Nara Women's University
STEM Education : Opportunity and Challenge for
Women
メタデータ

言語: English
出版者: アジア・ジェンダー文化学研究センター
公開日: 2019-04-23
キーワード (Ja):
キーワード (En): education, STEM, women
作成者: Wastutiningsih,Sri,Peni
メールアドレス:所属:

URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10935/5225

STEM Education: Opportunity and Challenge for Women

STEM Education: Opportunity and Challenge
for Women
Sri Peni Wastutiningsih
Abstract　　This article describes the opportunity and challenge for women in STEM filed inIndonesia, due to the total population of women in Indonesia trends to increase fromyear to year. According to the World Bank report, the number of women in the fields
of STEM continually declines from secondary schools to universities, then continues towork in laboratories, teaching and research, technology, and policy-makers. One of thecauses of this situation is the low level of women’s participation in policy and decisionmaking concerning technology and research. Community and environmental support
are needed to erode the strong stereotype that girls are not suitable in learning STEM
field. Women on the STEM field need support from the household, then widely frommen, society, and policy or regulation. That means, there are some changing on culture,political system, and the concept of nurture is more role than the concept of nature. In
the real life, opportunity for women working in STEM field is open, that is the challenge
for the woman to take this opportunity, especially in industry revolution 4.0 era.
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
Key words: women, STEM, education

I. INTRODUCTION　　Based on the results of the Population Survey （SUPAS 2015）, Indonesia's
population in 2015 reached 255.59 million people, comprising 128.48 million men and
127.1 million people. It has been predicted that in 2018 the population will increase to264.16 million, consisting of 132.68 million men and 131.47 million women. The resultsof the analysis showed that there are always more males than females. However,starting in 2032, the number of female inhabitants is estimated to be more. Based on
the results of the survey, the total population of women reached 149.19 million while
the number of men was 149.17 million. This difference means that there are 21.000
more women than men. The number of more female population will continue to rise
until 2045. The population will rise by 318.96 million in 2045. The number will consistof 160.21 million women and 158.76 million men, which means that the populationof women is 1.45 million more than that of men. Thus, the potential for womendevelopment is very large.
　　For occupation speaking, some fields of work can be conducted by women.

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アジア・ジェンダー文化学研究【第 3 号】2019

However, it turns out that the fields that many women work on are domestic jobs,
and some occupations are low paying jobs. Women still have a lot of work without apromising salary. The occupational fields include giving of special care for children, theelderly, or health care. There are even totally unpaid jobs, such as doing householdchores; preparing food, washing clothes, and cleaning the house.
　　The calculation of working hours for unpaid work spent in a day can vary in eachregion in the world. Zarya（2016）writes in her article, as she refers to Bill and Melinda
Gates’ letter, that women in India spend 6 hours, while men spend less than one
hour. She also said that globally, women spend an average of 4.5 hours one day on
unpaid work, while men spend less than half that much time. That means women work
definitely not in STEM（Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics）area, theywork more on domestic area. That means women work definitely not in STEM（Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics）area, they work more on domestic area.
　　In June 2018, the UNESCO statistical unit（United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural Organization）released data on women's participation in STEM Researchand Development. The results depicted that the percentage of women's participation
in STEM Research and Development on a global scale is 29%. The intended STEM
Research and Development refers to professional women involving in forming concepts,
theories, models, technical instruments, software, and operational methods.
　　In the Southeast Asia region, the percentage of women's involvement in the
STEM Research and Development sector is 43.25%. Indonesia itself is in the figure of
30.6%. When sorted among Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia ranks 7th（Report of
UNESCO ‘Women in Science’, June 2018）. Unfortunately, the number of Indonesian
women's participation has declined when they entered the workforce. In the STEM
industry, only two out of 10 women choose a professional career and only three out of
10 women become researchers in the STEM fields.

II. STEM FIELDS IN INDONESIA　　STEM fields in the last decade have become a widely discussed issue, especiallysince Schwab（2017）delivered The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Technology becomesa non-negotiable thing, something that cannot be avoided, and something that mustbe accepted whatever our situation is as a person, as part of the community or as
part of the global village. At least a lot of work now requires ICT（Information andCommunication Technology）skills. On the other hand, women in Indonesia are still in
the "shadow" of men for education in the STEM fields.
　　In terms of the female workforce in Indonesia, Central Bureau of Statistics（BPS）
stated that from 1990 to 2005, the female labor force participation rate increased by

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STEM Education: Opportunity and Challenge for Women

