Women’s Participation and Factors Affecting Their Academic Performance in Engineering and Technology Education: A Study of Ethiopia

Addissie Melak and Seema Singh
Additional contact information
Addissie Melak: Department of Humanities, Delhi Technological University, Delhi 110042, India
Seema Singh: Department of Humanities, Delhi Technological University, Delhi 110042, India

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Academic performance is one of the reasons for gender imbalance in STEM education. This study has two objectives: analyzing women’s participation in STEM education and investigating the factors affecting women’s achievements in Engineering and Technology university majors in Ethiopia. Secondary data have been analyzed to establish women’s involvement in STEM education using enrollment and graduation data and to observe the gender gap. Primary data were collected from 376 women students of engineering and technology. The OLS multiple regression model results reveal that the academic performance of women in engineering and technology education is positively influenced by students’ capabilities to gather information about the institution before joining the university. Interventions followed by institutions for supporting women students, peer learning habits of students, and the accessibility of university infrastructure also positively affect women’s academic performance. In contrast, sexual harassment and the existence of engineering and technology professionals in the family negatively influence the academic performance of women. Hence, educational organizations, governments, and other stakeholders should work to enhance women’s academic performance and reduce the gender gap in STEM education. Engineering colleges must also give attention to students’ psychological, economic, and educational support, try to fulfill infrastructure and learning equipment, and protect students from sexual harassment through strong commitment and regulations.

Keywords: women’s academic performance; engineering and technology education; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/2246/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/4/2246/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:4:p:2246-:d:502065

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().