Opportunities and Challenges

### **Chapter 5**

## Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed for Women and under Represented Minorities (URMs)

*Dwight Figueiredo*

#### **Abstract**

Previous studies have shown STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines to have low representation by women and certain minorities (i.e. gender, race and ethnic minorities). Higher up the academic ladder, the higher the gap in parity between the majority and minority groups in STEM suggesting a leaky pipeline caused due to higher attrition of women and minorities. Prevailing conscious as well as subconscious gender-science stereotypes, lack of sense of belonging towards male-dominated STEM disciplines, hostile campus environments and negative student-faculty interactions, lack of diversity in the academic hiring process and in journal editorial committees and understanding of academic metrics are to be considered when hiring minorities play a role in establishing and maintaining the leaky academic pipeline. Women & URMs tend to possess significant homophily in academic networks and collaborations impacting scientific productivity and quality recently exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 lead to lower initiation of new projects—particularly faced by minorities groups in STEM—thereby possibly impacting productivity for years to come. Proposals for making STEM education and jobs more equitable need to be formulated and taken up as a priority if science and its wide-reaching impacts have to truly serve all people.

**Keywords:** gender equity, racial equity, diversity, URMs, inclusivity, STEM, homophily, science-gender stereotypes

#### **1. Introduction**

There is growing evidence that women and minorities are underrepresented in various STEM educational fields and in the STEM related workforce [1–3]. However, all STEM disciplines are not equivalent in terms of gender and minority representation, with some being at parity while some being highly underrepresented- for e.g. gender representation in the Health and Life Sciences disciplines are at parity

compared to representation in physical sciences, mathematics, computer sciences & engineering having high gender gaps [3–5].

These differences are even more pronounced when we consider senior jobs/ positions higher up the academic ladder in STEM fields- posts of associate professor, professor, dean, and departmental chair in various departments and research intensive institutes [6, 7]. The reasons for the surprisingly low numbers of women and minorities in these positions of scientific credibility and stature are being investigated, given that there is a relatively higher percentage of women and minorities that graduate and enter into junior academic ranks/posts (i.e. research associate, assistant professors etc.) in those very same disciplines. Many studies have proposed a leaky pipeline model suggesting that there are many points along the academic tenure track route at which women and minorities drop out of STEM fields [8]. Interestingly, many studies have cited possible explanations for such high attrition rates out of academia, and some have even called for change at the institutional policy and government and international scientific governing body level [9–13]. However, the practicality and feasibility of implementing these strategies in the current male indoctrinated scientific environment remains to be understood.

The good part is that scientists, scientific governing bodies, academic teaching and research institutions/organizations, publishing houses and scientific review boards are starting to recognize such disparities and implement policy changes at different levels to mitigate such systemic bias against minorities [14–18]. Online social media campaigns such as 'Black in Neuro' and 'Black in Immunology' week have made people aware of the minority black community within their fraternity [19–23]. These campaigns also serve to highlight contributions made in the field that often go unrecognized, and to encourage providing more favorable space for such isolated voiceless communities in scientific workspaces.

Given that such recognition is happening at various levels, it is important for decision making administrative bodies to make sustainable decisions in every sphere based on rigorous high quality data. This will ensure a slow sustainable change that will rout out systemic racism but at the same time will also maintain and facilitate high quality and innovative cutting-edge research. Keeping this in mind, in this book chapter, we plan to review studies that have focused their questions on minority representation in STEM education, research, related jobs in academia, productivity, and various systemic barriers and possible facilitators that affect minority groups in STEM. Portraying such data in an unbiased and accurate manner would help tackle the issues at the roots of such problems keeping away unnecessary favoritism that could ruin the competitive streak existing in STEM.

#### **2. Selection of studies**

The following search terms were used in different combinations in 'Google scholar', Pubmed (Medline), preprints and grey literature sources to identify articles related to the topic: Gender Inequality, Gender Inequity, Gender Equity, Racial Inequity, Under Represented Minorities (URMs), STEM, Science Technology Engineering and Maths, Gender bias, Women in STEM, Pay Gap, Leaky Pipeline in STEM, Racial Discrimination, Ethnic Minorities, COVID-19, Homophily, Sense of Belonging, and Gender-Science Stereotypes. Studies were identified based on search strings generated from different combination of search terms pertaining to each of

*Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

the following areas: Inequalities in STEM education: Gender and Ethnicity (Gender Science Stereotypes: Implicit and Explicit perception, Retention in STEM: Sense of belonging); STEM workplaces & education: A hostile climate for minorities (Racial Microaggressions (RMAs), Student-faculty relationships: Race and gender differences); Recruitment to academic positions: Minorities underrepresented; Gap in pay for equal work: Minorities bear the brunt; Need for diversity at the top: highlighting the need for editorial board diversity; Women and URMs at the top- winds of change; Homophily among collaborative networks: A barrier to impact, diversity and productivity; Covid-19: its impact on the productivity and attrition rates in STEM- Analysis of the groups most affected; and Suggestions to encourage women and minority groups to access STEM education and remain in the academic pipeline. Documents were screened using abstracts and primary studies (studies that collected and analyzed data) pertaining to the above headings((abstracts were screened) were included in the review. No reviews (qualitative or quantitative meta-analysis) were considered for analysis, however back-referencing of reviews were carried out to further identify articles pertaining to the 10 included domains.

#### **3. Inequalities in STEM education: gender and ethnicity**

#### **3.1 Gender science stereotypes: implicit and explicit perception**

Many large scale bibliometric studies have shown that there are gaps in numbers as well as highlighted the possible mechanisms responsible for such gaps in many fields in STEM education that persist until today. These differences could be attributed to varying underlying factors which could be location and context specific. A cross sectional study of 4, 93,495 students (2 major international datasets- 2003 trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, and the Programme for International Student Assessment) analyzing gender differences in mathematics achievements, attitudes and affect revealed that boys have a more positive attitude and affect towards mathematics but there is no significant difference between mathematical achievement scores between sexes (Mean effect sizes d < 0.15). High country wise variability in this study could be attributed to powerful predictors of cross-national variability in gender gaps in math such as equity in school enrollment, women's parliamentary representation, and women's share of research jobs [24]. Similarly, a study of 35,000 participants in 66 nations (involving the same data sets as the study above [24]) provided evidence that increased female enrollment in tertiary science education was related to weaker (implicit and explicit) national gender science stereotypes. Increased women's employment in the research workforce leads to weaker explicit but not implicit gender stereotypes. Interestingly, implicit gender science stereotypes persisted in college educated participants [25]. A cross-sectional study among 1364 Swiss students investigating the masculinity image of chemistry, physics and mathematics has revealed that these subjects have a predominant masculinity attribution, both among female as well as male secondary school students. Interestingly, students who were studying in non-STEM subjects showed greater masculinity attribution to these science subjects. Moreover, these attributions as male dominated subjects have potential impacts on STEM major career aspirations among these students- the more pronounced the masculine image attributed to a subject; the less likely would be the aspirations to major in that subject, particularly among female students [26].

#### **3.2 Retention in STEM: sense of belonging**

Sense of belonging is also a crucial aspect that has been shown to influence decision making with regards to choosing STEM subjects as a major in college. Evidence pointed out that women of color were the least likely to experience this sense of belonging in STEM disciplines, with sub-discipline representation having an impact. This study reported that sense of belonging was significantly influenced by personal interest, science identity, interpersonal relationships, and perceived competence [27]. Studies in Computer Science revealed that sense of belonging affected minority students' interest to pursue CS courses and negative correlated with regards to course outcomes in terms of pass rates and course performance. These studies are of relevance for informing the necessary changes for addressing self identified minority students with a lower sense of belonging [28–30]. Another study using visual narratives and item response theory to quantify sense of belonging in a research-focused STEM department further provided evidence that graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who identify as underrepresented were less likely to experience a sense of belonging [31].

In conclusion these studies point to the fact that girls/women in particular have preconceived notions regarding choice of subjects and career aspirations in STEM based on prevailing cultural-gender stereotypes. Ironically these cultural-gender stereotypes have been built in by society and are not based on intellectual ability, capability, suitability or productivity which has been shown to be not significantly different in a number of studies. However, these science gender stereotypes are hard-wired and culturally ingrained, leading to its implicit as well as explicit expression within the community, which would require persistent systemic and individual efforts to undermine it.

#### **4. STEM workplaces and education: a hostile climate for minorities**

Studies have shown that sexual harassment, discrimination, and micro-aggressions in women and minority groups are prevalent and reported with high level of variability among different minority STEM student populations [32–35]. In recent years much attention has been drawn towards sexual harassment and misconduct particularly on college campuses leading to deterrent policies being implemented at all levels. However, recent evidence points to the fact that women, and particularly minorities (intersection between race, gender, and orientation-i.e. black women, lesbians and bisexual women of colour) are most susceptible to subtle forms of discrimination at different academic related settings.Of note, students who identified themselves as part of the sexual minority population on campus (for example, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer) had a 7% lower likelihood of persisting after four years in major STEM fields. This longitudinal study was conducted among 4162 STEM-aspiring college students across 78 institutions providing STEM majors in the fourth year of college. Interestingly, the authors observed that gender minority students were more likely to participate in undergraduate research programs, and the conventional gender disparity in STEM retention (i.e more males versus female retention) was reversed among STEM sexual women minority groups. However, overall, this study showed that minority men persisting in STEM fields were higher than that for minority women [36].

Such feelings of isolation among minority groups on campus for both genders are no different than at STEM workplaces. In a study examining the experiences faced by the LGBTQ community in STEM–representative survey data from 21 STEM *Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

professional societies– showed that LGBTQ STEM professionals experienced harassment, career limitations, and professional devaluation as compared to their non-LGBTQ peers after controlling for demographic, discipline, and job factors (LGBTQ sample = 25,324; NLGBTQ = 1006). The authors highlight that despite LGBTQ professionals having equal commitment, work ethic and academic qualifications, they were more likely to have health issues while at work, and were more likely to intend to quit STEM than their non-LGBTQ peers. These results persisted across STEM disciplines and employment sectors thereby leading the authors to conclude that the LGBTQ status is a clear axis of inequality in STEM [37].

#### **4.1 Racial micro-aggressions (RMAs)**

Given the high prevalence of attitudes towards attrition both on campus and in the professional space, few studies have investigated potential mechanisms leading to such isolated hopeless feelings. Some studies on college campuses have suggested that minorities in many STEM fields are subject to subtle micro-aggression imposed by the majority- either implicitly or explicitly. Conclusions drawn from an online survey of more than 4800 students of colour attending university show that Racial MicroAggressions (RMAs) are frequently experienced by students of color, particularly black students at all levels- environment on campus, interactions in academic classroom environments, and interaction with peers. The authors suggest that an implicit ingrained campus culture of exclusion is responsible for increased frequency of micro-aggressions against students of colour. The authors provide evidence for continued and persistent presence of anti-Black racism in higher education and suggest the need for an inclusive environment at all levels on campus. They propose the need for faculty members, academic professionals, and students to collaboratively work together to address racism at the academic, peer, and campus levels [38]. Similar, a study identifying micro-aggressions in 'Sexual and Gender Minority' (SGM) individuals (interviews with 29 SGM STEM undergraduates to assess campus micro-climate) reported that students with gender minority identities experience a higher frequency and a more severe form of micro-aggressions compared to students with sexual minority identities. Likewise, the study shows that students with a racial minority status have additional compounding issues related to identity. Interestingly, SGM students with social capital or a better network of people to turn to for advice seem to believe that they are a better fit in STEM as opposed to those who are not buffered by such social capital. Active strategies taken by students to defend themselves against hostile micro-aggressions such as behavioral changes in the way they present themselves in certain contexts and surrounding themselves with accepting colleagues were very effective for persistence in STEM. These key findings reveal strategies by which SGM individuals can find a better fit in STEM- both at the individual interaction level as well as at the institutional level [39].

#### **4.2 Student-faculty relationships: race and gender differences**

A study of 3864 students from 28 selective institutions (National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen (NLSF)- multi-wave longitudinal survey) between 2000 to 2004 provided evidence that discrimination from faculty directly impacted recipient students' GPA scores in a negatively manner (β = −.08, p < .05) whereas academic satisfaction had a direct positive effect (β = 0.17, p < 0.001). The population studied was balanced for gender, and roughly had equal amounts of Black, White, Hispanic, and Asian American

Students. A negative indirect effect of being Black on college GPA was observed mediated by greater feelings of discrimination from faculty and lower academic satisfaction. Key findings revealed differential effects of student-faculty interaction on GPA, with Black STEM students being more prone to experience discrimination in student-faculty interactions than other races. In conclusion, this study shows that faculty-student interactions benefit certain races and ethnicities to a great extent with minorities, particularly black women, experiencing negative impacts of faculty-student interactions on resultant GPA [40]. At higher academic level, studies trying to analyze student-advisor gender and race couples (Ph.D.s in STEM in South-Africa graduating between 2000 and 2014)- on productivity in academia showed that females have a 10% lower productivity than their male colleagues; however, this holds true for female graduate students working with male advisors and not female advisors. These results were more pronounced given the joint effect of gender and race. When controlled for productivity, low or high productivity female students with women advisors were as productive as low or high productivity male students with male advisors. This study suggests that female students are not fairly treated compared to their male counterparts when guided by male faculty, when controlled for other aspects [41].

In another large scale study (58,281 students participating in the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) analyzing student-faculty interactions in research universities showed that along with gender and race, social class and first generational status among students have a major role to play in governing the frequency and outcomes of such interactions. For example, male students were more likely to assist faculty in research as volunteers or for pay while women tended to research more towards attaining course credits. Student-Faculty interactions by racial groups showed that Afro-Americans interacted most with faculty but spent lowest amounts of time assisting faculty with research for pay or course credit. Interaction satisfaction for the Afro-American race was the poorest, with white male students having high rates of satisfactions with such interactions. Research related student-faculty interactions were associated positively with GPA for all races but particularly evident for the Afro-American race; however course-related faculty interactions had no effect on GPA, degree aspirations, critical thinking and communication. This study demonstrates that the outcomes and perceptions of student-faculty interactions are governed by student gender, ethnicity, socio-cultural traits, and experiences [42].