0.61%. Unfortunately, this figure cannot be maintained after a period of 15 years.
In 2006, level declined to 39.768%, dropping to 0.082% from the previous year. The
downward trend has continued for 7 years to 2012 at 39.25%. Then, in 2017 alongwith the increase in the number of female workers, the participation rate increased to39.29%.
　　According to the World Bank report, the number of women in the fields of STEM
continually declines from secondary schools to universities, then continues to work inlaboratories, teaching and research and technology policy-makers（referring to the UN
Women Report 2015）. This situation is not good news considering that women can still
be expected to take part in the STEM fields.
　　One of the causes of this situation is the low level of women’s participationin policy and decision-making concerning technology research in their respective
countries. Women's leadership is very low in energy use, climate change adaptation,and economic production. In the formal sector, only 10% of women are in the Science
Technologi and Information sector. This is a very small number and it harms women
globally. The Commission on the Status of Women（2011 and 2014）and 20 years ofBeijing travel Platform for Action（2015）recommend governments and stakeholders to
advocate for the low levels of women and girls in ICT and STI.
　　In the GIZ documentary entitled Indonesian Women in Science and Technology
regarding socialization in Vocational High Schools for girls, it is described that female
students in STEM-based Vocational High Schools（Cooling & Air Conditioning,
Machining, Light Driving Techniques）are only 2% compared to male students ofalmost 98% for grades X, XI, XII and XIII（PDSP of Indonesia Ministry of Education andCulture, 2015）. Socialization of STEM for girls needs to be done even more through alove of science and technology.
"Community and environmental support are needed to erode the strong
stereotype that girls are not suitable in learning STEM fields" –Sri Maulana（Dean of Faculty of Engineering, University of Sumatera Utara）.
　　According to Government Regulation No. 17 in 2010 concerning Indonesia
Management and Implementation of Education, which involves equal opportunity
between men and women, then with this regulation, women have the opportunity to
get an equal education with men, including also in the STEM fields.
　　Maulana（2017 in Yayasan Perempuan Indonesia）has conveyed the definitions
about STEM, but she will briefly explain it. She also wonders why the used term is
STEM. If we look at the sequence of scientific movements, actually starting frommathematics, mathematics as a basic science, science that will quantify, then it moves

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アジア・ジェンダー文化学研究【第 3 号】2019

to science. Science is a basic science, will talk about laws, about basic principles, andmethods. There, it moves to engineering science. In engineering field, it will design
something to be made, something that will be produced. After being designed, atechnology will be obtained, which technology is the best for designing to get a productwith the qualifications we want to. So, actually according to her it's not STEM, but why
do people say STEM, maybe STEM has a clearer word meaning. But if we go back tomathematics, science, engineering, technology, there is no meaning, but actually, theorder is like that. I think that is the journey of mathematics, science, engineering, andtechnology.
　　The competency of girls in some study programs except Mechanical Engineering
is much higher than that of boys. In Civil Engineering, the GPA of girls is higher thanthat of boys in which girls hold GPA of 3.26 while boys are 3.19. Even though fewer
females than males enrolled in Electrical Engineering in the past, they could maintaina higher average GPA of 3.38, compared to males who scored 3.22. Similarly, inIndustrial Engineering, girls could achieve 3.3, while boys were only 3.2. Then for
Chemical Engineering, the women could obtain 3.24, while men got 3.16. Likewise,in Architectural Engineering, an average GPA of 3.2 and 3.08 was achieved by girls
and boys, respectively. If averaged, the average GPA of women in 10 years was 3.27,
and men were 3.18. Therefore, if learning STEM majors is difficult for women, it does
not make sense as women have a higher GPA. We could return to the basic natureof women that, generally speaking, women have higher academic abilities than men,this has also been studied by Munandar in 1977（in Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan）, thatwomen tend to be more creative, their creativity is higher than men with a ratio of
58%: 42%, successively. Then Aziz's research showed that the creativity level of girls
was 53%, while boys were 47%. This means that the difference in creativity between
boys and girls starts from elementary schools to universities. Women are known to be
more diligent and more thorough in doing things. The high GPA achieved by womenattending education in the STEM-based fields will open opportunities for them to takepart in jobs that are also STEM-based work（Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan, 2016）.
　　Based on their character of perseverance, women can work as planners, designers,
and researchers, coupled with the discovery of IT（Information Technology）that
exists today. Hence, the opportunity for women to work in STEM-based jobs can bein the fields of bio-engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering, also in fields
that produce energy such as electrical engineering and pharmaceutical field. The roleof women as inventors of various equipment has been around for ages, who invented
sewing and weaving machines. Women participating in education including in the
STEM fields are guaranteed by the government. Subsequently, with their characters

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STEM Education: Opportunity and Challenge for Women

which are perseverance, thoroughness, and higher creativity than men, the opportunity
for women to have a career in various STEM-based fields of work is also wide open.

