DOCUMENT RESUME ED 405 484 AUTHOR Evans, Karen
DOCUMENT RESUMEED 405 484AUTHORTITLEINSTITUTIONPUB DATENOTEPUB TYPEEDRS PRICEDESCRIPTORSIDENTIFIERSCE 073 696Evans, KarenBarriers to Participation of Women in TechnologicalEducation and the Role of Distance Education.Occasional Paper No. 1.Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver (BritishColumbia).Nov 9516p.Information Analyses (070)MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.Access to Education; College Programs; ContinuingEducation; *Distance Education; Foreign Countries;Higher Education; *Nontraditional Students; ProgramEffectiveness; Sex Bias; Sex Fairness; StudentAttitudes; *Technical Education; *TechnologicalAdvancement; *Womens EducationAustralia; Great Britain; GuyanaABSTRACTThroughout the world, women are underrepresented intechnical fields as a result of the segmentation of the labor marketand the internalization of expectations for women. Distance educationcan make an important contribution in overcoming barriers to women'sparticipation in technology in the developed and developing world.The Open University in Britain has been successful in using distanceeducation to recruit women into a course designed to help women whohad qualified as engineers to bridge career breaks with updatingeducation. An Australian initiative for rural women involved acommunity-based distance education program intended to increase thenumber of mature women entering science and engineering courses,characterized by its consultative approach to program development andstrong student support systems. In Guyana, a community-based distanceeducation program involved training for local women in the design,construction, and use of appropriate technologies related to energysaving. These distance education initiatives involving bridgingcourses, conversion courses, and community-based programs show thatdistance education can achieve results in facilitating theparticipation of women, both young and mature, in technologicaleducation. For women to become full participants in technologicalfields, however, wider efforts are needed to combat gender bias.(Contains 36 references.) *************************Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original ******************************
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONlice of Educational Research and ImprovementTHE COMMONWEALTH Of LEARNINGUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)This document has been reproduced asreceived from the person or organizationoriginating it.PERMISSION TO REPRODUCEANDDISSEMINATE THIS MATERIALHAS BEEN GRANTED BYOCCASIONAL PAPER No.1, NOVEMBER 1995Minor changes have been made toimprove reproduction quality.TO THE EDUCATIONALPoints of view or opinions stated in thisdocument do not necessarily representofficial OERI position or policy.INFORMATIONRESOURCESCENTER (ERIC)BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN INTECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND THE ROLE OFDISTANCE EDUCATIONKaren Evans1.IntroductionThe significance now attached to increasing the participation of women in technology andtechnological education reflects two world-wide trends. The first is the way in which technology ispermeating all domains of activity in the contemporary world, with pervasive roles in nationaleconomic development and in our everyday experience. Not only are occupations involvingtechnology on the increase, but populations in general, men and women, are engaging with theprocesses, products and effects of technology on a day to day basis. The second is recognition of theneed for action by the international community in securing the advancement of women and theelimination of gender-based discrimination, particularly in the fields of education and employment.Women choose to enrol in greater proportions in arts, human studies and social sciences than they doin mathematics, science and technology, the world over. The origin of this under representation ofwomen has been largely structural, created in and through the social structures of institutions and thesegmentation of the labour market, and internalised in values and beliefs about appropriate roles andexpectations. These factors are manifested in a host of barriers to women's participation, both generaland specific to the technological domain.Distance education is seen as having a potentially important contribution to make in overcomingbarriers to women's participation in the developed and developing world.As Trivedi (1989) writesDistance education has a very important role in women's development. Women haveconstraints of time, space, resources and socio-economic disabilities. Distanceeducation can help them with its outreach to their homes. It enables them to learn attheir own pace and take up vocations and skills for economic and individualdevelopment. It gives them a second chance to step into the main systems ofeducation, including higher education, enabling them at the same time to earn andlearn as well as to fulfilling family responsibilities (p. 21).The Commonwealth of Learning#1700 777 Dunsmuir Street, Box #10428Vancouver, British ColumbiaCanada V7Y 1K42Telephone: 604 775 8200Fax: 604 775 8210E-Mail: info@col.orgWorld Wide Web: http://www.col.org