#### **5. Recruitment to academic positions: minorities underrepresented**

In a randomized double blind study assessing subtle implicit gender bias of faculty in recruitment for a lab managers' post, the participating male and female faculty were more likely to choose a male applicant over a female applicant. The faculty participating rated the male applicants as more competent and hireable than the identical female applicants, besides selecting a higher starting salary and giving them more mentoring support. Mediation analyses revealed that female students were perceived as less competent with the faculty's preexisting subtle bias (measured using a standardized instrument) against female students playing a moderating role. This study concludes that there needs to be interventions that remove such implicit gender bias in the recruitment process so that more women are given an opportunity in academia [43]. In keeping with the above study, a study focusing on scientific employment trends suggested that male faculty members heading biology laboratories in leading academic institutions in the United States employed fewer female graduate students

#### *Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

and postdoctoral researchers (post-doctorates) than their female counterparts. Interestingly, this study provided evidence that HHMI funded elite biology scientists elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), some of whom have won major career awards, tend to train significantly fewer women than other male faculty members [44]. A cascading effect of such findings was revealed in the number of new assistant professors at the institutions surveyed in the study. The high-profile laboratories that flirted with gender bias in terms of recruitment (i.e. more male doctoral and postdoctoral students) were predominantly the laboratories that gave rise to assistant professors. In keeping with prestige hiring, a recent study has highlighted that a handful of universities supply majority of the tenure track faculty across disciplines. Moreover, gains in women's representation among faculty were shown to be mainly due to demographic turnover and earlier structural changes to the hiring process, and such changes would unlikely lead to parity in the near future for most disciplines [45]. A study relating to gender bias in letters of recommendation showed that biased letters of recruitment seemed to be unlikely in causing lower recruitment of women- women candidates were characterized as brilliant three times more as compared to men in analyzed recommendation letters however an open-ended search for gendered language revealed disparities favoring men in Physics [46]. Stemming this leaky pipeline in biomedical research would be important going forward by helping top-notch elite male scientists be more aware of implicit gender bias that may be a chronic problem in the hiring process [For example, see (44)]. In a study on recruitment of Assistant Professors (n = 207) and senior researchers (n = 153) into Swedish medical university (KI) Karolinska Institute between 2014 and 2017 showed that external peer reviewer scores for women applicants were less than men per unit of academic productivity (academic productivity was scored by a composite bibliometric score computed based on seven academic productivity parameter ratings). Based on the (non-KI) reviewer score, women received only 32 or 92% of the score men received per unit increase of composite productivity score for assistant professors and senior researchers respectively. Interestingly, as productivity increases, the differences in the subjectively reviewed peer scores increase. Thus, this study shows that gender bias is quantifiable and majorly affects highly productive candidates- the pool from which recruitment to posts takes place suggesting a need for adoption of computed track records to mitigate such biases [47].

However important game changing studies have countered the argument that selection committees in academic institutions are biased towards men. A study by William Ceci provided data to show that gender bias in faculty recruitment is not the case and in fact their groups staged experiments showed that there is a 2:1 faculty preference for women on STEM tenure track (873 tenure-track faculty (439 male, 434 female) surveyed at 371 universities/colleges from 50 US states). The results from the main experiment– 363 faculty members evaluating narrative summaries describing hypothetical male and female applicants for tenure-track assistant professorships– as well as the follow up studies showed that women are preferred for assistant professor tenure track positions, irrespective of whether they were divorced or took pregnancy related breaks. Furthermore, validation based experiments with full CVs showed that the result was real, suggesting a propitious time for women to launch a career in STEM [48]. However, a number of commentaries and viewpoints have repudiated the results of this study citing improper experimental design and poorly conducted research. In keeping with this narrative, some studies have revealed no such gender related hiring bias but have pointed to positive and negative biases at play in the recruitment process. In a study among data from Italian universities and research

institutes, no gender related differences were seen among candidates subject to a positive bias in terms of recruitment. Interestingly, those candidates affected by negative bias were more men than women. Focusing on the factors determining success in recruitment drives across Italian universities, number of years of the applicant in the same university and the male gender of the committee chair served as positive factors with greater weight for males applicants whereas the presence of a full tenure track women professor in the same university with the same family name as the candidate showed greater weight for female applicants [49]. Another key study aiming to analyze the impact of more diverse recruitment committees (in terms of women and underrepresented minorities URMs) revealed that the higher the diversity the higher the number of women and minority applicants in the selected applicant pools (100% more URM applicants for a URM chair and 23% more women applicants in selected pools with a woman chair- an analysis of recruitment data of 13,750 job applications). This study suggests that women and URMs actively reach out to a more diverse set of applicants lending weight to the homophily theory in increasing the representation of women and URM in the workforce [50]. Previous studies have proposed using composite bibliometric indicators for assessing applicants to academic positions as modeling reveals surprisingly good predictive power which can help peer reviewers in non-prejudiced assessment of candidates [51].

#### **5.1 Gap in pay for equal work: minorities bear the brunt**

Not only problems with recruitment need to be fixed but also problems associated with pay gaps between majority and minority groups in STEM disciplines. A study focusing on the gender gap in pay in chemistry by determining the effects of human capital, labor market structure, and employer discrimination showed that 17% of the pay gap could be attributed to discrimination or unaccounted factors. Results from this study revealed that male chemists earned 30 percent more than female chemists in 2000 (Data obtained from the American Chemical Society (ACS) 2000 census- (N = 22,081)). Decomposition modeling of factors related to earning disparities between gender can be explained by differences in productivity characteristics, educational attainment, levels of experience, work function (i.e. senior versus junior posts) and employer [52].

A study of 13,855 male chemists working full-time in industry (American Chemical Society (ACS) 2005) census showed that there was a significant racial wage gap with minority chemists receiving lower wages than white chemists. Further exponential modeling analysis of different factors attributing to salaries revealed that Asian and Black chemists have wage differentials largely due to discrimination while the pay gap for Hispanic chemists are due to the lower educational attainment and experience. Minority Women were not included in the analysis as they were very low in numbers and therefore considered to be insignificant for such an analysis [53].

However, even though individual characteristics and discipline do account for pay disparities; these disparities can differ based on individual Institutional context -organizational mission, resources, and power influence [54]. A study investigating whether academic field and educational attainment played an impact on pay gaps revealed that these two factors could account for 13 to 23 percent of the racial pay gaps. However, these factors could not account for the gender pay gaps. Black women's earnings are lower compared to all other groups studied and were in a disadvantageous position both due to lower attainment and lower returns to education.

#### *Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

Moreover, this study showed that the pay gap between races could be reduced by equalizing educational attainment whereas normalizing wage returns would help reduce gender pay disparities [55]. An interesting longitudinal study (1999–2008) analyzing postdoctoral salaries (N = 10,000) identified women to suffer from pay gaps irrespective of race. Asian postdoctoral candidates bagged the greatest share of returns irrespective of gender and minority males had better returns as compared to their predominantly white colleagues subject to marriage as a personal trait. This data points to the fact that many factors such as educational attainment, work experience, working roles, positions of power, organization and employment sector affect salary attainment universally across the board; however, race and gender are important factors furthering pay disparities in many instances [56].

#### **5.2 Need for diversity at the top: highlighting the need for editorial board diversity**

Studies of 43,000 reviewers and 9000 editors from the Frontiers series of journals show that women are underrepresented in the peer-review process, and male and female editors operate differently with same-gender preference (homophily) with gender specific mechanisms of homophily. Forecasting data shows that gender homophily will persist even if gender parity is achieved in most disciplines [57]. In terms of understanding whether the gender gap in publication rates is associated with biased peer review and editorial processes, a study of 740,000 referees and 7 million authors for 145 journals in various fields of research was carried out. Surprisingly, this study showed that publications with women first authors are treated even more favorably by editors and referees, and therefore women authors or co-authors are not penalized in the peer review process based on gender. However, this study points that more is needed to be done to achieve gender homogeneity in editor and reviewer pools [58]. A study of 180,000 papers between 2004 and 2010 by the Italian Research Assessment of Universities and Research Centers shows that characteristics of referees, researchers' observable characteristics, and evaluation method has an impact on research evaluation between the sexes. Controlling for these factors reduces the gender gap in research evaluation with childbearing and maternity having no major impact on research evaluation. In terms of the evaluation method, bibliometrics was a better tool to evaluate women as opposed to peer review assessment [59]. A crosssectional study of the Proportion of women as editors in chief in top-ranked medical journals of different specialties revealed that less than 1 in 5 editors in chief were women- in 27 of the 41 categories studied. However the study noted high variability between medical disciplines (0 to 82% across medical specialties), with certain disciplines (psychiatry; anesthesiology; dentistry, oral surgery and medicine; allergy; and ophthalmology) having no women editor-in-Chief's to disciplines having an overrepresentation of women editors in chief (three categories-genetics and heredity, primary health care, and microbiology) [60]. Other fields like mathematics have an even more skewed gender distribution within editorial boards. A study of 435 journals in the mathematical sciences showed that 8.9% of the 13,067 editorships were held by women. Of these 435 journals, 51 have no editorships held by women, with 7.6% women as the median among journal boards. A deeper analysis by subfield reveals further variations with a median of 7.3% editorships held by women among publishers (SIAM publications being the highest-19.1%); and 7.3% editorships held by women among countries with high editorial strength (Canada (12.2%), France (11.7%), Australia (11.4%), and Italy (11.1%) have the greatest representation of

women) [61]. A similar study carried out with data from 1985 to 2013, focusing on plant sciences, natural resource management, and environmental biology (10 highly regarded journals in these areas) showed that only 16% of subject editors were women [62]. Recent studies focusing on women from varying geographical regions and income groups of the country of affiliation for editorial leadership positions across 113 rehabilitation and sports science journals revealed that 24.7% were women (1792 out of 7248 editors (35.7% leadership and 64.3% advisors). In terms of the editorial hierarchy 10.4% of women were editors-in-chiefs, 24.5% were in editorial leadership positions and 24.8% played advisory roles. Editors affiliated with institutions from high-income countries were overwhelmingly represented- editors from institutions in North America occupied almost half of all editorial roles (93.5% of leadership roles and 93.1% of advisory positions) with editors affiliated with institutions from developing countries having insignificant representation [63]. An analysis of 53 subscription or open access geology journals in 2022 included in the Web of Science Core Collection™ showed that 85% of editor(s)-in-chief's positions are occupied by a man or a group of men. The makeup of editorial boards in these sets of journals is 1:4 (Female: Male) [64]. Similar studies conducted in the sports and veterinary sciences field showed equivalent results in which women were outnumbered on high positions such as Editor-in-Chief and editorial boards of journals [65, 66]. However, some studies have recently shown an improvement in the number of females in editorial boards due to more appointments by Editors-in-Chief [67].

#### **5.3 Women and URMs at the top-winds of change**

A study surveying women holding top positions in academia regarding structural and policy changes needed for URMs in STEM revealed interesting perspectives. Women administrators endorse strategies to attract and retain women in STEM, irrespective of their effectiveness– 474 administrators (provosts, deans, associate deans, and department chairs across the US at 96 public and private research universities) data, of which 334 contained complete numerical data used in the analyses. Women administrators believed that the 44 listed strategies for better women representation and retention in STEM in this study were of higher quality overall but not higher in terms of feasibility. Interestingly some of the strategies were perceived differently by administrators of different genders- 9 out of the 44 strategies. Women administrators gave higher quality rating to policies and strategies increasing the value of teaching, administrative experience, and service in consideration for tenure track position attainment; conducting gender-equity research; supporting shared tenure lines; and increasing flexibility of federal-grant funding to accommodate mothers [68].

#### **6. Homophily among collaborative networks: a barrier to impact, diversity and productivity**

Some scientometric studies have called into question the use of citations as an established metric when it comes to evaluation of the impact of an author's work, particularly minority ethnic authors. The reason is the biased manner in which certain papers are cited more often– not solely due to impact or scientific merit– than should be due to various social factors. A study of 7,011,369 articles published in Web of Science between 2008 and 2016, showed that there is a major preferential biased

#### *Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

pattern in citing papers, with male authors tending to self cite as well as cite their male counterparts more often, possibly neglecting the work of their female peers-Matilda effect in science. Male self citations contributed significantly to homophily in all fields. Women also tended to cite their female counterparts approx. 30% more in similar areas. This homophily citation tendency persisted across fields-social sciences and humanities (SSH), biomedical sciences (BM), and in Natural Sciences and Engineering (NSE) [69]. In an analysis of 2116 journals, 825 showed statistically significant evidence that authors tend to co-publish with same gender colleagues more often than by chance (alpha >0) after false discovery rate correction, and that this trend has no relation with gender ratio in certain fields (equal or women dominated streams in fact seemed to show as high or higher homophily), and it is more prominent now than it was 10 years ago. Interestingly, this large scale study pointed to the fact that journals with higher impact factor had weaker homophily (a negative correlation- R2 = 0.043, Spearman correlation = −0.19) [70]. Other large scale studies (over 9 million papers and 6 million scientists) have shown that significant homophily exists in ethnicity, gender and affiliation. Of note, this highlights the fact that ethnic diversity among co-authors on scientific manuscripts had the strongest correlation with scientific impact, which persisted after using randomized baseline models and coarsened exact matching. In keeping, ethnic diversity resulted in an impact gain of 47.67% for scientists and 10.63% for papers [71]. Similar results have been highlighted in a study on 2.5 million research papers between 1985 and 2008 in 11 scientific fields wherein papers with higher homophily between authors tend to be less impactful in their respective domains (lower citations and impact factor of journals in which the studies were published in). These observations persisted after controlling for numbers of authors per publication and for factors such as an ethnic groups' population density. Some cited reasons were that scientists with lower productivity levels in terms of publications had a restricted pool of collaborators and homophily is greater between such authors; however, comparing within a pool of authors with comparable productivities showed that homophily within this pool lead to publications with lower impact compared to much more diverse author lists [72]. However, a recent study highlights a weak positive relationship between ethnic diversity and scientific impact, with a mediator analysis revealing a stronger effect for audience diversity rather than novelty in this relationship. This leads these authors to argue that ethnic diversity in author pools may lead to temporary but not lasting effects on scientific impact of manuscripts [73]. It is interesting to note that not all studies subscribe to the fact that authors spontaneously tend to form gender homophily groups among scientists, and that there are some crucial factors like geographical location, topic area, discipline and academic status that could also play a role in research cooperation, research support and social acquaintance networks. The results above were showcased in a study on principal investigators of two institutions from the German Excellence Initiative by applying a QAP network correlation analysis [74].

