Are the Barriers Keeping Women from STEM Careers in the GCC the Same as those in the West?

Earlier this month, Alfanar Media published an article about the underrepresentation of

women in science particularly in the Arab world. A few days later, the World Economic Forum published a piece on Bahrain’s lead in promoting women in tech while stressing the long road ahead before true equality in this realm is reached on a global scale. While the lack of female representation in careers in STEM is a global concern, could the STEM gap in the GCC be caused by different factors than those causing the gap in the west?

A common finding in western literature around the cause of the STEM gap is the stigma around women performing well in maths. Yet, it is important to note that in countries such as Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia women actually outperform men in Maths and Sciences making a stigma less likely in the region. In addition, in Bahrain for example, 42% of STEM students are female, far surpassing the number in many western countries. So why is it that the Arab world still struggles with creating a pipeline of female STEM professionals? Below are two hypotheses which warrant further research

1. The higher education environment in the GCC is in a rapidly developing stage. Thus, while many traditional degrees are offered in country, emerging fields such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence or mechatronics are only very recently being offered in GCC countries. On the other hand, in countries such as the US or the UK, such degree offerings have been available even prior to 1995. In an environment where females traditionally face more cultural barriers to studying abroad, it is understandable that there would be more male STEM graduates in an era where in-country STEM degrees were limited in number and variety.

2. Even when women graduate with STEM degrees, there may be less obvious barriers to entering the male dominated workplace for women from more conservative countries. Unlike Bahrain where gender mixed workplaces are fairly common, government jobs in other gulf countries are traditionally gender segregated with separate rooms for men and women. Gender segregation is less likely in oil companies or multinational corporations hiring STEM graduates. This makes it less culturally approvable for a female from a conservative family to pursue a career in those companies. In addition, women in the region face significant pressures to pursue careers that are considered compatible with motherhood. Thus, women with STEM degrees may prefer teaching in schools where working hours are short, and summers are off. These cultural issues can be resolved through workplace policies. Companies can experiment with segregated offices, hybrid work policies, better parental leave policies and job-sharing schemes.

Rigorous research in the Arab context could provide better insight regarding the barriers women face when pursuing STEM careers in the region. Our hypothesis is that as the local higher education context in the GCC evolves in parallel with more culturally aware and flexible work policies, there will be more Arab women in STEM careers in the very near future.