2What is the part that Distance Education can play in facilitating women's participation in technologyand technological education? What barriers does it need to address? What are its potential andlimitations in different cultural contexts?This paper addresses these questions, through selective review of literature and reports of significantaction programmes. It aims:(a) to summarise and categorise barriers to women's participation;(b) to establish, as far as possible from available literature, whether, how far and under whatconditions distance education may offer a means of reducing significant barriers to participation indifferent cultural contexts;(c) to develop a set of criteria to aid further investigation in different regional contexts.2.Barriers to ParticipationBarriers to participation are found to be of several kinds:(a)Cultural: common patterns in role and status of women emerge across countries, despitewidely different circumstances. They reflect the cultural and cross cultural social norms and traditionsby which the subservient status of women is maintained. In some societies these create "almostinsuperable obstacles to women's participation in education" (Evans and King 1991). Analyses ofparticipation rates in different social and cultural contexts show that they reflect closely the relativestatus of women and the power of tradition, e.g. Kember (1981), King and Hill (1993).Attitudinal: perceived differences in male and female roles and capabilities, inculcated(b)through socialisation in the home and family, reinforced through schooling, through vocationaUcareerguidance services, through experiences in the workplace, peer pressure and through absence of femalerole models. Enormous motivation and self-confidence is needed to break through these barriers. Lackof confidence and self esteem is itself a major barrier, and one which every successful initiative in thisfield has found it essential to address directly and specifically.Qualificatory: lack of Maths/Science pre-requisites for entry to programmes is often(c)perceived as a barrier, particularly by those involved in admissions to programmes (although evidencesuggests that this is also perceived rather than real in some cases, Ellis (1987), for example, shows thatwomen in the Caribbean attain higher levels of literacy and numeracy that males, and that in the CXCsecondary Schools Examinations at General Proficiency level, a larger proportion of females wereentering for chemistry and mathematics than males, and equal proportions for Physics. Despite this"the belief continues to persist that females are by nature technologically ignorant and unable toabsorb scientific and technological information or to acquire technical skills" ); in many countries asmany women as men achieve general proficiency in Maths and Science, but remain grosslyunderrepresented in Science and Technology subjects at higher levels, once "choices" are made. Manywomen with university entrance qualifications in these subjects opt for human and social sciencecourses at University level.In other countries, social cultural and economic conditions conspire to encourage early termination ofthe education of girls. In Indian, Africa and Pacific cultures, it is argued that the effects of culturalsanctions on women's education are most marked, e.g. Commonwealth Secretariat, 1988. Low levelsof general education are major barriers, which have to be tackled before the specifics ofscience/technology participation can be addressed. In the Middle East and North Africa, by contrast,higher proportions of women are found in science and engineering courses at University level than in'3
3many western countries. Nagat El-Sanabary (1993) attributes this to the good access to mathematicsand science courses at secondary level.Situational: the barriers faced generally by women in attending courses apply: family(d)commitments, lack of partner support, financial, living in rural/isolated areas. Fees requirements aremajor barriers where women do not have independent control of resources, where they are dependenton male partners who are unsupportive. Male partners are more likely to be unsupportive of entry tonon-traditional, male oriented spheres. (Ellis cites examples of suspicion/jealousy of male partners aswell as ridicule). Women who do have their own source of income are also, on average, lower paidthan their male counterparts. Poverty is a major situational factor in many regions. (Trivedi, 1989,states that the combined effects of poverty and social/cultural sanctions create almost insuperablebarriers in parts of South Asia.)Social class factors also interact with gender in significant ways. High social class status of somewomen may remove some of these barriers; King and Hill point to the phenomenon of upper classwomen who buy in low paid domestic labour of other women in order to pursue theireducational/career aspirations. This phenomenon can