The Impact of College Experience on Female Students’ Self-Perceived Employability in STEM Majors

• In Event: Women's experiences in higher education

Proposal

Relevance to the topic:
We are excited to submit our research paper, which delves into an essential aspect of gender protest: the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields and the challenges they encounter in the workforce. Our findings not only highlight the positive influence of these experiences on women's SPE but also reveal persistent gender disparities, underscoring the urgency for protest and advocacy to address systemic barriers and empower women in STEM.

Introduction:
The gender gap between academic fields in higher education is still valid despite the worldwide increase in women’s access to higher education. Unequal gender representation is particularly obvious in STEM-related fields; globally, only 30% of the female student population chooses STEM-related majors. Female students’ enrollment is particularly low in ICT (3%), the natural sciences, mathematics and statistics (5%), and engineering, manufacturing and construction (8%) (UNESCO, 2017). How women perceive themselves and evaluate their achievements in traditionally male-dominated fields such as STEM largely affects their choices in university and in the workforce (Beede et al., 2011; Broyles, 2009). Self-perceived employability (SPE) refers to an individual’s perception of his or her likelihood of obtaining and maintaining sustainable employment appropriate to the individual’s qualification level, closely related to individuals’ capability within the labor market to realize their potential through sustainable employment and may be a key goal for individuals in managing their careers (Rothwell & Arnold, 2007).
In China, although women have made significant progress in pursuing STEM degrees in recent years, they continue to face challenges in the workforce. In the case of China, its higher education system is stratified by several governmental projects to build world-class universities. “Project 985” (research-extensive universities, called Tier-1 universities in our study) and “Project 211” (research universities, called Tier-2 universities in our study) stratify the universities in larger society and send important signals to the job market. Given the importance of the self-perceived employability (SPE) of female STEM students in China, the research questions are:
 How do curriculum experience, extracurricular experience, and faculty supportive activities affect the SPE of female STEM students in Chinese universities?
 To what extent does university stratification affect the relationship between college experience and female STEM students’ SPE?

Methods:
To test the hypotheses, this study utilized survey data from the 2018 Chinese College Student Survey (CCSS), which was adapted from the National Survey of Student Engagement(NSSE) developed in the United States and is the largest survey for students in colleges and universities in China. The analytic dataset utilized included 59,066 undergraduate students in STEM majors in 30 full-time HEIs, including 4 Tier-1 universities, 9 Tier-2 universities and 17 Tier-3 universities. The HEIs in the sample were chosen to achieve a diverse composition of institutions in terms of geographical regions. In phase II of the research, the research team conducted focus group interviews with female STEM students in the three tiers of universities to understand their views on SPE in the context of their college lives.

Results:
H1: Self-perceived employability (SPE) is higher for male students than for female students in STEM majors.
Female students’ SPE scores were significantly lower (p<0.001) than those of male students in the same university type. In all tiers of universities, gender differences were not significant in the curriculum and some extracurricular experience. Among extracurricular activities, female students showed higher motivation for self-study in English outside class and research participation, while male students had more internship experiences.

H2: The effect of curriculum experience on the SPE of female students from Tier-1 universities is larger than that of students from Tier-2 and Tier-3 universities.
The effect of the curriculum on SPE showed no significant differences between female STEM students among various universities. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the curriculum remains the most influential factor on SPE among all of the independent variables. The STEM professional curriculum, in particular, is a crucial pathway to empower female STEM students.

H3: The effect of extracurricular experience on the SPE of female students from Tier-1 universities is larger than that of students from Tier-2 and Tier-3 universities.
We measured several extracurricular activities closely related to career exploration, including the frequency of participation in academic competitions, the duration of internships and part-time jobs, and the frequency of professional qualification certificates. Different extracurricular career exploration activities had varied impacts on female STEM students in different types of universities.


Conclusions:
This study reveals that the different tiers of universities in China affect female students’ SPE in different ways, and provides valuable evidence for academic regarding how college experience affect women and how university stratification can affect female students’ college experience and their career expectations and paths. This research contributes to the ongoing dialogue surrounding gender protest:
 With regard to research, this study identifies female students’ lower self-perceived employability in the hierarchical Chinese higher education system and highlights the importance of understanding female college students’ awareness and perception of their experience in college and employability in the workforce.
 In terms of implications for policy, the results highlight the varied impact of college experience on female students in STEM majors in universities of different tiers.
 In terms of implications for practice, this research provides valuable evidence for academic and student affairs practitioners as well as university administrators and policymakers to understand how university activities affect female students who enroll in traditionally male-dominated fields of study.

Authors

• Lu Zhou, Institute of Education, Tsinghua University

• Die Hu, Hi-Tech College of Xi'an University of Technology