Written evidence submitted by Bournemouth University (DIV0026)

Written evidence submitted by Dr Mili Shrivastava, on behalf of Bournemouth University, to the Science and Technology Committee’s call for evidence for the Diversity in STEM inquiry.

Dr Mili Shrivastava is a senior academic in Strategy at the University of Bournemouth with a PhD in Economics from Max Planck, Germany and a Masters in Mathematics with Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Dr Mili is an expert in Women in Tech, Women Entrepreneurship, Inclusivity and Sustainability. Mili has authored and co-authored several research and media articles on women. Her work has a global reach and she engages with national and international organisations on gender, inclusivity and sustainability on various projects.

This evidence addresses two of the Committee’s questions:

1.     The reasons why women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in STEM

2.     What could and should be done by the UK Government, UK Research and Innovation, other funding bodies, industry and academia to address the issues identified.

Executive Summary

The interrelation of structural and normative barriers diminishing the number of women and ethnic minorities entering the STEM profession can be addressed by:

o tailoring the information, advice and resources accessed according to the cultural differences in each ethnic group and gender

o avoiding a one-method-suits-all approach within national strategies and marketing

o increasing national awareness of the plethora of jobs and financial gain within STEM employment

o raising parental awareness of the benefits a STEM career will provide for their children

o combining local and regional approaches in addition to national campaigns – pilot approaches and roll out successes

o harnessing the power of the media and mainstream education to showcase role models

o push higher-level education and training to underrepresented groups

The reasons for the underrepresentation of Women and Ethnic Minorities -

Gender Gap in STEM:

1. The UK aims to achieve gender and race neutrality in the STEM population. The underrepresentation of women (including white women) and ethnic minority groups in STEM is a persistent challenge for the UK. The proportion of women in the tech roles has been stagnant at 16% for many years though there is an upward trajectory in the proportions of women in engineering roles.[1]

2. The factors that impede the entry of women and ethnic minority girls need unpacking to devise tailored strategies. The barriers can be classified as: structural and normative. Structural barriers are the lack of access to appropriate resources and information that impede young girls' exposure to resources and information that affects the likelihood of choosing STEM disciplines.

3. These barriers include lack of access to resources such as school support, practical teaching and learning methods, and family financial resources that hinder the entry of younger girls into STEM. School, familial and community support systems that do not match the resources needed to generate interest and allow young girls to pursue an interest in STEM subjects are highly influential factors in underrepresentation within STEM.

4. Although girls outperform boys throughout primary and secondary school,[2] girls from disadvantaged families are the lowest performers in STEM, demonstrating structural factors.[3]

5. Normative barriers such as social beliefs, values, standards and expectations are fundamental in deterring the entry of women and ethnic minorities from STEM, particularly as they may self-selecting themselves out. The expectations of family and society shape self-understanding while encouraging compliance with these expectations.[4] Normative barriers are a significant influence preventing underrepresented groups from entering STEM careers. Normative barriers are present from birth and set in far earlier than the structural barriers, making them particularly influential on the young child. The role of normative barriers is evident from the startling fact that although girls outperform boys at GSCE level in STEM disciplines in the UK, they self-select themselves out and do not study STEM disciplines in higher education.[5]

6. Parents are less keen to visualise technology or science disciplines as professions for their daughters than their sons. It is crucial to note that parents express lesser intention for their daughters to choose careers in technology in the UK.[6] Parents describe science subjects as masculine and believe that science is more for men than women to study and decide as a profession.[7] Furthermore, the rationale for such beliefs swayed between biological characteristics, socio-cultural and structural inequalities. The mindset of UK parents is compulsive compared to some other parts of the world. In countries where gender parity in STEM exists, it is due to actively encouraging girls' participation[8] and positive influence from family to study STEM subjects.[9]

7. Young girls align with parental beliefs and follow non-STEM subjects, often longing for a career that echoes notions of care that fit with the traditional and dominant constructions of femininity. Girls express that pursuing a career in science is unimaginable as it does not gel with their femininity.[10] Due to gendered notions, girls also feel that their best subjects were non-STEM subjects, although they outperform male students in both STEM and non-STEM subjects. Furthermore, girls are less likely to think STEM subjects lead to employment when compared to males and hence choose non-STEM subjects at A levels.[11]

8. Teachers also stereotype STEM subjects and attribute girls' versus boys' success to different traits.[12] For example, girls success in physics is attributed to 'hard work' and boys' success 'naturally bright', although they do not perform as well as girls.[13] Thus, the normative barriers can make the battle lost for young girls seeking legitimacy from their family and social context. Girls' career choices, influenced by the environment and outside factors, guide them to work in 'female' industries that do not necessarily reflect their academic abilities. The lack of young girls and ethnic minority groups from STEM disciplines and high technology fields is worrying when the use of technology in our everyday lives has increased rapidly due to the coronavirus pandemic. Not just for diversity, women are also needed in STEM for technologies that are more inclusive for a sustainable world.[14]

The ethnic gap in STEM:

9. The gap in STEM is not merely gender-specific; ethnic minorities are vastly underrepresented in STEM fields across both education and the workforce.[15] As little as 2% of BAME women are engineering professionals, and BAME women in senior leadership positions are negligible.[16]

10. The ethnic minority groups exhibit the trend of girls outperforming boys in education attainment. However, as girls grow older and reach key stage 5, the trend slightly reverses,[17] suggesting that normative factors kick in with more significant influence that crumbles the interest in STEM as a potential place where girls see themselves as belonging in the future.