Studies focusing on key aspects of gender networks and how they compare provided evidence that women tended to have smaller networks than men, with size directly proportional to productivity. Furthermore, not just size but also network structure (women with closer links to focal authors tend to better leverage this advantage over their male counterparts) and composition does matter (women tended to be advantaged by advice networks with men being advantaged by instrumental networks and may be associated with productivity) [75]. Women tended to have fewer cosmopolitan prestigious international collaborative networks, but have greater propensity for interdisciplinary collaborations. Studies have also shown that women

feel less integrated into informal networks, and gain less overall benefit from such informal networks as compared to their male counterparts [76].

#### **7. COVID-19: its impact on the productivity and attrition rates in STEM-analysis of the groups most affected**

As expected due to lockdowns and social isolation, scientific productivity would naturally take a hit during the Covid19 pandemic (2020). However, paradoxically, data suggests an increase in productivity during the year 2022; however, this growth was not evenly balanced in terms of research topics. A meta-analysis study of 22,525 publications between January 01, 2019 and January 01, 2021 in 10 high-impact scientific journals showed that non-Covid19 related research suffered with the gaps in productivity being filled in by a spurt of Covid19 related research- 2, 00,000 COVID-19publications by December 2020. Fast paced peer review (approx. 30 days), and new larger collaborative groups (a median of 9.0 authors per publication) ensured that Covid19 related publications filled in at the expense of non-Covid19 publications [77]. These findings were echoed by a difference-in-differences analysis of 3,638,584 publications from January 2019 to December 2020 in Life Science wherein non-Covid19 related publications took a hit (10 to 12% decrease in non-COVID-19related publications [78]. Another study focussing on biomedical publication pattern changes due to COVID-19has highlighted similar trends- increased scientific productivity majorly due to a spurt of COVID-19related publications, faster time to acceptance of COVID-19 versus non- COVID-19 manuscripts, and a drop in international scientific collaborations [79].

A study focusing on how COVID-19 has increased the gender gap in STEM has revealed that the number of female first authors (21%), the share of female authorships (5%), the share of publications by mixed gender collaborations (6.8%), and the exacerbation of lower citations counts in literature in which females played a key role were more evident during the pandemic as opposed to pre-pandemic times [80]. This study used the difference in differences methods to highlight these changes before, during, and post the initial wave of the pandemic in different countries. However, one caveat affecting results could be the selection of papers from the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD) during the pandemic which could have its independent effects on female engagement as opposed to including all published literature [80]. A similar study comparing the proportions of male and female corresponding authors before and during the COVID-19 pandemic focusing on studies deposited in preprint servers bioRxiv and medRxiv, revealed an increase in the gender productivity gap post February 2020 in medRxiv as compared to previous months. There was no change in terms of gender gap in the bioRxiv preprint database. The studies highlight that even though there is an advantage of using preprint services to study real-time academic productivity trends, future studies are needed to understand whether such trends translate into concrete academic achievements [81]. More studies focusing on peer reviewing activities and submitted manuscripts in 2329 Elsevier journals (over 5 million authors and referees- between February and May 2018–2020) have further highlighted the gender disparity in the rates of publishing between genders during the first wave of Covid19 suggesting that work from home could impact women scientific productivity due to competing demands for familial duties. The disparity was less in terms of peer-review commitments between sexes [82].

#### *Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

A study conducting two surveys amongst principal investigators (between April 2020 and January 2021) showed a visible reduction in scientists' research time which recovered from April 2020 (2.2 h per week) to January 2021 (7.1 h per week). An interesting finding in this article is the rate of initiation of new projects during the pandemic decreased sharply. Compared to 2019 levels of new project initiation (9%), there was a threefold jump in the number of scientists asserting that no new project was started in their lab in 2020. The authors' analysis of the major predictive factors of this "no new research" situation using the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression showed that being female; having children below the age of five, and the research not being Covid19 related were significant. In terms of disciplines the fields of biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology was the most predictive field contributing to the "no new research" situation- a field which contains a heavy weightage of female scientists [83]. Another study examining how gender, race and parenthood impacts academic productivity among 3345 Brazilian academics from various research institutions and knowledge areas showed similar conclusions with the productivity of women being suppressed, with black women being and mothers being the most hard hit in terms of productivity. Men without children seemed the least affected [84].

A bibliometric analysis of publications authored by Filipinos showed an upward trend until COVID-19hit, beyond which the percentage rate of increase witnessed a sharp decline. The charting of Scopus based publications showed a count of 1381 in 2010, with a yearly increase of 17.8% until 2019 (total publication count 5808); however post COVID-19(i.e. 2020–2021) this growth rate slowed significantly to 5.5%. This data fore- boards a dark spell for scientific productivity in Asia, particularly the Southeast Asian region. It might take significant policy shifts and supportive assistance to scientists to get scientific productivity back on track in some of these developing countries.

#### **8. Suggestions to encourage women and minority groups to access STEM education and remain in the academic pipeline**

There are many important suggestions put forth to encourage more women to major in STEM fields, particularly engineering, mathematics and computer sciences. Encouraging young girls to take up majors in engineering and mathematics by dispelling biased gender stereotypes of there being no space for women in such male dominated environments is essential. This can be done by encouraging girls' participation in computer science, engineering, and mathematics projects, workshops, conferences and seminars at graduate and undergraduate levels [85]. Scholarships, fellowships, and awards should be made available to girls and minorities at undergraduate and graduate school to encourage them to enroll and register for higher studies in these male dominated spheres [86–89].

In higher education, women and minorities in doctoral and post-doctoral programs should be encouraged by providing stimulating campus environments and supportive peer interactions free from implicit or explicit micro aggressions by dominant groups [90, 91]. Besides providing such a productive campus environment for minorities, women should have advisory committees that have adequate women representation and if possible a mentor/role models/advisors form the same or similar ethnicity [92–95]. Furthermore, faster feedback and redressal mechanisms need to be installed at all levels to tackle systemic implicit and explicit systemic racism [96–98].

It is important that gender, ethnic/cultural, and socio-economic inclusivity be taught as a core generic course on campus to all students, particularly in male dominated streams in STEM [99, 100].

To keep women & other minorities in academic posts for longer periods of time, particularly junior posts- assistant professor posts, they should be encouraged with start-up resources both in terms of money as well as productive collaborators (opportunities for building long lasting strong academic collaborations) [101, 102]. Such resources should be made available at the institutional level which can be allocated for all incoming faculty, with a particular emphasis on minorities. Flexibility in terms of career growth is essential for women and minorities to remain in academia. Maternal leave and child care leave should be factored into tenure track assessments with the tenure clock being stopped for these periods [103]. Junior minority Principle Investigators (PIs) should be effectively tied up with experienced faculty on campus as well as with external collaborations so that academic work as well as productivity does not take a severe hit when they are on such unavoidable leave [104]. Project student sharing between PIs (one junior and one established) can be one such mechanism that could ensure sustenance of work and publication productivity during these stretches [105–107]. Women and URMs should be well-acknowledged for their contributions to scientific manuscripts and given priority when authorship for such manuscripts is decided [108]. More weightage should be given to productivity (this has to be decided by tenure track committees on a one-to-one basis) coming in from minority PIs; traditional parameters of productivity like h-index, number of citations, total number and impact of publications might not be fair indexes due to engrained disparities [109]. Rather the impact should be decided on the available resources that the laboratories or PIs had to begin with more scores being given to quality publications in terms of scientific contribution from under-resourced labs.

In terms of grant funding there can be many policy changes that can be implemented to ensure minority underrepresented PIs are taken care of: 1. More flexible grant cycles and submission patterns for underrepresented PIs (more calls for extra- as well as intramural funding) [110]; 2. Fixed number of grants to be allocated to minority scientists, institutions, and laboratories from low resource settings and low income countries [111]; 3. Rotation implementation on grants of equal or near equal merit to make sure that grant money is not being disproportionately allocated to one area or institution or lab 4. Scrap the new randomization grant allocation policy for grants of equal merit and lay more emphasis on allocating grants to groups consisting of racial and ethnic diversity; low resource areas or labs; or PIs that train and educate a diverse set of student trainees such as PhDs, Post-doctoral students [112, 113]; and 5. Encourage applications that are interdisciplinary in nature lead by diverse scientifically sound collaborative networks.

For increasing academic productivity the following steps can be taken: 1. Encourage strong academic productivity by building links between under-represented PIs and publication houses/Editors-in-Chief's so that quality work never goes unnoticed 2. More representation and incentives for minorities to travel and establish collaborations at International and National scientific conferences must be made available; this will ensure network building leading to strong scientific collaborations, and reduce these minority groups' feelings of isolation and despair. This will also ensure that minority PIs in competitive fields are able to gain access to high profile scientific networks and engage them towards writing up joint publications with improved quality as well as impact. 3. Institutions that house such PIs should allocate budgets to establish more visibility of the scientist's work on and off campus (by sending them for academic talks to other institutions and likewise inviting more

*Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

under represented PIs for talks); this would be essential to attracting talented students for projects on campus as well as outside campus plus give the PIs much need visibility to strengthen academic collaboration. 4. Publication houses need to be more aware in relation to establishing editorial boards with representation from minority groups but at the same time ensuring rigorous peer review quality is maintained (having co-Editor-in-Chiefs; with one representing an existing minority group can be an effective way to start) [110].

For increasing the impact of their work and publications, PIs (particularly minority PIs) as well as institutions and organizations should have their media teams capture such work and post such work on social media. PIs can also use preprints to disseminate their work much earlier to a larger group of people potentially inviting more visibility and therefore more leverage for academic collaboration [114].

Such discussions have started in academic circles but more needs to be done to make sure those minority talented young minds are not suppressed due to discrimination, and can work effectively and more vibrantly in such evenly established academic ecosystems [115].

#### **9. Conclusion**

The entire leaky pipeline from enrolment of women and minority students into STEM disciplines, their retention, and issues related to representation of minorities at top academic jobs have been considered. Certain policies and practices that increase minority representation at all stages in STEM ought to be implemented such as: 1. More opportunities in terms of scholarships and fellowships need to be in place to help the socio-economically disadvantaged minorities; 2. Raising awareness regarding the negative culturally engrained gender and minority biased stereotypic views hindering participation in STEM; 3. Indentifying and building crucial support systems for minority groups to reduce the impact of explicit or implicit racism in and out of the classrooms and increase their self-belonging and self-esteem in STEM with the ultimate goal of building safe and conducive niches where minorities can deliver their best in terms of productivity; 4. Inviting and recruiting academically accomplished minorities to the policy and decision making groups in academic institutes, and government science bodies to ensure inclusive policies towards recruitment and sustenance of minority academics in STEM (making the career path to tenure track (permanent positions) more accessible and flexible to deserving faculty with a proven track record of academic productivity); 5. Research institutions should be encouraged to provide additional support in terms of funding and collaborative opportunities to minorities but at the same time ensure that such opportunities are utilized effectively by measuring outcomes; and 6. Creating incentives for diversifying research collaborative clusters to include academics of different races and ethnicities with the aim that their inputs strengthen the quality and impact of the proposed science. Even though some of the statistics are clear with regards to the problems areas associated with the leaky STEM pipeline for women and minorities; more research is needed to identify and understand the specific barriers to minority participation in STEM in each contextual setting- there might not be a one fits-all solution but rather local solutions to local identified problems might be the way forward. Therefore, a particular emphasis towards the awareness & perception of minorities towards STEM, the gaps in local socio-cultural frameworks promoting diversity in STEM, and the existing scientific policies hindering equity for minorities in STEM need further investigation.

#### **Acknowledgements**

I acknowledge Dr. Srujana Medithi from the Nutrition and Dietetics Department, Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences, SIU for perusing through the manuscript and providing valuable suggestions to enrich this book chapter. Dr. Arti Muley from Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Symbiosis International University (SIU) for introducing us to scientometrics through a well designed workshop.

### **Conflict of interest**

"The authors declare no conflict of interest."

#### **Notes/thanks/other declarations**

The authors thank Symbiosis International (Deemed University) for giving us a worthy platform for publishing such scientific content.