III. PARTICIPATION OF INDONESIAN WOMEN IN STEM FIELDS BETWEENREALITY AND CULTURE　　The results of research by Girls in Tech in 2015 conducted by Mastercards on 1560
children between the ages of 18-19 in Asia Pacific including Australia, China, Indonesia,
India, Malaysia, and Singapore, showed that 68% of those who engaged in the STEM
fields were due parents, 9% by friends, and 8% because of the teachers. Of the 68%,
after being examined again, it turned out that approximately 63%, they involved in
STEM fields as their parents also worked in the STEM fields. Ergo, the influence of thefamily is very large in forming their children’s future career to be in the fields of STEM.
This means that Indonesian women are like women in other Asia Pacific countries inwhich the growing interest in the STEM fields begins from their household. In this case,the viewpoint is that the fields of science which are intended only for men need to beanalyzed again. In addition, parents can act as the main role models in introducing
STEM as early as possible, in a way that is familiar, attractive and fun. The opinion of
the role of parents that is very strong in directing their children’s careers in the STEM
fields is also recognized by the Vocational High School Teachers in Central Java.
"Parents have a role to foster the interest of girls in STEM"
Ambarwati, a teacher at SMK（Vocational High School）1 Jepara, Central Java.
　　She added that children who are still in low and high secondary education needsupport from their teachers since they play a very important role. How teachers
introduce the world of computers, can make STEM learning interesting and makestudents not afraid of, and provide insight into opportunities in the STEM fields to beappealing to students and also to push the activity after school（Chitum et all, 2017）.
Growing interest in working in STEM fields has its own uniqueness because many
students say that they find it difficult to follow their lessons in the STEM fields. Further
research in other studies suggests that up to 40%, students asserted that they find it
difficult in learning STEM subjects, while approximately 32% they are lack of interest inthese fields. Active learning and equipment to support this learning activities must be
improve and increase（Charlisle & Weafer, 2018）.
　　As time goes by, we cannot dichotomize that technology belongs to men, thattechnology is actually gender neutral（Pratiwi, 2017 in Yayasan Perempuan Indonesia）.
This means that anyone, when interested in entering the world of technology, is

Gender and Culture in Asia Vol.3, 201917

アジア・ジェンダー文化学研究【第 3 号】2019"welcome" to get involved in that field. Then the “techno feminism” movement
emerged. Today's feminism must not be afraid of technology, so men will grow up like
women, who dislike technology, he will also prefer cooking, and it is a construction.
Indeed, since childhood women are not trained to see things in more detail, are nottaught to play robots because, for example, their parents are afraid of consequencesthat they will be tomboys and other unexpected characters. Finally, that is what keeps
women away from the world of technology. When women enter the STEM world, weneed support from all of us, including men, not just women. Eventually, the relationshipbetween men and women is not oppressive to each other. Therefore, it does not meanthat women are above or men are above. In the end, feminism wants to realize that
men and women can work together in all aspects of the environment, or the world of
men needs to be dismantled.
　　The public's view of the dichotomy of male and female jobs with men in the public
sector and women in the domestic sector looks thick when we talk about the world of
STEM. The dual role paradigm imagines that women must be able to balance their rolesin the domestic（family）and public spaces. The logic of equilibrium here is not biased
to the domestic realm. Before getting the right to work in the public space, a woman isrequired to be able to complete her duties in the domestic realm（e.g. cooking, tidying
the house, and caring for children）.
　　The dominance of this dual role paradigm limits the space for most Indonesian
women because the obligations in the domestic realm can be said to be very diverse.
Especially, when the idea of service is to be fulfilled by the woman in the domestic
realm. The lack of time that women have, made it difficult for them to get involvedin the STEM fields, which, of course, require high seriousness if they want to work inthose fields. Changes at the paradigmatic level have begun to occur since the 1990s.
The belief that is embedded in the community － including among women themselves －that the main obligation of women is to devote themselves to the domestic chores
is experiencing a shift. A new logic arises where placing women is no longer the
only party obliged to take care of the domestic chores, but also for men. When both
men and women are required to take care of the domestic realm equally, there areopportunities for women to work in the public sphere more widely.
　　This trend strengthened until the 2000s which gave birth to a new pattern ofrelations between men and women in the domestic realm. Men are no longer positioned
or positioning themselves as patriarch（heads of families）, but they become womenpartners in the family. The fading position of the family makes the position of men andwomen equal to the rights and obligations that must be fulfilled by the two partners.
Along with the emergence of new male and female relation patterns in the domestic
realm, slowly since the 1990s, women have ventured to enter the "new world" that