be found in many developed and developingcountries.Situational and cultural factors intersect in the barrier of significant distances to travel to schools andother educational centres; this is a major barrier for girls and women in, for example, India andPakistan, as Caldwell et. al. (1985) and Shah (1986) report, respectively.Institutional barriers: these are barriers which arise because of the ways in which institutions(e)make their programmes available. Significant general barriers which apply to women are welldocumented:fixed hours;substantial attendance requirement;lockstep approach to curriculum; makes missed sessions hard to catch up on;lack of child care facilities;off putting, "unfriendly" course information;These are exacerbated in the case of entry to technical and technological studies by:lack of female teachers/assumptions and attitudes of male teachers;male orientation in courses publicity/male "image";inflexible selection and entry requirements;often has large attendance requirement for practical skills/laboratory based work;male oriented language and male images in teaching materials;instrumental pedagogies and curriculum content which ignores the social context of technology.Evans and King present these various kinds of barriers as a series of disjunctions, all applyinggenerally to women's participation, but applying particularly in the case of technological education.The DISJUNCTIONS are between:maintenance of formal entry requirements and overall level of educational attainments amongwomen;domestication of women's labour and educational/career aspirationscharging of fees and financial dependency/povertytraditional curricula and experiential knowledge of women
4instrumental pedagogies and women's preferred learning modes3.Significance of Barriers in Different Regional ContextsThe relative significance of these barriers will vary according to:(a) the level of education and training envisaged;(b) age of the women (young/mature);(c) culturaUlocal context.As King and Hill (1993) have stated, the barriers to women's education in developing countries arewell known. What is significant is the relative strengths of the barriers in different regional contexts."[T]he challenge is to identify which barriers are the prime ones in specific settings or sub populationsand which policy measures are appropriate and affordable."4. Three Cases: Africa, the Caribbean, and South AsiaThree cases in Africa, the Caribbean and South East Asia illustrate the disjunctions outlined above, inregional context.Africa: In Africa, Williams (Vice Chancellor of University of Benin) has shown that the(1)"world-wide" problem of low participation in ST education is compounded by low enrolment rates ofgirls in formal education, when compared with boys, with the gap widening at the higher level ofeducation. The implications are increasingly serious as women's contribution to agriculture andcommerce is constrained by this lack of access to STM education. Williams (1987) identifies thebarriers as follows:relegation of women to the home;parental perceptions of costs/benefits of educating girls, affecting low income families particularlypatriarchy, female seclusion practices and early marriage;fear of cultural loss on emancipation;double/conflicting demands on girls of traditional and school learning;discriminatory labour market practices;irrelevance of curricular presentation in STM to girls' views and experiences of the world;masculine image of science projected in text books, media and popular assumptions;poor facilities, including teacher-supply, teacher quality and equipment;nature of STM occupations which are not easily combined with child-rearing and child-care;lack of role models and career counselling.Caribbean: Ellis points to the rapid technological developments which are bringing about(2)change in Caribbean societies, and the slow rate at which women are penetrating the male dominatedoccupations in the fields of science, technology and trades.Within the formal system, girls attend school from an earlier age, for a longer period and achievehigher rates of literacy and numeracy than do boys. At secondary and also now at tertiary levels theachievements of female students are higher than those of male students.5
5Obstacles and barriers are identified as:social pressures which operate inside and outside the classroommasculine image given to science and technology in the curriculumlack of female teachers and, more widely, absence of female role modelsTeacher-pupil interactions/inappropriate assumptions made by male teachers"counselling" on career choices carried out informally by the above teachers!peer pressure and ridiculeperceptions of admissions tutorslack of appropriate vocational guidance and career counsellingSouth Asia: Khan (1993) states that poverty is the most pervasive barrier to the education of(3)South Asian girls and women. Other cultural factors such as early marriage, concern for girls moraland physical welfare limit and in some regions the practices of the segregation and seclusion ofwomen restrict education. Khan