### **Author details**

Dwight Figueiredo Department of Medical Technology, Symbiosis Institute of Health Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India

\*Address all correspondence to: drdwight@sihspune.org

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

*Walking through the Leaky Academic Pipeline in STEM: Equity Not Equality Needed… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.111538*

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#### **Chapter 6**

## Factors Influencing Young Women to Enroll in IT

*Andreea Molnar, Carine Khalil and Anne Brüggemann-Klein*

#### **Abstract**

Despite the increasing number of initiatives that aim to promote Information Technology (IT) and encourage women to pursue IT degrees, the number of women in the field is still low. To better understand women's motivations, we conducted a qualitative study with women enrolled in IT degrees at the Technical University of Munich. We found that a variety of factors affect decisions to enroll in the degrees, related to both individual and environmental factors. Some initiatives, such as IT courses, help to create awareness of IT, which is a first step in women considering the field. Financial aspects of the job and the perception of the possibility of a work-life balance play an important role in decision-making. Family and friends played an influential role, especially when they are in a STEM field, while teachers' influence depended on how supportive they were. Furthermore, women also attributed personal characteristics, such as resilience, to their enrollment in IT.

**Keywords:** diversity, educational initiatives, IT, qualitative study, young women

#### **1. Introduction**

The number of software developers worldwide that are women is less than 10% [1]. The reasons for the low number of women in the field are complex, one of them being the low number of women enrolled in Information Technology (IT) degrees [2–4]. Despite the substantial research in the area, the number of women enrolled in IT degrees is still low in some countries, highlighting the need to better understand the reasons behind this [5–7]. In this study, we focus on what motivates women to enroll in IT degrees at a technical university in Germany.

In Germany, the percentage of women who graduate with a bachelor's degree in IT was 19.6% in 2018, an increase from 10% in 2000—however, this number is still low [8, 9]. To better understand the reasons behind young women enrolling in these degrees and what initiatives they attend that could be influential in their decision, we organized interviews with eight students. This chapter will present the results of this study. To do so, this chapter is organized as follows. The next section briefly introduces the literature review. This is followed by the study. The chapter ends with a discussion and recommendations.

#### **2. Related work**

#### **2.1 Diversity initiatives**

To attract women in the field, a lot of time and money has been invested in initiatives that aim to address some of the difficulties women encounter and present IT as a viable career option. For example, in Australia, there have been over 300 initiatives aimed at promoting STEM among women with very few of these initiatives being evaluated and only one had public information evaluation that went beyond participants'satisfaction [10]. A survey done in Australia found that women enrolled in IT degrees are exposed on average to more than five of these initiatives [6]. These have varying levels of success in influencing women to enroll in IT degrees [6]. It is not clear whether women enrolled in these initiatives are already thinking about pursuing a degree in IT and whether the initiatives support their decision or whether a decision to enroll is made as a result of these initiatives.

There have also been initiatives that have been successful. Some examples include computer science degree at Carnegie Mellon University that reached close to 50% in 2016–2018 and Harvey Mudd College that improved the percentage of women pursuing a computer science degree from 10% (2006) to 40% (2012) [10, 11]. Frieze and Quesenberry (2019) attributed the success to improving the curriculum for everyone rather than focusing on making it attractive for women only [11]. At the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, improvement in the number of women was obtained by changing stereotypes [12]. The Computing in Arts at the College of Charleston attracted and retained 46% of women by integrating creative expression in computer science units [13]. Postner et al. argue that working on a project that has a humanitarian focus could help retain women in computer science degrees [14]. These initiatives are a positive step toward understanding how to address some of the issues that improve women's enrollment and retention.

In Germany, where this study takes place, the number of women in IT increased but at a slow pace. This study aims to better understand what initiatives motivate women to enroll in these degrees. However as the initiatives do not work in a vacuum, it was extended to other factors. The section below presents some of the research performed in Germany.

#### **2.2 Gender diversity studies performed in Germany**

Ihsen et al. surveyed students from nine technical universities in Germany [15]. The study has focused on four subjects in which the women have a low representation: physics, computer sciences, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. They found that men and women have similar reasons for choosing a degree. They found that informative events were perceived as useful to take away insecurities and find more information about a particular degree. The women feel socially accepted but also the pressure to prove that they can perform at the same level as men.

Petrovska et al. aimed to better understand the role of gender bias and identity in students enrolled in computer science at the Technical University of Munich, showing a correlation between gender and hidden bias [7].

Schneider et al. presented an evaluation of Engineera [16]. Engineera is a tutorial provided by the Technische Universität München, Germany, for women enrolled in engineering and information technology degrees. The program provides women

opportunities to network, to visit companies, to work on projects and to attend information meetings. Students provided positive feedback on the tutorial activities and opportunities to establish connections.

Oehlhorn and Laumer interviewed women enrolled in information systems degrees in Germany [17]. Through the lenses of the theory of planned behavior, they found that women were influenced by normative beliefs (recommendations from family and friends), behavior beliefs (general expectations of the field, prior experience with IT, expectations comparative to other studies, job prospects, an alternative toward obtaining a different degree or admissions or other requirements) and control beliefs (feasibility) [18]. They recommend that institutions highlight to potential female applicants the opportunities and applications that a job in IT brings.

#### **3. Methodology**

This study aims to explore what factors influenced women to enroll in IT degrees at TUM and how they did so. We use semi-structured interviews to collect the data [19]. The interview protocol questions were designed based on the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT (IDTGIT) [20]. In addition to these questions, participants were asked about initiatives they have participated in and how these influenced their decision. At the end, they were also asked whether there were any other aspects not covered in the interview that we should consider. The interviews took place either face to face on the university campus or online, and were conducted and analyzed in English. Approval to conduct the study was obtained from the authors' institutions. Written participant consent was obtained and we agreed to maintain their anonymity as such details about their demographic information were not disclosed as they could identify some of the women. The interviews were conducted by the first author to avoid any possible power relationship.

#### **3.1 Theoretical model**

Theoretical perspectives that aim to explain the representation of women in IT can be divided into three categories: gender essentialist perspective, the social shaping of gender and gender roles and intersectionality [20, 21]. The gender essentialist perspective focuses on bio-psychological differences to explain the low number of women; however, this theory seems to be undermined by the high number of women in IT fields in countries such as India.

The social shaping of gender roles aims to explain (lack of) diversity through the social shaping of gender and gender roles [22]. However, this theory primarily focuses on gender as a social construct without fully considering the impact of other factors, such as ethnicity, on the shaping of gender roles, and thus provides a limited understanding of the problem.

Intersectionality is another perspective which considers gender at the intersection of other factors [23, 24]. Based on this theory, Trauth & Connolly proposed the Individual Differences Theory of Gender and IT (IDTGIT) [20]. It proposes that Environmental Influences, Individual Identity and Individual Influences affect women's decisions. The theory provides a comprehensive overview of factors and hence, it was chosen as a theoretical basis for the interviews. However, it does not explain *how* these factors influence women's choices, which is what our study aims to do.

#### **3.2 Data collection**

Eight women, students at TUM in IT degrees, participated in the study on a voluntary basis. We used convenience sampling. The interviews were conducted both online and in person, and took between 25 and 80 minutes. The interviews were recorded to facilitate data analysis.

#### **3.3 Analysis**

To facilitate data analysis, the interview recordings were transcribed. We employed theory driven coding (based on the IDTGIT) to analyze the data.

Following the IDTGIT, the codes were categorized into three main themes: Environmental, Identity and Individual. The Environmental factor included codes related to the economy, policy, culture, societal infrastructure and work-life balance. The Identity factors encompassed codes related to demographic traits and IT identity, shedding light on the intersectionality of gender and IT studies. Finally, the Individual factors included codes related to personal influences and characteristics, providing insights into participants' unique experiences and perspectives.

#### **4. Results**

#### **4.1 Environmental factors**

Environmental factors are further grouped under three sub-themes: Economy, Policy and Work-Life Balance.

#### *4.1.1 Economy*

Overall, the interviews reveal that both job security and the possibility of earning a high income are environmental factors influencing female students' decisions to pursue IT as a study major.

#### *4.1.1.1 Job security*

The reputation of being a field in which there are jobs available was considered by some of our participants, with various degrees of influence over their decision.

*[..] the thing is, it's like when you don't know what to do and you're indecisive it's like, well, I might as well choose something that at least gives me money or gives me job, right? But I would say it was like a minor, a minor factor.* (Interview 1)

#### *4.1.1.2 High income*

The ability to have at the end of a degree a job which pays well was significant for some interviewees. There were various reasoning as of why high income attracted students, and some of them described below: For some of them was important to avoid some of the restrictions imposed by the limited financial resources they have growing up:

*I know how it was growing up with not a lot of money. Which wasn't a bad I had a great childhood, but there were some restrictions [ … ] when you choose a job or a career path, you have to think about the money. It's the that's how it is. And the financial plus in the tech industry have the opportunity to really, really accelerate and have a outstanding good wage and these are and you can live in almost every every country you want. This is a tech industry, gives you a freedom that almost no job in this time can give you. So this was a big motivation for me to go and tech as well because I had also other interests. But none of these jobs will give me this freedom.* (Interview 3)

For others, it was the ability to be financially independent and the freedom that gives to pursue hobbies:

*I always struggle with making decisions and I always have like a thousand things on my mind and a thousand hobbies at the same time and that I want to keep doing. So the idea of doing something that will probably make me financially independent in order to be able to do what I like to spend my time the way I want.* (Interview 6)

Other factors include pragmatic consideration about the job market, one participant describing her decision as being based on "on this really pragmatic reasoning and looking about the opportunities" and parents' nudges to select a job which has high earning potential.

We conclude from the interviews that the financial aspects played varying degrees of importance for the interviewees, with some considering it as a major factor, while others saw it as a secondary or minor consideration compared to their passion, practicality or other influencing factors.

#### *4.1.2 Policy*

After analyzing the interviews, several key findings emerge regarding the perceptions of gender policies in the IT field. The interviews reveal a nuanced perspective on gender policies in the IT field. While participants acknowledged the progress made in countries like Germany, they also identified areas where further advancements can be made. The importance of fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment was emphasized, along with the need to challenge societal norms and expectations regarding women's roles. The opinions varied on the effectiveness of policies such as gender quotas, with concerns about potential biases and the desire for organic progress. It is evident that ongoing efforts are necessary to address the challenges and barriers that women may face in the IT industry. By creating equitable policies, promoting inclusive cultures, and challenging gender stereotypes, it is possible to achieve greater gender diversity and create opportunities for women to thrive in the IT field. However, these policies were not mentioned as a factor considered when deciding to enroll in an IT degree but rather something that women reflect on afterward.

#### *4.1.3 Culture*

The participants in our interviews came from diverse backgrounds. Some were born in Germany, others were born in Germany but first-generation immigrants and some were from countries where it was not that uncommon for women to enroll in IT degrees. The low number of women in IT did not deter these women to enroll.

*So also being a woman doesn't make a difference. You also you already have to work harder, so it doesn't matter if you male or female, you're already working hard.* (Interview 3)

One woman reflected on the fact that she knew that moving in Germany there were fewer women in the field, and which is actually an advantage:

*[ … ] being a minority is actually difficult and not like being a shining star. [ … ] But again, at that time I was like, yeah, I would would have less competition.* (Interview 8)

#### *4.1.4 Societal infrastructure*

Under societal infrastructure, the themes that evolve from our analysis are the availability of IT courses in high school and the presence of initiatives aiming to promote/familiarize students with IT degrees.

#### *4.1.4.1 IT in high school*

The interviews discussing IT classes in high school revealed that exposure to programming and informatics during this period did not impede women to enroll in an IT degree. The experience with an elective course in high school called informatics was discussed but also other courses that cover more general topics such as Microsoft Office and Excel. The decision to take such elective courses is made indicating a proactive interest in informatics.

*I don't know if that's an initiative, but in my school we had an elective course that wasn't mandatory, that was called Informatics. But that was not necessarily only informatics that you learn when you study informatics. It was more general also including how to use Microsoft Office or Excel, for example. And they also had some programming basics. I didn't even hear of many university opportunities, so I have never been at a university during my school time or participate in anything which is a real pity I am thinking back now I would have loved to. I think that might have really motivated me more.* (Interview 2)

#### *4.1.4.2 Initiatives*

The interviews focusing on initiatives presented to the interviewees indicated that these programs played a vital role in influencing the participants' choices regarding IT. The presence of student organizations, mentorship programs, and women-centric initiatives were cited as sources of guidance, motivation, and a sense of belonging for female students in the IT field.

It was mentioned that no prior knowledge or exposure to informatics was received before enrolling in the StudiumMINT course. However, it was expressed that the course proved to be incredibly helpful and provided the participants with their first programming experience, which was found to be enjoyable and cool. This suggests that IT classes in high school and initiatives were influential in their decision to pursue IT. The StudiumMINT course played a significant role in shaping their interest and decision to pursue informatics. StudiumMINT is an introductory semester that provides an overview of degree programs in mathematics, technology and the natural sciences.

*Factors Influencing Young Women to Enroll in IT DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114255*

> *[interviewer] And did you know before enrolling into this course [StudiumMINT] that you might want to go into informatics or did you only after this course to decide? [name] Only after this course, before I didn't. It was super helpful. I had my first programming experience there and it was super cool. I had never had any contact at all with Informatics, like at all.* (Interview 1) *I wasn't sure what to do after graduating, so I wanted to take a gap year, which I did. I wanted to work and then see, uh, maybe travel and see some stuff in the other half of the year. And then Corona hit and then I just stayed where I was and kept working. Nothing special, just retail. And after I did the StudiumMINT here at home just to get an overview of the possibilities and I saw there were lectures that we could attend on games engineering and that was the first time I even considered computer science.* (Interview 6)

The findings highlight the significance of both IT classes in high school and initiatives in shaping the choices and experiences of female students in IT. They play a role in generating interest and motivation among the participants.

#### *4.1.5 Work-life balance*

One of the new themes that emerge from the analysis is the concept of work-life balance. It encompasses two distinct aspects: family life expectations and remote work capability.

