Women in Science and Technology: Bridging the Gender Gap in Higher Education

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Women in Science and Technology Bridging the
Gender Gap in Higher Education Presented
at Asia- Pacific Women ICT Trainers Workshop
12-16 November 2001 Seoul, Korea - Prepared by
- Anjali Sharma ltanjali_at_ait.ac.thgt
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Structure of the presentation
Women in Higher Education Women and the
Internet Status of women in Asian Institute of
Technology, Bangkok ICT - Challenges and
opportunities for higher education in Asia
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Women Status in Education
Overall, access to primary and secondary
education increasing Still less access for
girls in rural areas Relatively, boys stay
longer at school than girls Illiteracy among
women declining slowly Low enrolment in higher
education
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Women Status in Higher Education
Traditionally dominated by male High gender
gap for ICTs, engineering, science and related
fields Even after attaining higher education,
many women do not undertake any work due to
societal constraints Very few higher academic
institutes offer higher education in ICTs to women
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Challenges for Higher Education for Women
Poverty and social system Lack of
encouragement from society in general Conflict
between women's productive and reproductive
roles Early marriage and child-bearing Lack
of appreciation of the overall value of
education, including higher education Lack of
female education and career counseling Absence
of positive role models at every level
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World Wide Internet Population
World total 242 million in Jan 2000
(estimated) Expected to be over 765 million by
the end of 2005.
(Source http//www.commerce.net/research/stats/ww
stats.html)
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Women and the Internet

• Percentage of women surfers in Asia-Pacific (Jun
  2001)
• Australia 48
• New Zealand 46
• South Korea 45
• Hong Kong 44
• Singapore 42
• Taiwan 41
• (Source http//asiapacific.acnielsen.com.au/news.
  asp?newsID40)

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Introduction of AIT

• Founded in 1959, the Asian Institute of
  Technology (AIT) (www.ait.ac.th) is Asia's unique
  international graduate school of engineering and
  management
• The AIT offers masteral and doctoral degree
  programs through its four schools
• School of Management (www.som.ait.ac.th)
• School of Civil Engineering (www.sce.ait.ac.th)
• School of Environment, Resources Development
  (www.serd.ait.ac.th)
• - School of Advanced Technologies
  (www.sat.ait.ac.th)

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Introduction of AIT
It provide advance post graduate education
Supplemented by continuing education and training
programs available to participants from all
countries in the region It covers almost all
the fields of technology and engineering such as
computer sciences, information management,
natural resources and environment, industrial and
structural engineering, etc. In addition, the
institute also has outreach centers, such as
Gender Development
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AIT and Gender Issues
Gender in Development program - more emphasis
on including ICT in various academic courses
offered by AlT Employment opportunity for
female students Living conditions of Women in
AIT Distance Learning Women in e-commerce
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Distance Education in AIT
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Distance Education in AIT
Low Cost Global access for education
Less paper work Time saving Source
lthttp//www.dec.ait.ac.th/dec/contents/index.htmlgt
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Women and E-commerce in AIT
Women encouraged to take up this course
Increasing number of women students opting
e-commerce course Out of 12 students, 7 women
students undertook independent research work on
e-commerce E-commerce course also being offered
through Distance Education
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Profile of School of Management (SOM), AIT

• Profile of the students of SOM
• - An international student group - about 259
  students from 33 countries (including almost all
  the countries of Asia and other parts of the
  world, particularly Europe)
• - Most of the students have background in either
  management or computers
• All the students are fluent in English
• Full time MBA program enrolment (Sep 2001)
• Total 96 students (45 males and 51 females)
  - Doctoral program has 6 female students
  (out of total 10 students)

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Profile of School of Management (SOM)
Computer lab for students about 50 networked
PCs All PCs have direct access to the
internet All staff and faculty have access to
the internet through their personal computers
The school encourages use of ICT as part of
course-work Students create stores on the
highly customized softwares Dissemination of
latest ICT related news through news papers,
subscription of e-magazines, web sites, etc.
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Examples of Work Done at SOM
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AIT - encouraging women in higher education
Priority in distribution of Scholarship
Scholarship only for Women Admission Priority
Culture to accept women in Science and technology
fields Role Model Security - accommodation,
etc. Family in final term
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Women Faculty Status in AIT
Compiled from Activity Report 2000, Gender and
Development Studies, AIT
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Women Students Status in AIT
In January 1998, Enrollment was 1,395 from 38
countries, out of which 29.6 percent were women
student . The proportion of women has been
gradually increasing.
Compiled from Activity Report 2000, Gender and
Development Studies, AIT
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Problems of women students in AIT
Stay away from their family and children
Marriageable age People from different
culture Women were not accepted at the same
level as men not even by the male members of the
same nationality Number of women faculty is
still low Source Asian Women and Technological
Careers AIT Women Graduate Tracer Study, 1992
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Opportunities for Women
Correspondence courses Vocational training
courses (full/ part time) On-line courses on a
number of subjects Easy availability of
materials (CD-ROM, web, etc.) Easy and
convenient access to information on ones
preferred subjects
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Conclusion
Increase access to basic education for girls (a
pre-requisite for increased participation of
women in both higher education and ICTs) In
the context of family oriented society,
scholarships/ fellowships for higher education to
women students to include basic minimum support
to their families Increase the number of ICT
training institutes for women More
scholarships/ loans for women to pursue ICTs