choices of women however, post-graduation plans are of great importance and due to those many women opt for non-STEM majors. In a similar vein, belonging to a certain region is also very important because it would influence other factors such as the educational level of the parents, annual income, etc. This is because if you live in a highly developed region then it means that your parents would be highly qualified and would be earning a handsome salary otherwise, it is not possible to survive in very expensive cities. Moreover, parental education and family’s annual income are also important factors but they are not as significantly affecting the major choices of women as compared to the aforementioned factors. From the graph above it can also be seen that a family’s low annual income is the least important factor which influences women to choose a non-STEM major. This findings is also supported by Hu and Wu (2017) who found out that women belonging to affluent families are highly likely to opt for non-STEM majors.
Summary and Conclusion
With the help of the data collected through the online survey, it can be concluded that common themes such as family’s annual income, parental education, post-graduation plans, and belonging to a region influence the choices for a STEM major and non-STEM major in college. In addition, out of these four factors, the most important factor was the post-graduation plans of women but it must be taken into account that post-graduation plans are mainly influenced by other factors as well such as cultural factors.
After analyzing the results it was also found out that some of the aforementioned factors were consistent with the scholarly work mentioned in the literature review while some of the findings were not consistent with the past research done on the reasons behind why more women study non-STEM majors.
The research findings above show the gendering of major choices at the university level. Although the undertaken sample size was small and the nature of it was random but it helped in showing the prevailing effect of gender on major choices. There is a significant gender difference in individuals pursuing STEM vs non-STEM majors. Men are dominating the STEM major as they aim to secure well-paid jobs and work for their families. Whereas, women are mainly content with the non-STEM majors. These majors then lead to less demanding and competitive jobs and these jobs align with the gender roles associated with females in Pakistani society. This is because the aspirations of women are limited and it leads to a pessimistic impact on their prospects as they do not go for occupations that would lead to higher returns. (Metz et al., 2009).
Moreover, when a depth analysis through an online survey was conducted on the factors leading to lack of women undertaking STEM majors in Pakistan, a positive correlation was seen between belonging to a less developed region of Pakistan, low education level of parents, no concrete post-graduation plans, and low annual income of the family with women choosing non-STEM majors. In addition, it was seen that post-graduation plans are the most influential factor while women choose non-STEM college majors. If the aforementioned reasons for this disparity in major choices are understood by the policymakers and enough reforms are brought to empower women then women will be able to have access to a wider variety of major choices. This will lead to a better lifestyle for women and help improve Pakistan’s economy in general. This is because women being 50% of the country’s population (Population Stat 2021) can help in increasing the growth rate of the economy if they form a part of the labor force because this would then lead to increasing the percentage of Pakistan’s workforce and the overall rate of productivity in the secondary and tertiary sector. In addition, educated women holding degrees in a diverse range of subjects can lead to a diverse pool of knowledge being imparted to younger generations and then leading to the empowerment of the future generations because women play a more significant role than men in the development and grooming of children.
Discussion
In this section, I will firstly discuss the steps that can be taken by the Ministry of Education in Pakistan or the Government of Pakistan to improve the number of women pursuing STEM majors. Next, I will explain the significance and limitations of this study.
The suggestions for the policymakers are as follow:
1) To lower the inequality between men and women who study STEM majors, it is important to improve the curriculum so that the gender disparity in STEM majors can be narrowed down. According to Koch and Gorges (2016), if there is the incorporation of STEM-related majors during the early years of schooling for women, then the interest of females can increase in these majors. This would help to boost the participation of women in science-related majors and also lower the stereotypes and self-perceptions. Moreover, an effective curriculum with the incorporation of STEM subjects and its impacts on the economy can provide educators with insights into the benefits of having varied careers and skills amongst women. As a result, having STEM-related subjects in curriculums would not only help in motivating women but also inspire the educators to promote STEM majors amongst their female students.
2) In addition, it is also important for the government to invest in higher education especially in the STEM majors as it would help ease the access to STEM majors for women. A higher capacity would encourage women to take STEM majors and help in improving economic productivity. Having graduated from STEM majors is very important in the world today because “graduates in these fields are seen as the basic driving force behind international competitiveness, innovation, and productivity growth economy-wide” (Rask 2010, p. 1). Thus the government must allocate a higher budget towards the promotion of STEM majors for women to promote economic development in Pakistan.
3) Another strategy that can be used to attract a larger number of women in the STEM fields is to incorporate an interdisciplinary approach towards it. As an example, a major such as the one introduced at NYU Shanghai: Interactive Media Arts, should be introduced in various universities in Pakistan. This is because this major does not only teach science but in addition, it also incorporates humanities i.e., Arts in it. This type of major would not only help women in guiding dialogue and inquiry but critical thinking as well. As a result, more women would be interested to pursue STEM fields along with arts to diversify themselves, and this would overall increase the exposure of women to both STEM and non-STEM majors (Guyotte et al., 2016).
4) Finally, according to Huhman (2016), “…women hold only 27% of all computer science jobs, and that number is not growing” (p.1). This shows that there should be an increase in the mentoring programs before the females enter the university or during their freshman year. This would allow them to have access to STEM majors, meet the prerequisites for such majors, and then finally, have ease of settling into STEM majors. There have been different authors in the past such as Green (1997) and West et al., (2010) who have researched the relationship between support during early education with the major choices of women. Early parental support and mentoring education are vital for encouraging women to opt for STEM majors and reducing the deficit of women in STEM majors in developing countries. Such assistance and encouragement can lead to majors sustainability, broaden knowledge and make women take on STEM majors (Organisation for Economic cooperation and development 2014).