#### *4.1.5.1 Family life expectations*

Some participants express a desire to have a family in the future and acknowledge the need to balance their career aspirations with familial responsibilities. They consider the economic aspect of supporting a family and the potential challenges of managing time between their career and family life. For instance, the participants mention that they have always planned to have a family but are currently uncertain about how they will manage their goals and family life. They recognize the importance of thinking about how much time they will have for their career and family and are grappling with finding the right balance.

*Yes, yes, it was definitely something I thought about. [ … ] if I want to have a family, then i'll also have to need to support that family, so this is also connected to this economic part of your future. But of course, as a woman you have to think about how much time you will have either for your career or for your family.* (Interview 2)

On the other hand, some participants explicitly state that they do not want to have children. Those participants confidently state that they do not plan to have kids. This decision may be influenced by personal preferences, career goals or other factors not explicitly mentioned in the interview.

*Actually since when I was young ever since I was young, I didn't want to have kids. Maybe marriage or having a partner would be fine, but I didn't want to have kids.* (Interview 5)

The participants' decisions regarding having a family or not highlight the individuality of these choices. Some prioritize their career aspirations, while others see family as an integral part of their lives. These diverse perspectives demonstrate that women's decisions in the IT field are not solely influenced by societal expectations but are also shaped by personal experiences and goals.

Overall, the interviews highlight the complexity of balancing career and familial responsibilities for women in the IT field. The participants' decisions regarding having a family or not reflect their individual preferences and considerations. It is important for the IT industry to recognize and accommodate these diverse choices, providing support and flexibility for women to pursue both their career ambitions and personal aspirations.

#### *4.1.5.2 Remote work/home office*

Several participants express their appreciation for the flexibility and work-life integration that remote work offers. They recognize the benefits of being able to work from home, spend time with their families, and have greater control over their schedules.

The ability to work from home is seen as a positive aspect of the IT field in Germany. The legal protection against discrimination for pregnant individuals and the ease of taking maternity leave indicate that the option of remote work can support a better work-life balance for individuals planning to start a family.

*[ … ] once I started getting more into the sector, I kinda understood why women were not really going in and thinking about having like families. However, I think in Germany this is a little bit better because the leaves are easier if somebody is pregnant, they are not like discriminating against. You can't ask somebody. It's protected by the law. If they are planning to get pregnant in the future.* (Interview 4)

Similarly, it is acknowledged that remote work has become more prevalent, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is believed that many companies now embrace the concept of remote work, which allows individuals to work from anywhere. They express optimism about the possibility of having a good work-life balance, even with a partner or family, by enjoying the flexibility of working from home.

*I guess especially like since Corona, now many companies are like opening up to the Home Office and programming can mostly always program from anywhere, unless you're like a specific piece of hardware, right? And even then, it can probably have a teammate testing it for you on the other side. So that's an option working from home even if it's not everyday, maybe like 2 days when you can rest a bit at home. I don't know. Take a bit more. Even with a partner or family. Just having, even if it's like for just just the lunch break, you know, having lunch with the person from your home, I think it is super cool always.* (Interview 1)

Additionally, the advantages of remote work in the tech industry are highlighted, particularly for individuals planning to become parents. The participants mentioned that remote work provides opportunities to spend more time with children and emphasizes the importance of simply being present for them. This suggests that the option of remote work can positively impact work-life integration and support individuals in achieving a better balance between their career and family responsibilities. *Factors Influencing Young Women to Enroll in IT DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114255*

> *And the great thing also about the tech industry is when especially you plan on being a mother, maybe in the future you can work from home, you have the opportunity to spend like a lot of time with your children or just being there, it's sometimes not even that you have to interact with them all the time, but just that it that your children know, OK, someone is there.* (Interview 3)

Overall, the participants demonstrate a positive outlook on the option of remote work or home office. They appreciate the flexibility it offers and how it can contribute to better work-life balance, particularly in terms of spending time with family. The increasing acceptance and adoption of remote work in the IT industry are seen as favorable developments that can enhance work-life integration and accommodate the needs and aspirations of women choosing to pursue careers in this field.

#### *4.1.6 Media representation of IT field*

The participants' experiences in the field of IT were viewed as an isolated experience, the view of the field as being represented by a young man hacking in a basement.

*It wasn't like that appealing to to a young woman to go into like informatics or computer science in general because you usually have like this image of like kind of the American viewpoint of some guy with, like, sweatshirts on and in his basement and something doing some kind of hacking which is completely not the reality.* (Interview 3)

#### **4.2 Individual factors**

Individual factors were found to significantly influence women's decisions to study IT. Supportive family members, inspiring peers, and personal qualities like resilience all played important roles in shaping their interest, motivation, and determination to pursue a career in the field of IT.

#### *4.2.1 Personal influences*

#### *4.2.1.1 Parents*

The analysis of the interviews revealed a significant influence of family support on the participants' decisions to study IT, where the participants highlighted the pivotal role played by their parents in shaping their choices. Parents provided guidance, reasoning, and encouragement based on their understanding of the field and the participants' abilities.

The participants' parents served as role models, inspiring them to pursue a career in IT. They recognized their children's potential and actively supported their decision to study informatics or related fields. The presence of supportive parents helped the participants overcome obstacles, such as a lack of role models or misconceptions about the field, and provided them with the confidence to pursue their chosen path. The participants' families provided an environment of support, fostering a sense of belief in their capabilities and contributing to their overall decision-making process. The influence of family support was evident in the participants' accounts, emphasizing the significance of parental guidance and encouragement in shaping educational and career choices.

It was mentioned that a significant role was played by the parents in supporting their decision to study informatics. Guidance was provided by their parents, and the good opportunities that studying informatics could offer for their future were highlighted.

*I think the main reason or the main motivation were my parents because they always wanted to support me and my decision to what I studied and they thought that it's good to guide your child.* (Interview 2)

#### *4.2.1.2 Father*

The influence of fathers has been mentioned, where one of the respondents mentioned that her father recognized her analytical mind and encouraged her to pursue IT.

*My dad who is a little bit in computer engineering and he explicitly said like ohh you have this analytical mind will be good in this field. So I think also this confirmation from your close environment that yeah you are good enough and you will do well im your studies, it was also that you feel more confident about this choice at the end. So I would also like to emphasize this.* (Interview 7)

#### *4.2.1.3 Mother*

From the provided interviews, it is evident that the participants' mothers played significant roles in influencing their decisions to pursue studies in IT-related fields. The presence of inspiring and supportive mothers who have succeeded in technical fields can positively influence young women's decisions to pursue studies in IT-related disciplines. Furthermore, parental educational backgrounds can indirectly influence their children's perceptions and choices, underscoring the importance of diverse role models and supportive environments in encouraging more women to enter and excel in STEM fields. Efforts to promote female representation in these fields should take into account the role that parents, particularly mothers, can play in shaping young women's aspirations and career choices.

One participant's mother, being an engineer, served as an inspiring role model, influencing her daughter to consider a similar path in informatics. This highlights the importance of having strong female role models in STEM fields, as they can encourage and empower young women to pursue careers in traditionally male-dominated areas.

*I think this might be interesting because especially my father not having such an academic background and my mother, like, very pursued me and my brother to to go into this academic direction even though we don't want to work in this field, we should at least have some kind of degree of our own in case we wonder or needed. So it's better to have it than to not have it kind of a situation. And it definitely helped to have like a role model as a as a woman who, I mean, she wasn't like intact, but being an engineer. So it definitely was very inspiring to have her as a role model growing up.* (Interview 3)

Additionally, another mother's educational background in math education indirectly influenced her daughter's decision-making process. The lack of role models in

#### *Factors Influencing Young Women to Enroll in IT DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114255*

natural sciences, possibly due to her mother's career choice in education, may have contributed to her initial hesitation in considering informatics or computer science. This emphasizes the impact that parental educational backgrounds can have on shaping their children's perceptions and choices regarding academic and career paths.

*Actually, among my family, there is actually nobody who studied natural sciences. My mom studied math education, but that's why she ended up being a school teacher. So when I was young, even though I was good in math and science, the only thing that I could imagine myself was to be a teacher. And that's what I didn't want. So if I look back, the reason why I didn't choose informatics or any natural science related field was because I didn't have any role model for myself or I couldn't even imagine myself being in such fields. For example, even like short before I started my studies, I didn't know what people do when they study computer science. I thought, they are building computers, they assemble computers. But I didn't know about programming or logic. And if I knew it earlier, I would probably choose it. But I didn't have anybody who wants to pursue their career in this field.* (Interview 5)

#### *4.2.1.4 Siblings*

One participant's brother acted as a key influencer and mentor in her journey toward studying informatics. His guidance, introduction to the tech industry and recommendation to enroll in a technical gymnasium played pivotal roles in helping her find her path and develop a passion for informatics. This highlights the importance of supportive family members and siblings who can provide valuable insights and encourage exploration of academic and career opportunities.

*And my brother, actually, he's doing his master degrees in informatics, It was a big help in making my decision and helping me find my path and actually. He was the person to introducing me into tech industry. I mean, back when I started and had to to decide on what I want to enroll in, it wasn't like that appealing to to a young woman to go into like informatics or computer science in general because you usually have like this image of like kind of the American viewpoint of some guy with, like, sweatshirts on and in his basement and something doing some kind of hacking which is completely not the reality. But there are, I think a lot of misconceptions, but he really showed me that informatics can be created, that informatics can be helpful. And yeah, and he actually gave me the idea to switch from a normal gymnasium to a technical gymnasium.* (Interview 3)

#### *4.2.1.5 Friends*

In the interviews analyzed, the influence of friends on the decision to pursue studies in the field of information technology (IT) was apparent. Several participants mentioned the impact of their friends who were already studying or interested in ITrelated fields. The shared interests, positive experiences and recommendations from friends studying related fields served as important factors that influenced the participants' decisions. This highlights the significance of peer influence and the impact of social connections in guiding individuals toward specific academic and career paths.

The interest in computer games was sparked by their friends who were studying games engineering. The presence of these friends, coupled with the enjoyable experiences they shared in gaming, influenced the participant's decision to switch from informatics to computer games.

*So I like games and then I made some friends that were all studying. So in the beginning of when I started studying, I was really into this one game. It's called Smash Bros and then I was like in this discord channel. And someone asked. Oh, does anyone like playing this game and I was like ohh I like playing this game and then I made some friends and then they decided to start this Gaming night in university. A video game night so people bring monitors and video games and we would play mostly with this. And then indeed, like most of those people were studying games engineering and I was like, Ohh games, engineering is like cooler. I guess it was kind of a lot of influence from the people around me in the 1st place because I felt like everyone around me studying games and they were way cooler than the other people.* (Interview 1)

Similarly, having friends who were studying computer science who shared positive experiences and perspectives served as an influential factor in the participant's decision to pursue IT studies. The firsthand accounts of their friends'satisfaction and engagement in the field of computer science contributed to shaping the participant's own career choice.

*I had friends that had studied computer science in the past. My peers that were also women. Maybe that's why I wasn't really frustrated about the whole topic, because I feel like it was always a more men dominated area in my own mind because I was thinking, I mean, I like computers and I have technological affinity. I do play video games, but I'm not a crazy video game person like any other guy is that is studying computer science. As if that is the case, but because I also had friends that were like me that were kind of modeling. OK, I mean, they're they were also not really into all of these things that I have listed. But they have studied. And they have actually liked it. And I also looked into the whole study plan and I saw that it was a lot of mathematics. And I like mathematics. So I think it's never was really explained to me what computer science actually is. So I just tried to associate it with things that were related to computers.* (Interview 4)

Additionally, friends who were studying at Technical University of Munich (TUM) recommended the institution to them. The endorsement and encouragement from their friends played a role in the participant's decision to choose TUM as their academic destination for studying IT.

*I saw many different fields that I didn't have much of experience. And at that time, I was doing internship in Vienna, and I had some contact with some startup companies in Vienna, and they were doing natural language processing. So they kind of opened my mind that I could do something really new and creative with language and with technology. And this technology field was not there for me. And that's why I wanted to dig in about computer science and technology that I didn't have any chance to learn. So I searched some courses in Germany, and some of my friends were studying at TUM, and they really recommended me to study here, So they encouraged me a lot, and I decided to study here.* (Interview 5)

#### *4.2.1.6 Teachers*

Additionally, the influence of a supportive individual, such as a teacher, played a crucial role in shaping their decisions. It was noted that not all teachers fulfilled the expected role of being supportive. Some participants encountered discouragement

#### *Factors Influencing Young Women to Enroll in IT DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114255*

from female informatics teachers who lacked up-to-date knowledge and exhibited biased attitudes toward female students' abilities. While this initially created a sense of difference and discouragement, it also served as a motivation for participants to prove themselves. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of dispelling misconceptions and cultivating a supportive educational environment to foster interest and success in the field of IT.

*Actually, I thought that my teachers weren't that helpful. Umm, it was quite interesting because I had actually two female informatics teachers and they were quite discouraging. I had one for hardware specific themes and one for software specific themes, and both weren't like necessarily good example. I respect Or admire people that have like knowledge in the things they do, and to them it wasn't like admiring because sometimes it felt a bit like OK, then they learned it like 20 years ago and never updated their knowledge so. So it was not like that inspiring to me and they also didn't vary. And it seemed like even though they they themselves were like in a field, they're like very uncommon to be a teacher in. And it still felt like they had some kind of. Like they didn't trust the girls to to do as good as the as the boys in the class, which is. Quiet like weird to me because they themselves are. They should be the example that it shouldn't matter if you're male or female in this field, but they really did make us feel the difference. So I would say it on some hand it discouraged, but on the other hand, it pushed me and my ego to to try to perform better.* (Interview 3)

#### *4.2.2 Personal characteristics*

The participants were asked whether there are any personal characteristics that they think influence them to study IT. They reported resilience, competitiveness and willingness to fail as some of the characteristics they perceived have helped them.