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STEM Education: Opportunity and Challenge for Women

previously they were reluctant to explore because of the heavy burden of wealth thatmust be fulfilled.
　　Hence, the problem of women in the fields of STEM also occurs due to culturaland structural factors. In the fields of education, especially in higher education, womenare more accomplished and got Cum Laude predicate at roughly 75%, even up to 80%.
This condition, borrowing the term described by Mr. Yohanes Surya, is not Mestakung（the universe supports）, so there is no relationship for each party to take care ofchildren. Then we are a fatherless country, we lack fatherhood to be included in
educating and nurturing children, and we are also a country with very little fatherhood.
As a result, the dual role paradigm is inevitable. A woman will be able to act as a wife,
mother, child, daughter-in-law, household manager, community member, leader or staff
in the office for those who work.
　　The concept of nature and nurture, what conclusions prove is that the conceptof nurture has more role or concept of nature. Therefore, women are reluctant toenter Vocational High Schools as they are not comfortable in the world of men.
This condition turns out to be somewhat different in the world of work, especially inhigher education. At UGM, for example, several female lecturers in the STEM fields
felt ordinary（50%）when interviewed. In detail, the feelings of women when working
among men are as follows:％
60

Feelings of Women Working among Men

50
40
30
20
10
0

Figure 1. Feelings of Women Lecturers Working among Men in Universitas Gadjah Mada

IV. OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGE FOR WOMEN IN STEM FIELD IN INDONESIA　　As a developing country which desires to develop equally with other countries, theadvancement in STEM sector cannot be overlooked. In the national level, the supply
for engineering labor market is still low. Data from Ministry of Research, Technology
and Higher Education of Republik Indonesia（2018）shows that there are still 5,735

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アジア・ジェンダー文化学研究【第 3 号】2019

positions for undergraduate bachelor’s degree in engineering-related occupation which
demand for labor. The detailed prediction of the demand for labor can be shown in the
Table 1.
Table 1. The Demand for Engineering in 2015-2019
Technology/Engineering Filed

Demand Prediction Undergraduate Bachelor for Infrastructure Sectors
2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

350

710

1,180

1,225

1,051

Architecture Engineering
Aerospace Engineering

11

33

46

23

17

Electrical Engineering

452

2,221

5,413

6,850

6,709

Physic/Electrical Engineering

101

701

1,792

2,359

2,368

Geodetic Engineering

1,243

3,070

6,027

6,595

6,173

Geological Engineering

1,540

3,915

7,909

9,043

8,355

Industrial Engineering

47

150

229

155

59

Informatics Engineering

194

801

1,790

1,994

1,984

Ocean Engineering

415

1,145

2,441

2,974

2,816

Chemical Engineering

495

925

1,479

1,478

1,237

Environmental Engineering

1,066

2,250

3,646

3,476

2,982

Mechanical Engineering

293

2,045

5,113

6,313

6,579

Petroleum Engineering

161

1,101

2,739

3,359

3,418

Civil Engineering

6,234

15,79632,891

41,66537,984

59

120

199

246

286

Total

Planology Engineering

12,66334,981

72,89587,75382,018Yearly work addition

12,66322,31937,914

14,858-5,735*

Source: The Ministry of Higher Education and research, 2018　　The highest employment shortage occurs in the civil engineering sector, followed byelectrical engineer, geology and mechanical engineering sector. Such condition showsthat there are opportunities for women to involve themselves. However, the percentage
of students majoring in social science and law is the highest among other subjects inIndonesia. The detailed percentage of students by subjects is presented below:
Table 2. The Percentage of Students by Subjects in Indonesia 2018
No.

