Exploring Acceptability and Resistance to Feminization in STEM Fields: An Empirical Perspective from Higher Education

Abstract

The main purpose of the study is to analyze and explore acceptability and resistance to feminization in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics STEM fields through an empirical perspective from higher education. Female not only face challenges in their education after education, but they also face challenges in their career. Females who have confidence and speak for their rights are facing stereotypes and are considered to be outspoken by others. Parents also restrict their daughters and provide only a few opportunities to them. Hence, this study has been based on qualitative research, grounded in an extensive review of published documents on the topic of feminization in STEM education, specifically acceptance and resistance. A total of 101 research documents have been systematically extracted from well-reputed digital databases, and the selection process has been continued until data saturation. The inclusion criteria of the study have required that selected studies explicitly address feminization in STEM education. The thematic analysis technique has been employed to analyze the data. The study findings expose that significant strides have been made in encouraging and reassuring female involvement in STEM fields, particularly at higher educational levels. Exactly, higher education has been deeply entrenched and interwoven with socio-cultural means, gendered prospects, established, and structural barriers. A number of factors often impede the impetus, performance, career determinations, speculative confidence, and job placement of female students in STEM disciplines.

Keyword: STEM Disciplines, Feminine, Acceptability, Resistance, Higher Education