*I think I am kind I I think I could say that I'm kinda resilient because I remember when we had our very first mathematics course it was really I cannot say in the first few weeks I don't even know if I understand if I really understood everything or anything really. It was a very different mathematics experience. But I remember people dropping out after like the third or second week. And this didn't match my personality at all. Because you know, I didn't even know I want. I would give myself a chance. I don't say I won't do it. I give myself a chance. I decided that I wanted to continue, although I was like, I wasn't even understanding everything because I wanted to give myself a chance to succeed, but will also wanted to allow myself to fail. If I fail, then I fail at the exam and not just because I gave up. This was a mindful decision I made there, I could have dropped out too, but I didn't.* (Interview 2)

*I think resilience because I what is maybe interest maybe interesting about me is that I can have a lot of interests like for me it's really hard to to. I have more the problem to cut down to things and say, OK, I'm not taking this also and doing this as well I it's for me hard that I have like to focus on the on the lot of things that I'm already doing and I'm packing even more.* (Interview 3)

*I would say resilience. Because it's actually something that people can train. People don't, not the intelligent people, get degree. It's the one that are disciplined enough to keep on going.* (Interview 3)

Competitiveness also played a role in motivating some participants to excel and perform at their best in the IT field. This desire to excel and compete drove them to pursue their studies and strive for success.

*So I'm a bit competitive. So it it really draw me to do my best and to accelerate and yeah.* (Interview 3)

*I think it's because I have this competitive person in me. I'm very stubborn. And I don't know how to give up.* (Interview 8)

The ability to manage multiple interests was highlighted by a participant, reflecting her difficulty in narrowing down her pursuits. Nevertheless, this diverse set of interests ultimately contributed to her decision to pursue computer science.

Moreover, the lack of fear of failure was mentioned as an important characteristic in the field of computer science, emphasizing the importance of embracing failures as opportunities for growth and learning.

*I think I am not afraid to fail. That's important in computer science.* (Interview 4)

For some participants, the fit and sense of happiness that computer science brought into their lives outweighed the struggles they faced, reinforcing their commitment to pursuing their studies in the IT domain.

*Computer science feels more fit on me, and I am struggling more, but more happy.* (Interview 5)

#### *4.2.3 Identity factors*

#### *4.2.3.1 Demographic traits*

The participants in the study had a varied demographic profile. In terms of age, they ranged from 21 to 27 years old. Their educational backgrounds were diverse, including attending German schools in both Germany and abroad, studying at a German high school in Turkey, and obtaining bachelor's degrees in different fields in their home countries before pursuing studies in Germany. The participants also had diverse cultural backgrounds, with some having parents who migrated from other countries such as Yugoslavia and Turkey. This mix of age, education and cultural backgrounds contributed to a rich and diverse group of individuals participating in the study on factors influencing women's choices in IT studies.

#### *4.2.3.2 IT identity*

The participants in the study shared a common identity in the field of IT. Their chosen area of study revolved around informatics, with all of them pursuing or having pursued studies in this discipline. This indicated a strong interest and inclination toward the technical and computational aspects of information technology. While some participants had made specific transitions within the broader field of IT, such as switching from informatics to games engineering, the overall focus remained on the study and exploration of informatics. This common IT identity provided a cohesive thread among the participants and formed the basis for analyzing their experiences and factors influencing their choices in the IT domain (**Table 1**).


#### **Table 1.**

*IT identity of the interviewees.*

#### **5. Discussion and recommendations**

Building on the DTGIT, this study analyzes factors that affect young women to enroll in IT degrees in Germany [22]. We found out that environmental factors such as economical aspects of the job (i.e., high paid, job security), culture, social infrastructure factors such as availability of IT courses in high school and initiatives, as well as capability to establish a work-life balance affect women's decision to enroll in courses.

In addition, personal influences such as family (fathers, mothers, siblings), friends and teachers played a role in the decision to enroll in a degree. While most of the time these people provided a positive influence, high-school IT teachers were sometimes seen as being biased toward the young men taking the class. The participants also reported resilience, competitiveness and willingness to fail as characteristics which have helped them.

Based on these results, we provide the following recommendations:

#### **5.1 Easy discovery**

Making the information about degrees easily accessible and discoverable, this study, among others, found out that some women only knew that they were interested in the field after finding more information about it [25]. Access to information can be provided through university websites or initiatives that aim to promote the IT field for high-school students. Another venue is career teachers or IT teachers who have direct contact with high-school students.

#### **5.2 Initiatives**

When organizing initiatives aiming to promote IT, those who aim to introduce coding to women and/or in which the women are able to interact with the university academics were mentioned in our study as being highly useful. In addition, as parents play a role in influencing decisions, aiming some of these interventions at parents or including also parents could be beneficial in attracting more women to the field.

#### **5.3 IT in high school**

IT courses available in high school or earlier familiarize women to the field and might demystify some of the views of the IT field. However when these courses are ran teachers' possible unconscious biases should be addressed, possibly through training. In addition, care should be taken for these courses not to be a further alienating experience for women due to the low number of women attending.

By examining these various factors, our study provides a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted aspects influencing the career decisions of female students in IT. The insights gained from our analysis have significant implications for fostering gender diversity and equity within the IT industry, allowing for targeted interventions and initiatives to support and empower female students in their career journeys.

#### **6. Limitations**

The study was conducted with a limited sample of participants from a single university in Germany. Although some of the study results support existing findings in other contexts, care should be taken when trying to generalize them as these need to be replicated before they can be generalized.

#### **Acknowledgements**

This research has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Free State of Bavaria under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder, as well as by the Technical University of Munich – Institute for Advanced Study. There are no financial competing interests to declare. We want to thank Julia Pühl for helping us during the initial stages of the project.

#### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*Factors Influencing Young Women to Enroll in IT DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.114255*

### **Author details**

Andreea Molnar1,2\*, Carine Khalil2 and Anne Brüggemann-Klein<sup>2</sup>

1 Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia

2 Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

\*Address all correspondence to: amolnar@swin.edu.au

© 2024 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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### **Chapter 7**

## Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education with Lived Experience of Trauma and Adversity

*Lisamarie Deblasio*

#### **Abstract**

This chapter explores the experiences of female students who have lived experiences of adversity and trauma in their interactions with UK higher education personnel when they disclose and ask for support. The findings demonstrate that despite HE policies promoting inclusivity and equality, there is a deficit in the approaches taken by frontline staff towards students. This nurtures a harmful culture of othering which often leads women to early withdrawal from their studies. Solutions to this problem include training and awareness for HE staff including a trauma informed approach which recognises and responds to the rapidly changing student population.

**Keywords:** higher education, women, trauma, adversity, non-inclusivity, othering, discrimination

#### **1. Introduction**

Higher education (HE) is a key driver for female empowerment [1]. Universities can be influential in supporting gender equality and inclusion, both on campus and in the wider society [2]. Universities are experiencing a rapidly widening student demographic; UCAS1 report that since 2020, more female students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds across the UK are studying for degrees [3]. In 2022, a record number of students from deprived areas enrolled at university [4]. Simultaneously there has been a gradual increase in demand for pastoral support, in particular mental health support. These demands fall on academic staff and university support services [5]. In 2017, a 50% rise in demand for mental health provisions in universities was reported by the Institute for Public Policy Research [6]. This research will show that female students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds often require enhanced

<sup>1</sup> The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

levels of support but may find it difficult to access. Previous research demonstrates that academic staff often struggle to engage with students at a pastoral care level [7]. Pinnock's research revealed a lack of academic awareness of the needs of non-traditional students and underdeveloped student support systems [8]. Previous research by Bleijenbergh et al. [9] also shows female students are also vulnerable to gender inequality [10]. This can impact negatively on their experiences in HE. According to Rosa and Clavero,

*'Universities can be powerful institutions for promoting gender equality and inclusion, not only in the higher education context, but also in society at large. Nevertheless, universities remain both gendered and gendering organizations' [11].*

The objective of this study was to learn more about the experiences of female students in HE in the UK who have lived experiences of adversity and trauma. I was especially interested in women with challenging backgrounds who ask for help and support. The objective of examining this group of women came from my own experiences of non-inclusive and othering conduct by some university staff whilst I was a student; and later as an academic when working with women and witnessing firsthand the challenges they face when integrating into HE; whilst trying to overcome the adversity they have in their lives. The way they are treated by university personnel when they ask for support is pivotal to their wellbeing, self-belief and present/future success.

The study explores women's interactions with HE personnel, from academic to support staff. It focuses on three key themes that were revealed in the findings: noninclusivity, othering and discrimination. Although small scale, this study contributes to existing knowledge about the problem of inequality and gendering in HE. It also makes some new discoveries about the way women from certain backgrounds can find themselves being othered by HE personnel in ways that lack connectedness with existing policies on inclusion and equality. Drawing on findings from interviews with ten women who were enrolled on university courses and who asked for support for various difficulties, it was discovered that non-inclusive practices which are inconsistent with general principles of inclusivity.2 and othering remain problematic. This conflicts directly with overarching frameworks within HE Governance such as inclusivity and equality.3 It prevents female students from reaching their potential. In some cases the conduct described by participants suggested that they had been subjected to discrimination; therefore it considers whether there are breaches of the law in respect of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 (EA) and *Abrahart v University of Bristol* 2022.4 The chapter concludes by calling for more considerate practice including a 'trauma informed' approach to student's needs; and a greater awareness of non-inclusive practices. These can lead to discrimination and othering of some female students entering HE, who, due to their life experiences, may already feel they are devalued and othered in society.

<sup>2</sup> Respecting each individual's right to express and present themselves relative to their religion, culture, ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical and mental ability.

<sup>3</sup> Such as the Office for Students Equality Framework, https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/about/ equality-and-diversity/

<sup>4</sup> Bristol County Court Claim No.: G10YX983.

*Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112616*

#### **2. Underpinning concepts**

#### **2.1 Women in higher education**

Historically women in the UK were not allowed to study in HE. In 1868, nine women attended the University of London. This was the first time women had been admitted to a UK university. It was considered to be 'an immensely significant moment for the university, for women and for society as a whole' [12]. By 1918, thanks to the Suffragette movement, women in the UK were able to vote [13]. In 1920, Oxford university permitted women to take full degrees. They had previously been allowed to study there but were awarded a lesser degree than men. In 1948 Cambridge university also allowed women to study there. During the late 1800s the idea of women achieving full degrees at Cambridge university caused riots in the city. It was said that male undergraduates were 'burning effigies of female scholars and throwing fireworks at the windows of Women's colleges' [14].

In the twenty-first century social transformations such as the feminist movement have made universities accessible to women from all social classes. Females have overtaken males in HE [15]. They are 35% more likely to go to university than males [15]. However, despite four decades since the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act, research shows that institutional bias towards women still exists [15]. Research by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) found that,

*'Universities report on institution-wide policies and services that promote gender equality. For example, nine out of ten universities have a non-discrimination policy against women and universities are actively protecting those reporting gender discrimination, with 86% of institutions stating a policy for this' [16].*

#### However, the same study found that,

*'Most universities were unable to provide relevant evidence of their policies and services that support women's advancement, suggesting that while certain codes may ostensibly be in place, they are not yet being implemented across institutions, and students and staff may be unaware of them' [15].*

Research shows that female students are still being treated differently to male students ([17], Accessed: 2 May 2023). The devaluation of females is prevalent in gendered institutions [11] and is another facet to a sexist culture. We know that sexism continues to be a problem in UK universities. According to Di Nitto et al. 'universities are no less sexist than other social institutions' [18]. Utley, writing for Times Higher Education explains, 'Sexism is defined as prejudice, stereotyping or discrimination on the basis of sex and is far too common on university campuses' ([19], Accessed: 3 May 2023). It is noted that 'it is mostly but not exclusively aimed at women' [20]. The existing literature tends to focus on the interactions between male and female staff [21] and male and female students ([19], Accessed: 15 May 2023). What is seems to miss though is the interrelationship between university personnel and female students; this is where a gap in knowledge was identified.

Inequality and non-inclusivity towards female students in HE have serious implications. Talented students experience barriers to success meaning they are unable to thrive. Those who have experienced adverse life events are often more vulnerable

to such treatment, yet they often suffer greater effects from this [22]; for example, failing to integrate with peers, isolation, early withdrawal from studies, failing to graduate, mental health and social problems such as believing that they are not worthy of their qualification or avoiding applying for graduate jobs. Collectively these factors can have a detrimental impact on the social mobility of female students as well as reinforcing an often-protracted sense of isolation and 'not belonging' [23]. Neuman states that 'to belong is a fundamental human need that can shape the way people think and feel' ([17], Accessed: 21 April 2023). The findings in the current study convey the sense of isolation felt by the participants; this had a long-term negative impact on their confidence when engaging with their course and later seeking employment. All ten participants spoke of university being a lonely experience where they felt isolated and did not 'fit in' with peers or some academic staff, the latter who they envisaged as privileged and unable to emphasise with them because they are women who come from deprived and challenging backgrounds.

UK universities promote a proactive and comprehensive approach to student support that is designed to create a holistic network of academic and central support personnel ([24], Accessed: 16 May 2023). Yet Collias argues that 'higher education has never been an oasis of acceptance and nurturing' ([25], Accessed: 12 May 2023). Laws and Fiedler suggest that 'the university environment has challenged the motivation of academic staff to engage in pastoral care, academic staff are often disturbed by unplanned student intrusions' [7]. Rodrigo and Clavero argue that because men are at the centre of power in academia the problem of gender inequality has not been addressed sufficiently to reflect changes in the student population [11]. This argument is advanced by David, who suggests 'patriarchy or hegemonic masculinity in HE is still strongly felt' [15]. Morris et al. put forward that those engaged in promoting gender equality in HE 'inevitably come up against a complex range of institutional barriers [26]. Despite the wide-reaching policies on equality and inclusivity we find compelling evidence that outdated cultures still exist within HE. These become apparent when some of the most vulnerable students ask for support.