11. For ethnic minority women, the intersectionality of gender and race aggravates the impact with which structural and normative factors can play a role in shaping the mindset for pursuing STEM.

12. Intergenerational transition of normative factors and social mobility of the migrant population is crucial as some of these cultures do not stereotype STEM, such as India, which has the highest STEM entry from girls.[18]

13. Rather than a broad umbrella of ethnic communities, it is essential to unpack the challenges faced by girls from different ethnic groups. For example, cultural norms and family are more dominant for young girls from Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic communities.[19] My research highlights that normative factors play a decisive role for Bangladeshi women even when structural barriers are eased. Meaning initiatives to increase Bangladeshi women representation in STEM may need to be specifically targeted to overcome the obstacles.

14. Black boys and girls start school with performance in line with national averages however fall behind by the age of 16. Gender gaps in subjects like Maths and English have narrowed down in all ethnic groups however have widened in the early year's foundation stage profile in Pakistani and Bangladeshi students.[20]

15. Thus, a deeper understanding of various ethnic minority groups and their contexts to devise strategies is required rather than adapting one approach suits all. There is variation in the scale and scope of gendered gaps within ethnic communities due to normative barriers. Structural barriers add to gendered gaps due to access and availability of resources. It is crucial to understand that the role of the structural barriers cannot be relaxed as normative barriers that influence gender, ethnicity, or intersection are not the sole drivers of girls' underrepresentation.

16. Understanding the role of these normative and structural barriers is crucial. There could be an interplay of both the factors; however, one could dominate another in a particular minority group context. My research suggests that even when structural barriers are dismantled, normative barriers inhibit the progression of women.[21] Girls from affluent white or ethnic minority groups are equally likely to be bound by normative barriers which discourage them from entering STEM.

17. Lack of women and diversity in STEM is worrying. They will be unprepared to thrive in the era of technological revolutions and enter decent jobs irrespective of the sector.[22]

What can be done by the Government?

18. Structural Barriers can be addressed by policies that foster access to resources and support to girls from all the groups interested in pursuing STEM. There has been emphasis on countering structural barriers from the UK government in several initiatives such as advance maths premium.[23] There has been a positive impact from these initiatives; however, it is long to close the gender and ethnic gap in STEM.[24]

19. Society and Family are a foundation for attitudes and aspirations. The normative factors drive the pipeline effect of STEM in the case of young white girls. UK parents are not keen to encourage their children into technology, and both parents and teachers have admitted to gender stereotyping STEM subjects. Thus, Government should pay attention to normative barriers in a coordinated and focused manner. I suggest below how Government can address this.

20. Rather than putting all ethnicities in the BAME umbrella, appropriately tailored strategies to tackle the persistent barriers are required at the national, local and regional levels. Government should devise tailored strategies guided by a unified vision countering variation within ethnic minority groups involving schools, regional organisations and communities.

21. A proper direction for policy intervention in the future is to unpack the effect of normative barriers amongst ethnic communities and devise specific strategies to counter them by involving communities, champions of different ethnic backgrounds and stakeholders at various levels regionally and nationally guided by a unified approach at the national level. A pilot can start with a region with the most negligible participation of girls into STEM involving regional communities, organisations, and stakeholders that can later scale across the UK upon successful evaluation.

22. Role models are a powerful way of inspiring young minds, and there are many instances of success among minority communities. Celebration of the champions who overcame the barriers of gender and ethnicity through extensive media campaigns is needed as it has an influential role in influencing both girls and parents due to their reach. The Government can encourage schools to incorporate these into their taught themes. Schools can have the scope to adapt to the content as per their pupil's ethnicities' distribution if needed. There is a need to create channels for close positive interaction of young girls with their gender and ethnic role models through meeting-the-expert days.

23. Exposure to diverse women scientists and innovators in curriculums from a young age can signal that woman as much as men belong to science. National curriculums from KS 1 should incorporate topics on gender-inclusive science and showcasing scientists that are women and/or from a diversity of backgrounds.

24. Perceiving the economic opportunity in technological fields can change the perception of parents and can soften the normative factors.[25] Indian parents encourage their daughters for STEM fields due to good career prospects that have made India have more girls in tech than many other countries in the world.[26] Technology sectors are high growth sectors, and STEM degrees are the top degrees from the pay and demand aspects.[27]

25. There is a need for innovative strategies to encourage young people to enter tech sectors irrespective of gender, ethnicity and educational background. There is diversity within job profiles in tech sectors, creating awareness of the plethora of job opportunities tech sectors offer that require no technical education. These could also dovetail with the UK's sector skills gaps and new technical training routes. An emphasis or beneficial reward schemes for companies who recruit increased levels of girls and ethnic minorities (into employment or apprenticeships) may also drive demand at a local level.

January 2022

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