also observes the way in which cultural practices are altered byeconomic conditions, citing the example of families actively promoting the education of theirdaughters to increase their chances of marrying a "white collar" husband, while poor families in Nepalwill concentrate all their resources to educate one son through secondary education.Women lag far behind men in terms of numbers of years of schooling and in grades achievedthroughout the region, with the exception of Sri Lanka where enrolment in secondary education ishigh, with girls' enrolments reported to surpass that of males and research evidence (Jayaweera, 1991)that type of school and socio-economic status of the student are more important than gender ininfluencing student achievement in school. Throughout most of the region, however, the educationalbase for women's participation in technological studies and technological work is very limited.At secondary level barriers can be summarised as:demands for females to care for siblings and do household/farm work;withdrawal of girls at puberty and early marriage;direct costs;location, physical facilities and hours of instruction;privacy of girls.There are considerable variations according to social class, reflected in female enrolment in highereducation, which is small and heavily weighted towards high income, wealthier families.Labour market discrimination acts as a further barrier; women were hired less, often received lowerpay for equal work and were in lower grades of post despite equal or better qualifications, at the timeof Raj's survey in 1982. The exception to this was in scientific and medical fields, where women weremore highly paid; they were however paid significantly less in engineering and technology and thesame in teaching, according to a UNESCO study in Pakistan (Hussain et al 1987).Given the nature of the barriers, Khan has argued that reorganisation of existing resources and policychanges requiring few additional resources can achieve as much in increasing enrolments as largeexpensive programmes, particularly when the former involves local participation. The Women'sUniversity in India is reported by Trivedi (1989) to have made substantial progress in the last fewyears, and many women have taken advantage of its outreach facilities.Similarities in the barriers faced by women in the three regions are obvious. Differences lie in thestrength of the cultural factors and variations in the extent and patterns of poverty. In all regions, there6
6are considerable variations by social group. In Africa and South East Asia the low base level ofeducation of "ordinary" women is an all pervading factor-a gender gap which must be closed ifwomen's involvement in technological education is to be increased significantly.5.Programmes to Increase Women's ParticipationAs well as formal research studies, reports of major measures/projects designed to increase femaleparticipation have been selectively reviewed particularly where these involve DE delivery. They areconsidered in terms of their effectiveness in reducing the DISJUNCTIONS identified above.There is great diversity in cultural and regional contexts. In developing countries, much can be learnedfrom review of programmes and policies designed to promote women's participation in educationgenerally. King and Hill have identified the following strategies as successful in industrial countries:secondary and post secondary scholarshipsvocational/technological programmes linked directly with employment, with a strong recruitmentand guidance element.Bellew and King, following extensive research in developing countries from all regions, found thatempirical evidence was lacking which could enable strong conclusions to be drawn about the relativeeffectiveness of measures designed to increase women's and girls participation in education generally.Some conclusions could be drawn about broadly effective or ineffective strategies, summarised inTable 1.Table 1: Summary of the Effectiveness of strategies to Improve Girls' and Women's Education,Based on Country ExperiencesObjectiveEffective strategiesIneffective Strategies,Lower the cost ofeducationScholarship; Insufficient evidenceto draw a conclusionProgrammed instructionFree uniformsCulturally appropriatefacilitiesHome productiontechnologiesFemale teachersDay-careAlternative schools,flexible schedulesRaise the benefits ofeducationVocational training forsectors of the economywhen directly linked toemployment and strongrecruitmentVocational training fornon growth sectors ofthe economy not linkedto employment and norecruitment effortGender-neutralcurricula and booksSchool feedingprogrammesInformation campaignsSource: Bellew and King (1993
expectations. These factors are manifested in a host of barriers to women's participation, both general and specific to the technological domain. Distance education is seen as having a potentially important contribution to make in overcoming barriers to women's participation in the developed and developing world. As Trivedi (1989) writes
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