Expanding Opportunities for Tertiary Education in Taiwan: Longitudinal Perspectives on Women's Inclusion by Sector

• In Event: Gender Equity in STEM Higher Education: Studies of Chile, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States

Abstract

This study investigates the growth of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations driven by the expansion of the tertiary education system in Taiwan. However, what remains to be understood is whether the expansion of Taiwan’s tertiary education provided more access and opportunities for women in STEM.

Using national longitudinal data from 1979 to 2017 that surveyed the educational attainment and occupational choice of women in the labor market, we examine gender-based occupational choice in STEM fields and compare participation rates among women and men. The educational reform during the late 1990s brought direct but heterogeneous impacts on the two gender groups in terms of accessibility in STEM. First, the educational reform at the upper secondary level was to downsize the scale of vocational track programs and to expand the scale of the academic track. About 22.5% of youth who used to be placed in the vocational track program changed to academic programs at the upper secondary high school level. Such change also reshaped the educational opportunity of the two gender groups. In 1992, the men in the academic track accounted for 29.3% of the total enrolled men students, while women students in the academic track accounted for 22.9% of all women. By 2017, the percentage in the men group increased to 42.2% while the women group increased to 47.2%.

Findings also show associations among the increasing participation rate of women in STEM and the expansion of tertiary education. After 1995, when the percentage of women who graduated with a bachelor's degree gradually increased and reached 24.2% in 2007 followed by a ten-year flat curve until 2017. On the other hand, from 1995 to 2007, the percentage of women who graduated with associate’s degrees in STEM continually declined. By 2017, only 5.4% of women students were left in two-year STEM programs. As observed among men, the growth of women in STEM bachelor programs came from the loss in associate degree programs. However, compared to 2005, by 2017 there were 10.2% less women students enrolled in STEM programs either at a junior college or a university.

Educational expansion in Taiwan was a policy initiative aimed at generating greater educational equality and accessibility. Although educational expansion has been criticized as the cause for overeducation and stagnant wage growth in recent years (Green & Henseke, 2016), this study documents how such policy changed the participation patterns of women in STEM and the subsequent labor market in Taiwan. The expansion of tertiary education created opportunities for both men and women with Taiwanese women taking modest advantage of such opportunities to enroll in more STEM programs. Coupled with the decreased enrolment pattern into STEM programs by men in recent years, this Taiwanese case provides a historical perspective revealing how the transformation of education could help reduce gender inequality in STEM.

Author

• Yuan Chih Fu, National Taipei University of Technology