Overall, this research paper is important for a variety of reasons. Firstly, not sufficient research has been conducted in this area and broadly speaking not a lot of scholars have studied women, their education, and their presence in the workforce in general. Also, as compared to global research, the research done in the context of Pakistan is very minimal and especially through the lens of a Pakistani researcher. This is mainly driven by sexism in the society where the focus is on males and hence not a lot of literature is available about women in this context. Moreover, even though gender has been looked at as an important factor for the discrimination of women in STEM majors but areas such as the correlation of socioeconomic status and major choices have been overlooked by many scholars (Mixon 2007). As a result, this study took into account such underlying factors which push women away from choosing STEM majors. Finally, this research is important for the government of Pakistan because “Gender differences in college major account for much of the gender gap in teaching, health care, teaching, engineering/computer, and service occupations” (Joy 2006, p. 239). Thus, through a better understanding of the reasons behind the major selections of women this disparity in the major choices can be reduced.
However, since the primary method has been employed to gather data for this research so there are limitations of the primary research as well. Firstly women were randomly chosen from different institutions and unintentionally more women from the liberal arts universities could have been picked and not from the specific STEM universities. This could have led to deviating the results. Moreover,the women who voluntarily participated in this study might have differing opinions and features to the women who did not volunteer to take part in the study i.e., women who participated in the research might be very motivated and like to share about themselves. Hence, this can make it difficult to extrapolate the results of this research to a larger population.
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Appendix 1: Consent Form for the Research
Appendix 2: Qualtrics Survey
Background Information (12 Questions)
Factors affecting the subject choices of women (5 Questions)
After graduation (4 Questions)
Background Information
Q1 Age
o 0–10 (5)
o 10–20 (6)
o 20–30 (7)
o 30–40 (8)
o 40–50 (9)
o 50–60 (10)
o 60+ (11)
Q2 Which province are you from?
o Punjab (1)
o Balochistan (2)
o Sindh (3)
o Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (4)
o Islamabad Capital Territory (5)
Q3 Family’s annual income?
o Below $500 (1)
o $500-$1500 (2)
o $1500-$3000 (3)
o $4000-$8000 (4)
o $8000-$15000 (5)
o $15000 and above (6)
Q4 Number of siblings?
o no sibling (1)
o 1 (5)
o 2 (2)
o 3 (3)
o 4 or 4+ (4)
Q5 Gender of the siblings?
▢ Male (1)
▢ Female (2)
▢ Non-binary/third gender (3)
▢ Prefer not to say (4)
Q6 What’s your field of study?
▢ Social Sciences (1)
▢ Science (2)
▢ Engineering (3)
▢ Medicine (4)
▢ Arts (5)
▢ Psychology (7)
▢ Sociology (8)
▢ Mathematics (9)
▢ Technology/ IT (10)
▢ Humanities (11)
▢ Business (13)
▢ Economics (14)
▢ Other (15) ________________________________________________
Q7 Do you go to a public or private university?
o Public (1)
o Private (2)
Q8 What’s the highest level of education attained by your father?
o Middle school (1)
o High School (2)
o Bachelors (3)
o Masters (4)
o Ph.D. (5)
o No schooling (6)
Q9 What’s the highest level of education attained by your mother?
o Middle school (1)
o High School (2)
o Bachelors (3)
o Masters (4)
o Ph.D. (5)
o No schooling (6)
Q10 Father’s occupation?
o Click to write Choice 1 (1) ________________________________________________
Q11 Mother’s occupation?
o Click to write Choice 1 (1) ________________________________________________
Q12 Name of your university?
o Click to write Choice 1 (1) ________________________________________________
Factors affecting the major choices of women
Q13 Why are you studying the chosen subject?
o have a passion for it (1)
o influenced by family (2)
o easy (4)
o high demand for the major in the job market (5)
o many girls go in this field (6)
o other (3) ________________________________________________
Q15 What was the reaction of your parents to your chosen subject?
o Satisfied (1)
o Unsatisfied (2)
o Other (3)
Q16 Do you think your decision to study a particular subject was influenced by cultural and social factors?
o Yes (1)
o No (2)
o Maybe (3)
Q17 Do you think in some way you were provided with limited options when choosing subjects?
o Definitely yes (1)
o Probably yes (2)
o Might or might not (3)
o Probably not (4)
o Definitely not (5)
Q18 What do you think are the possible reasons for increased female unemployment in the country?
o Click to write Choice 1 (1) ________________________________________________
After graduation
Q19 What are your plans after graduation?
▢ work (1)
▢ stay at home (2)
▢ get married (3)
▢ other (4) ________________________________________________
Q20 Do you plan to get married?
o Definitely yes (1)
o Probably yes (2)
o Might or might not (3)
o No (4)
Q21 Is it essential for you to get married and have children?
o Definitely yes (1)
o Probably yes (2)
o Might or might not (3)
o Probably not (4)
o Definitely not (5)
Q22 How do you weigh marriage/family over career?
o Click to write Choice 1 (1) ________________________________________________
