**7. Conclusion**

Gender inequity in STEM in Egypt is a complex issue. While research denotes different reasons that would influence a girl's preference of an education pathway, the education and career choices of the participants in this study were deeply influenced by their family and community [47]. With the socio-cultural aspects in the background personal aspects like self-efficacy, resistance, and persistence play a great role in students' decisions to pursue STEM fields [24, 25]. As indicated in the literature, girls experience stereotype threat throughout their schooling related to the pursuit of a STEM career. In Western countries, these biases are often implicit and experienced as micro-aggressions [3, 4], however, in the Arab world, girls experience explicit and direct bias from family and society [10, 11]. Thus, the government stance of providing STEM schools for girls is an important statement to the community that girls can be successful in STEM.

**103**

**Author details**

Mohamed El Nagdi1

\* and Gillian Heather Roehrig2

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

1 American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

dictum concerning equity to real actions.

2 University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: elnag003@umn.edu

*Gender Equity in STEM Education: The Case of an Egyptian Girls' School*

Without effective and equitable school settings factors at the personal and the social level cannot have such deep effects on the girls' free career and educational choices. School level factors like curriculum, positive environment, female friendly instructional approaches, teachers support are key factors as shown by the girls' experiences in the STEM school [29]. Moreover, success in post-secondary STEM degrees is strongly influence by students' high school preparation, particularly in mathematics [33, 55]. Thus, it is important that girls receive the same level of high school STEM preparation so they are prepared for success in college. All of the girls indicated how well prepared they were for academic success. Equally important, is that the school experience fosters girls' interest and STEM identity through using a

With the different model of teaching and learning at the girls' STEM school in Cairo, the girls had the opportunity to unleash their STEM potential. This emancipatory effect of the STEM school experience has not only increased the girls' persistence and resistance to the gender bias and stereotype threats concerning STEM fields as male dominated but unleashed the girls' social and transformative

It is, therefore, recommended that much effort at both the academic and social levels is needed in order to create an environment where girls have an equal opportunity to study and excel in STEM fields. These recommendations include embracing a female friendly instructional paradigm while adopting a school system where girls are provided safe space for practice, competition, collaboration and ease of communication with others. Higher education institutions should be providing a more flexible admission system similar to that found in the United States and Europe giving access to students from different tracks at high schools to be admitted to their colleges of preference based on their interest and aptitude as some of the participants in this study applied to colleges abroad because the admission system in Egypt public universities would not allow a student graduating from high school with a science major to enroll in the school of engineering. Finally, at the social level, combating negative stereotyping is a necessity for building a sound education system for all. This is a long journey where a lot of work is needed in schools, homes, and media level. Therefore, there is a need for moving forward from the

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87170*

female friendly approach to teaching [23, 55].

potential towards building a more equitable society.

#### *Gender Equity in STEM Education: The Case of an Egyptian Girls' School DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87170*

Without effective and equitable school settings factors at the personal and the social level cannot have such deep effects on the girls' free career and educational choices. School level factors like curriculum, positive environment, female friendly instructional approaches, teachers support are key factors as shown by the girls' experiences in the STEM school [29]. Moreover, success in post-secondary STEM degrees is strongly influence by students' high school preparation, particularly in mathematics [33, 55]. Thus, it is important that girls receive the same level of high school STEM preparation so they are prepared for success in college. All of the girls indicated how well prepared they were for academic success. Equally important, is that the school experience fosters girls' interest and STEM identity through using a female friendly approach to teaching [23, 55].

With the different model of teaching and learning at the girls' STEM school in Cairo, the girls had the opportunity to unleash their STEM potential. This emancipatory effect of the STEM school experience has not only increased the girls' persistence and resistance to the gender bias and stereotype threats concerning STEM fields as male dominated but unleashed the girls' social and transformative potential towards building a more equitable society.

It is, therefore, recommended that much effort at both the academic and social levels is needed in order to create an environment where girls have an equal opportunity to study and excel in STEM fields. These recommendations include embracing a female friendly instructional paradigm while adopting a school system where girls are provided safe space for practice, competition, collaboration and ease of communication with others. Higher education institutions should be providing a more flexible admission system similar to that found in the United States and Europe giving access to students from different tracks at high schools to be admitted to their colleges of preference based on their interest and aptitude as some of the participants in this study applied to colleges abroad because the admission system in Egypt public universities would not allow a student graduating from high school with a science major to enroll in the school of engineering. Finally, at the social level, combating negative stereotyping is a necessity for building a sound education system for all. This is a long journey where a lot of work is needed in schools, homes, and media level. Therefore, there is a need for moving forward from the dictum concerning equity to real actions.