#### **2.2 Social mobility**

One of the key motivators for women who have fought adversity to enter HE is the potential for social mobility. Social mobility is defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OEDC) as 'equality of opportunity' ([27], Accessed: 14 April 2023). This means that people should have the same opportunities to do well in life, 'regardless of the socio-economic background of their parents, their gender, age, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, birthplace, or other circumstances beyond their control' ([27], Accessed: 14 April 2023). According to de Bellaigue et al., 'the twentieth century saw substantial changes in the educational and occupational opportunities available to women in Britain, these may have been supposed to foster new patterns of female mobility' [28]. However, women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds tend to have less chance of studying at HE level and achieving a graduate career [29]. This is why the role of civil society, and the private sector is so crucial in shaping equal opportunities ([30], Accessed: 3 May 2023). In practice it means that women from these backgrounds can access HE and once they have, the way they are treated within this institution is paramount to their success. A key aspect of HE policy is inclusivity ([2], Accessed: 3 May 2023) which if adopted and practiced authentically, can ensure that students are able to reach their potentials and achieve social mobility.

*Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112616*

#### **2.3 Inclusivity**

In recent years there has been an increasing focus on inclusivity within HE [31]. This is said to have been influenced by 'increased globalisation and connectivity and interdependence between cultures, ideas and economies' [32]. Inclusivity is defined as 'the fact or policy of not excluding members or participants on the grounds of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability' [33]. In HE, inclusivity is specifically focused on 'the ongoing and transformative process of improving education systems to meet everyone's needs, especially those in marginalised groups' [32]. Inclusive practice involves ensuring that there is no segregation or stigmatising of difference' [34]. Inclusivity is essential to students' overall learning and development [35]. Ways that inclusivity can be promoted in HE is by effective and ongoing partnership with students, taking students' experiences and feedback into account, ensuring that teaching and learning is provided to support students from all economic backgrounds and supporting the needs of students academically and pastorally [36]. Some of the ways inclusivity is weakened are by having a closed-door hierarchal policy, using inappropriate language, inattentive listening, making assumptions about students, not treating people the same based on race, religion, gender, size, age, personality or country of origin, excluding or ignoring, and inconsiderate scheduling [32].

Hubbard et al. emphasise the ethos of inclusivity includes careful consideration as well as actions by HE staff,

*'We should adopt an intersectional approach to inclusion, recognising that individual students might belong to multiple disadvantaged groups. Inclusivity also recognises that students are individuals, not just members of a demographic 'group'. Two students from the same 'group' might have very different experiences, so we must take care not to fall back on stereotypes or generalisations about what a particular group of student needs' [36].*

Although inclusive practice is not a legal requirement, most UK universities openly promote inclusive policy and practice which aligns with guidance by institutions such as Advanced Higher Education ([37], Accessed: 16 May 2023) and the Office for Students ([38], Accessed: 20 May 2023).

#### **2.4 Othering**

Othering is a situation whereby groups of people with a certain identity are marginalised and seen as outside the normal or conventional. People are othered based on race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, class, caste, culture, disability, religion and age. Othering is defined by Townsin as 'considering another person, or group of people, as fundamentally different from 'us', thereby failing to acknowledge their subjectivities and complexities' [39].

And by Cherry as,

*'A phenomenon in which some individuals or groups are defined and labelled as not fitting in within the norms of a social group. It is an effect that influences how people perceive and treat those who are viewed as being part of the in-group versus those who are seen as being part of the out-group' ([40], Accessed: 21 April 2023).*

Othering is commonly cited as a form of hatred towards ethnic minority groups [41] and women [41]. Powell suggests that othering as a general concept, 'is not about liking or disliking someone. It is based on the conscious or unconscious assumption that a certain identified group poses a threat to the favoured group' [42]. Many reasons have been put forward why some people engage in othering, but in higher education it is considered to be,

*'Bound to issues of inclusion and belonging. Those othered are positioned to 'hold' experiences of exclusion and outsider-ness by those who are positioned on the inside and the 'norm'; othering takes us into the realm of power and how power and identity are interconnected and constructed' ([25], Accessed: 12 May 2023).*

It is believed that where people experience trauma such as child abuse, othering is an experience that can become internalised. This means that it is common for those who suffer trauma to hold hatred towards themselves and towards others with similar life experiences. This internalisation is likely to be a defence mechanism towards being othered and excluded. It will be argued later that an effective way to avoid othering women in HE is to adopt a trauma informed approach which is now widely used in many services that work with traumatised people ([43], Accessed: 25 April 2023).

#### **2.5 Adversity and trauma**

Trauma and adversity are used to describe both single and reoccurring distressing life events or situations. Trauma does not have definitive examples but can include emotional, physical or sexual abuse, a violent or frightening event, witnessing harm to someone else, family conflict or domestic abuse, losing a family member or friend to suicide. Some experiences can be so traumatic they leave a person with mental health implications over a much longer period. Trauma is not a mental health condition, however, experiencing trauma and adverse life events can result in a person struggling with their emotional wellbeing, relationships and mental health ([44], Accessed: 22 April 2023). Adversity and trauma can cause a condition called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research has found that women have a two to three times higher risk of developing PTSD compared to men [45]. Symptoms of PTSD tend to vary but common symptoms are negative thoughts and feelings that make daily life exceedingly difficult for sufferers, and a 'fight or flight' reaction to stressful situations. Olff found that women with PTSD tend to react to stressful situations with a tend-and-befriend response rather than the fight-or-flight response that is often assumed [45]. Seeking out others to support when they need support themselves can have further implications for their wellbeing and can deflect the attention from their own needs. Research has consistently shown that 'females have complex patterns of adversity which carry differential risks for mental health, emotional, and social outcomes later in life' [46]. These risks, when coupled with the demands and stresses of studying, and negative experiences whilst in HE, can result in women being unable to continue with their studies, or they 'soldier on' unsupported, with long term harmful implications [46].

#### **3. The Applicable Law and Regulations in HE**

The Regulatory Framework for Higher Education in England (RFHEE). This Framework is published by the Office for Students which states that the,

*Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112616*

*'Primary aim is to ensure that English higher education is delivering positive outcomes for students – past, present, and future. We seek to ensure that students, from all backgrounds (particularly the most disadvantaged), can access, succeed in, and progress from higher education'.*

The RFHEE four primary regulatory objectives are as follows: all students, from all backgrounds, and with the ability and desire to undertake higher education:


The regulatory framework is designed to mitigate the risk that these primary objectives are not met. The regulatory objectives will be considered later in conjunction with this study's findings.

#### **4. The Equality Act 2010: implications for HE institutions**

The EA sets out protected characteristics which are the grounds upon which discrimination is unlawful. These includes age and sex. The EA sets out prohibited conduct of direct discrimination. Section 13 of the Act defines direct discrimination to be when a person treats one person less favourably than they would another because of a protected characteristic. The EA has provided for the treatment of students. Section 91 of the Act prohibits the governing body of an HEI from discriminating against a person or student in the following ways: in the way it affords the student access to a benefit, facility or service, by not providing education for the student, by not affording the student access to a benefit, facility or service, by excluding the student, by subjecting the student to any other detriment [47]. The EA requires public sector bodies (including universities) to have due regard to the need to: eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation advance equality of opportunity between people who do and do not share a protected characteristic, foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share a protected characteristic.

#### **4.1 Duty of care to students**

The UK government state that,

*'Higher Education providers do have a general duty of care to deliver educational and pastoral services to the standard of an ordinarily competent institution and, in carrying out these services, they are expected to act reasonably to protect the health, safety and welfare of their students' [48].*

However Scolding notes that when it comes to the duty of care to provide pastoral support, there is no real clarity about how that works in practice ([49], Accessed: 20 April 2023). The Association of Managers of Student Services in Higher Education (AMOSSHE) Duty of Care Guidance provides principles of good practice for universities which include the delivery of student support services including effective provisions for support, transparency and a clear designation of responsibility, and importantly,

*'The necessary training, development and support should be available to all relevant staff to enable them to undertake their roles and responsibilities in providing support to students efficiently and effectively' [50].*

In summary students are owed a duty of care by the university, academic staff [51] such as personal tutors5 and study advisers and by central Student Services. AMOSSHE advise that students who disclose challenging circumstances on admission should be given an 'assessment of need report'which sets out key information to those with a duty of care to the student's wellbeing.6 Universities must have regard to the RFHEE objectives and are bound by the equality legislation not to discriminate or allow discrimination against students. It is not conclusive that the law protects the right to inclusivity in HE, but arguments have been put forward that inclusivity is a human right in relation to disability under International law [52] and that inclusivity is a moral human right [53]. It is however the case that non inclusive behaviour can emanate into discrimination which would then become unlawful.

#### **5. Methodology**

Following a feminist methodology, a qualitative, small-scale study was carried out involving ten participants who identified as female students with lived experience of adversity and trauma. Ethical approval for the study was sought and approved by the researcher's institutions' ethics panel.7 The first stage was an online survey sent to the Student Unions of seven UK universities8 with a request to cascade the survey to female students. The survey included questions on disclosure of adverse/traumatic life events and subsequent support seeking whilst in HE. Adversity and trauma were not defined in the recruitment information so that women were able to define their own experiences. There were 63 respondents who completed a survey. From those responses ten participants were recruited via purposive sampling.9 Six students came from different universities. The remaining three were students at different colleges within the same university. They were chosen because they confirmed that they had: a, lived experience of trauma, adversity, and b, they had disclosed either a characteristic or a disability to their university and had asked for support and assistance. For

<sup>5</sup> A member of academic staff who provides academic guidance and pastoral support to a student during their course of study.

<sup>6</sup> Ibid.

<sup>7</sup> At the university of Plymouth.

<sup>8</sup> These were randomly selected from a list of all Universities in England and Wales.

<sup>9</sup> Purposive sampling, also known as judgmental, selective, or subjective sampling, is a form of nonprobability sampling in which researchers rely on their own judgement when choosing members of the population to participate in their surveys [54].

#### *Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112616*

ethical purposes, before obtaining their consent, the women were asked to confirm that they were no longer experiencing domestic abuse or any other form of abusive relationship and that they were comfortable talking about their trauma. The ethical responsibility when working with vulnerable people is enhanced. Participants may not be conventionally vulnerable, but if they are in dependent and/or abusive relationships, they can feel coerced or pressured into taking part in research, so extra care is needed to ensure their involvement is ethical [55]. Each of the participants was allocated a pseudonym name to protect their identities. These names have been used to identify each person's narrative in the findings.

The second part of the study was the collection of data by semi-structured and interviews conducted face to face. Feminist research methods favour conversational interviews in a supportive and empathic environment. Reinharz explains 'the use of [unstructured] interviews have become the principal means by which feminists have sought to achieve the active involvement of their respondents in the construction of data about their lives' [56]. According to Ann Oakley, the feminist perspective rejects traditional masculine interviewing techniques where there is the avoidance of sensitivity and emotionality. Rather it embraces the traits of openness, emotional engagement and the development of trust within a non-hierarchal relationship [57].

Opening questions focused on asking women about their experiences of HE in general, then more specifically in the context of adversity and trauma they had suffered. Further questions were asked about specific support they sought, from who and their views on the responses and adequacy of support provided. The aim of the interviews was to collect data from natural conversation so that the participants did not feel pressured to give 'correct answers'. This approach provides the potential for obtaining rich and detailed data. This data provides empirical information about the lives and perspectives of the participants through use of words [58].

The data was analysed using discourse analysis. This method studies aspects of social life which is understood through the analysis of language and its contextual meaning. Discourse analysis supports the idea that language and discourse, in the sense of speech and communication, is not a fixed reality, but one that is shaped by social context. According to Jankowicz, discourse analysis is of relevance when listening to people's own narratives of a situation. It allows researchers to gain an understanding of people and how they communicate and explore meaning from conversations about the social life of participants [59]. From individual data, we can look for analytic themes and discursive features. From the data as a whole, we can look for patterns in words, anecdotes and the use of language [60]. In the present study, the participants' discourses were analysed twice. Firstly, to look for specific words and phrases that were relevant to the research aims, and secondly, to look at each conversation holistically to get a sense of the participants' interactions with academics and professionals and how this made them feel whilst considering the implications of the findings under the principles of inclusivity and equality.

#### **6. Study limitations**

This research is not large scale enough to give an inclusive representation of the chosen study population. This work provides only a snapshot of practice in HE which corresponds with previous research and makes some new discoveries. The recruitment method also limits the generality of the findings, because it may be that only women who had negative experiences were compelled to participate. This limitation

was balanced by the identification of respondents who clearly expressed their motivation for participation, this being the wish to share their experiences so that awareness is raised and such conduct by HE staff is challenged. The recruitment method also allowed for women to enquire and agree to the research with total autonomy, there were no gatekeepers involved, thus respondents had full control over their participation. It is argued that the data collected is reliable and valid; because it is drawn from students from different institutions there is a good level of representation. Although the data is subjective and based on participant's interpretations of their experiences, this is the basis of qualitative research and is an accepted method of investigating social phenomena.

#### **7. Findings and discussion**

The participants ranged in age from 21 to 40 at the time of their interviews. Five participants described themselves as white, one as black British, one as white and Asian, the remaining three did not specify their ethnicity. All the women came from lower socio-economic backgrounds and considered HE as a pathway to social mobility and 'better career prospects'.10 All the participants confirmed that they had disclosed details of their circumstances to various university personnel including, central administration, personal tutors, lecturers and disability/wellbeing/mental health support workers. A theme in the findings was that a degree was more than just a qualification to these women. Going to university to study was a major life experience where they hoped to escape or transcend adversity and build their self-esteem for a more positive future.

Analysis of the results revealed significant deficiencies in inclusivity and othering at ground level with collective evidence of devaluation of these female students. These personal narratives are combined in a manner allowing for a broader picture of female students' experiences in HE to emerge, spotlighting the challenges and obstacles they often face when trying to overcome adversity and thrive academically, professionally and personally.

The findings demonstrate that despite policies on inclusivity and equality being heralded by universities, these principles are not always upheld by individual staff. There were many examples of good practice given by the participants, in particular by mental health workers and personal tutors, but of concern are the examples of noninclusivity and in some cases discrimination which overall leads to the devaluation and othering of female students with lived experience of adversity.

Anna is a domestic abuse survivor; she spent the first two years of her law degree living in a women's refuge with her children. Anna said that she found a 'wall of disregard'11 from several members of staff when she asked for specific support such as being allowed to attend a different class that worked with her childcare. Anna also described a male lecturer making 'disturbing observations'12 during a meeting where he alluded to victims being weak for not leaving an abusive partner. Anna learned that the lecturer made no secret of his contempt for domestic abuse survivors. She raised concerns about his conduct to her personal tutor, but she believes that no action was taken.

<sup>10</sup> Transcript K (Sept 2022).

<sup>11</sup> Transcript A (Aug 2022).

<sup>12</sup> Ibid.

#### *Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112616*

Karima is a post graduate student; she is a domestic abuse survivor who had to leave her home with her children in her first year of study. When Karima asked her personal tutor for help because she was worried about missing lectures due to having to move home, she was refused assistance. She recalled the tutor said 'if we make provisions for you, we will have to offer it to all the students'.13 She was then directed to the course information booklet which stated that it is a student's responsibly to attend all classes. She recalled the conversation was 'shut down'14 by the tutor with no compromise for her situation. Billy is studying social work; she spent her early years in the care system and was profoundly traumatised by her childhood experiences. She suffered from reoccurring bouts of depression. Billy felt 'singled out'15 as a care leaver in ways that suggested she was more likely to fail than other students; an example of othering being a lecturer advising her that students with 'baggage from childhood'<sup>16</sup> should not pursue a career in social work.

Lilly is studying for a master's degree; she grew up taking care of, and often being assaulted by troubled foster children because her parents were unable to manage them. She also experienced bullying from other students during her course, something that triggered symptoms of anxiety and PTSD from her childhood. When she sought support, she described her meeting with the programme leader,

*'I told her that what happened to me meant I couldn't stand up to bullies and could she help me deal with the two women who were bullying me. She had no empathy whatsoever, I felt like I was to blame. I wanted to disappear into her office wall; I was ashamed for even asking for anything'.<sup>17</sup>*

Paulina grew up in an emotionally abusive family. She suffered from severe PTSD and depression during her first year of her drama degree which led her to abuse alcohol to try and cope with her symptoms. She said she was 'all over the place'18 and needed help but could find no support in her faculty. During her second year she accidentally fell pregnant and asked her personal tutor for advice and support. She recalled his visible discomfort when she told him she was pregnant, he then advised her to withdraw from her course. She found this advice particularly upsetting because she knew a fellow male student who was expecting a baby with his partner had been 'offered all kinds of support including extenuating circumstances for his performance assessment'.19

Cass is an English literature student. She has been diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. She spent several years in psychiatric hospitals prior to being a student. She was provided with a support package from the university disability service, but she found the attitudes of some of the academic staff judgmental. She said her personal tutor had no idea how to talk to her about her situation and made several badly informed comments about mental health, for example, he asked her what would happen if she stopped taking her medication. Cass was not on medication and was managing her condition with cognitive behavioural therapy She felt that this comment was

<sup>13</sup> Transcript K (Sept 2022).

<sup>14</sup> Ibid.

<sup>15</sup> Transcript B (Oct 2022).

<sup>16</sup> Ibid.

<sup>17</sup> Transcript L (Sept 2022).

<sup>18</sup> Transcript P (July 2022).

<sup>19</sup> Ibid.

stigmatising of people with mental health conditions. Zara is an undergraduate. She was sexually abused in her early years. She had been a witness against her abusers in two criminal trials and was extremely vulnerable when she entered HE. Initially she chose not to disclose to the university. That changed when she attended her first small group tutorial.

*'There were about ten of us in the class. L (the teacher) thought he was 'down with the kids' he was messing around and everyone was laughing. Then he started telling jokes about some of those famous blokes who have been convicted of sexually abusing kids, saying some awful things about abuse survivors. I started to feel hot and nauseous, I left the class. I emailed him the next day, something like 'some people have personal experience of abuse and your jokes were inappropriate'. His reply was something along the lines of 'well if I'd known bla bla', but what kind of person does that? Laughs at child abuse. I knew I could never be in a room with him again and it changed how I felt about my course'.*

Elizabeth left her degree course before graduation. She suffered from an eating disorder linked to childhood abuse. She feels angry about the way she was treated at university. Although she said some of the academic staff were 'wonderful'20; her personal tutor was cold and unsupportive, telling her she should leave her course without advising her of any other support or options such as an interruption or extenuating circumstances. Elizabeth said that she was left feeling suicidal and with no choice but to leave a course she loved. Sammy had a similar experience. She lived with depression and OCD21 and was provided with a study mentor by the university who, from the outset, caused her problems. Sammy said the mentor was keen to discuss her own personal problems whilst ignoring Sammy's study needs. The situation became untenable when Sammy learned that the mentor had made derogatory comments about her on a social media 'group chat',22 posting a 'meme'23 of a woman in on a physiatrist's sofa with Sammy's name pasted on. When she made a complaint to her faculty office she recalled, 'the senior professor said I was probably being oversensitive and if I got mad at every little thing, I saw on social networks I was going to have a tough time and needed to have a thicker skin'.24

Overall the narratives convey a sense of isolation felt by the participants. Despite trying to manage significant stressors and the impact of trauma, they often avoided help seeking until it was inexorable and then it was motivated by the concern that their studies would be compromised if they did not ask for help. A reoccurring theme was accounts of tutors or support staff seeming distant, unengaged or not listening. Sammy noticed that the professor did not make eye contact at all and talked to the wall above her head. Anna said the male lecturer talked over her and interrupted her every time she spoke.

<sup>24</sup> Ibid.

<sup>20</sup> Transcript E (Aug 2022).

<sup>21</sup> Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, chronic, and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts and compulsions that they feel the urge to repeat over and over.

<sup>22</sup> Transcript S (Oct 2022).

<sup>23</sup> Ibid.

*Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112616*

#### **8. How women were affected by the conduct**

Participants talked about how this treatment made them feel. Some simply denied to themselves that this treatment had occurred and tried to normalise it so that they could continue with their studies. However, that was a short-term solution. Reactions included feeling isolated, mental distress, low self-esteem, a sense of being an imposter. They often went out of their way to avoid the individuals concerned, including not attending lectures or personal tutor meetings, thus enhancing their sense of segregation. Some were constantly on guard, anxious, or hypervigilant and some felt numb or detached from other people, activities and their surroundings. It is easy to see how a single incident of othering and non-inclusive behaviour can trigger a person who is sensitive to such treatment to find HE a negative and in some cases an intolerable experience. Early withdrawal and non-completion of studies is often a result, something universities are anxious to avoid ([61], Accessed: 21 April 2023). Statistics from Higher Education Statistics Agency show that 5.3% of full-time, first-degree entrants in 2019/2020 did not continue past their first year of study. Tinto found that student's positive interaction with faculty and the peer group played a significant role in student experience, concluding that students who are not integrated are more likely to withdraw [62].

#### **9. Implications**

Negative responses to requests for help are detrimental to students, to HE ethos and to universities' duty of care. The conduct described by the participants conflicts with the RHFEE overarching principle, 'that students, from all backgrounds (particularly the most disadvantaged), can access, succeed in, and progress from higher education'. There are clear examples of non-inclusive and othering behaviour where women were excluded because of their gender, disability and/or backgrounds. This is poor practice that fails to meet the standards set by the AMOSSHE. Because some of the participants fall within the protected characteristics defined by the EA, the conduct they describe equates unlawful harassment under the EA because it made them feel degraded, humiliated, distressed and offended. There is direct discrimination under sections 13 and 91 of the EA. Direct discrimination concerns a person being treated differently and worse than others because of who they are or because of who someone thinks they are. Being advised to withdraw when others are provided with support and being told not to pursue a career because of life experience demonstrates different or worse treatment than other students. There is discrimination on the basis of gender where the student was discriminated against by being told to withdraw because she was pregnant. There is also discrimination arising from disability. In *Abrahart v University of Bristol* 2022,25 Bristol County Court held that the university had breached the Equality Act. This case involved a student with depression and social anxiety disorder who committed suicide because of the failure of Bristol university to provide her with adjustments to assessment because of her disability. The case is relevant here because Billy, Paulina, Cass, Elizabeth, Lilly and Sammy have a disability defined within the Section 6 of the Equality Act, by way of a mental impairment. This was defined by the court as in *Abrahart* as 'severe depression

<sup>25</sup> Bristol County Court Claim No.: G10YX983.

with prominent anxiety features'.26 The court said that to equate discrimination a university must have actual or constructive notice of a disability.27 Knowledge on the part of any member of university staff in that capacity should usually be enough. Direct discrimination arising from disability under s.15 EA would concern unfavourable treatment because of something connected to a disability.28 The court held that discrimination would occur once a university knew that a mental health disability was preventing the student from performing and then treated them unfavourably. Under the EA education providers must not engage in unfair treatment such as the provision of policies, access to benefits, facilities or services or any other detriment. It is argued that asking for help and being told to withdraw due to illness or pregnancy; or not having adequate provisions in place which impact on the student's ability to study equates unfavourable treatment as defined in *Abrahart*. Tyrer points out that '*Abrahart* will no doubt raise the profile of mental health issues in universities' ([63], Accessed: 18 May 2023). But arguably it is more pertinent to the deficit in understanding of HE staff and the quality of responses to individual students' support needs.

#### **10. Suggestions and concluding thoughts**

Whilst the findings show mainly examples of individual behaviour, othering and discrimination, rather than an institutional policy that permits such conduct; it does not lessen the gravity of this treatment. Indeed the attitudes of personnel can be attributed to an accepted 'culture' within an institution. Dumitrescu argues 'universities preach meritocracy but, in reality, bend over backwards to protect toxic personalities, in what she calls 'an ego driven industry' [64]. There is a need for improved and more considerate practices underpinned by a better understanding of new emerging student populations. This can be obtained through mandatory training and examples of best practice from forward thinking institutions. For example, the University of Hull have created a framework with five areas of activity which contribute to inclusive practice across an institution ([36], Accessed: 16 May 2023). There is also a need for a more unified approach to support. Some participants described receiving excellent support from a centralised service such as mental health, but complete disregard from their teachers or personal tutors. Laws believes that there remains a lack of clarity on the role and boundaries around the promotion of student's wellbeing. He argues that 'pastoral care remains ill-defined despite enduring expectations held by university administrators' [7]. May et al. suggest that 'supporting students' development and well-being should not be a distinct collection of services with deficit connotations but part of the curriculum content' [65]. This policy would require a holistic process where academic and central student support services work together transparently to provide cohesive support to students, which could in turn create more accountability for individual staff.

Trauma-informed approaches (TIA) have become increasingly important in policy and adopted in practice as a method to reducing the negative impact of trauma experiences and supporting mental health ([66], Accessed: 18 May 2023). TIA is becoming a factor in the training of HE personnel, for example, when training academics as student sexual violence liaison officers, part of the course involves

<sup>26</sup> Ibid. paras 106, 108–109.

<sup>27</sup> Ibid. para 116.

<sup>28</sup> Ibid. 137–138.

#### *Non-Inclusivity, Discrimination and the Othering of Female Students in Higher Education… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.112616*

adopting a TIA towards students who report sexual violence ([67], Accessed: 18 May 2022). It is proposed that TIA be part of an institutions mandatory training to reflect the increasing numbers of students who have lived through trauma and adversity. TIA follows a simple set of principles that staff should follow when supporting students: safety, including attempting to prevent re-traumatisation, trustworthiness, with the objective of building trust among staff, and service users, choice, including listening to the needs and wishes of service users, collaboration, in that the organisation asking service users what they need and collaboratively considering how these needs can be met, empowerment, includes supporting people to make decisions and take action and cultural considerations including incorporating policies, protocols and processes that are responsive to the needs of individuals served ([67], Accessed: 18 May 2022).

More work needs to be done at both frontline staff level and in the wider HE context to address the problems of non-inclusivity, othering and discrimination. Women entering HE from adverse circumstances often have specific vulnerabilities or 'triggers', which are highly sensitive to inconsiderate practices, sometimes resulting in withdrawal from studies and reinforcement of low self-esteem. Training for HE personnel includes diversity, and equality awareness, as well as more focused training, for example, becoming an ally for students from LGBTIQAPD+ communities. A training program that provides TIA and promotes awareness of the needs of women with traumatic backgrounds is a step in the right direction. Hornsby and Clark advise a holistic approach to supporting students which includes positive relationships between students and staff' including empathic mentoring, identification of positive character strengths and building resilience [68–72].

Finally, the women who I spoke to all suggested that more empathy, support and kindness from staff would have gone a long way to make their HE experience a better one. It may be that some staff simply need to think about the impact of their words and attitudes to students before they speak. It is easy to become jaded when there are such large numbers of students passing through our institutions each year; but we must remember that each student is in individual with different backgrounds and needs. HE personnel should also reflect on their personal biases often and engage with the available training that will encourage them to transcend negative attitudes, allowing them to support students in the manner they deserve.

#### **Author details**

Lisamarie Deblasio School of Law, University of Plymouth, UK

\*Address all correspondence to: lisa.deblasio@plymouth.ac.uk

© 2023 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Section 3