Field

Percent

1

Technology

17.7

2

Education

26.5

3

Health10.7

4

Religion, Humanities, Art

3.8

5

Science and Mathematics

2.8

6Agriculture

5.0

7Social and Economics

33.5

Source: The Ministry of Higher Education and research, 201820

Gender and Culture in Asia Vol.3, 2019

STEM Education: Opportunity and Challenge for Women　　From Table 2 it can be seen that the percentage of university students in thesubjects of STEM is relatively low, less than 25%. The data also shows that the numberof science students is lower than the number of engineering students. The phenomena
also happened in Universitas Gadjah Mada

Figure 2. Active Students in STEM at Universitas Gadjah Mada　　Figure 2 indicates that during 10 years the number of engineering students in UGM
is higher than that of Science and Mathematics students. It is worth noting that the
number of female students in science escalated from 2009 to 2015, though plummeted
in 2016 and 2017 before rising again this year, is higher than that of male students. In
the mathematics field, the number of female students has been higher than that of malestudents for 10 years. The phenomenon indicates that women have gradually been
involved in science and mathematics, even though in engineering sector the number
has not been satisfactory. Men are still dominating engineering sectors.
　　From number of lecturers, technology and engineering lecturers are more than
lecturers in science and mathematics. Science and mathematics are the smallest
percentage in STEM as the table below:

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アジア・ジェンダー文化学研究【第 3 号】2019

Tabel 3. Lecturer based on Field in Indonesia
No.

Field

Percent

1

Technology

19.7

2

Education

18.0

3

Health15.7

4

Religion, Humanities, Art

7.0

5

Science and Mathematics

3.8

6

Agriculture

6.8

7Social and Economics

29.0

Source: The Ministry of Higher Education and research, 2018　　From the table above, most of our lecturers in Indonesia are on the social sciencefield. But with the era of The Fourth Industrial Revolution we cannot avoid that STEM
field is important now and in the future. STEM education offers students opportunities
to make sense of the world holistically, rather than in bits and pieces. Through STEM,
students develop key skills including problem solving, creativity, critical analysis,
teamwork, independent thinking, initiative, communication, and digital literacy. These
kinds of activities give chance for the lecturers, including the female lecturers, to teachbetter, more creatively in that learning either lecture material or method of delivery.
That means there are big challenges to raise up the student participation in STEM
either male or female for Indonesian students, for learning revolution and creative
society（Purushothaman & Zhou, 2014）.
　　The other challenges for STEM education are 1）from learning STEM subjects,
students have knowledge, conceptual understanding, and critical thinking skills（Kelly& Knowles, 2016）. This is important, even for those who have never been directly
related to STEM education interest. 2）prepare sufficient numbers of workers forvacancies in the STEM-related education careers, which are expected to increase in
the coming years. In addition, STEM education skills are interrelated, and increasingly
relevant in the field of work, although not always directly tied to STEM subjects. 3）toeducate STEM experts in the world because they will contribute to economic growth,
technological progress, our understanding, of ourselves and the universe, and to fightand reduce hunger, disease and poverty, and may be they can also as disruptor（Kasali,2017）, who create the new problem solving policy. 4）directed to enhance the role ofwomen and minority groups and to foster interest in the STEM field in absorbing thefull potential of all citizens.
　　The Era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 has given us the opportunity for STEM to bringnew literacy. In order that students to be competitive, the curriculum needs a neworientation, it is not enough to rely on old literacy（reading, writing and mathematics）
as the basic capital to perform in the community. There are three new literacies that

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STEM Education: Opportunity and Challenge for Womenshould be brought on the teaching and learning:
1. Data Literacy: The ability to read, analyze and use information（Big Data）in thedigital world.
2. Technology Literacy: Understand how the machine works, the application oftechnology（Coding, Artificial Intelligence, and Engineering Principles）
3. Human Literacy: Humanities, communication and design　　　　At the end if we are finishing these literacies, we are able to bring students
on the global economy. Because current jobs are disappearing due to automationand new jobs are emerging every day as a result of technological advances. The
continual advances in technology are transforming how the students learn, connect
and interact every day. Skills upgraded by learners through STEM weapon themwith the principles to active academic achievement and beyond. Employer demandfor STEM competencies and skill is high, and will continue to increase in the future.
Currently, 75 per cent of jobs in the fastest growing industries require workers
with STEM skills and the capacity and capability in humanities（Lewit, 1976 andKertajaya, 2017）.

CONCLUSION　　This article shows that more opportunity and challenge for women in STEM field inIndonesia. First, based on the women population, which rises up from year to years. Second,
women participation in education, including in STEM field are guaranteed by thegovernment. Third, to support women on the STEM field need support from thehousehold, then widely from men, society, and policy or regulation. That means, there
are some changing on culture, political system, and the concept of nurture is more role
than the concept of nature. Fourth, opportunity on working in STEM field is open, thatis the challenge for the woman to take the opportunity. Fifth, the industry revolution 4.0
gives us to bring the new literacy, namely data literacy, technology literacy, and humanliteracy. With these three literacies, it is not avoidable to use the STEM field.
Acknowledgement: The author would like to thank Ms. Siwi, M. Syukron, and Y. F.
Maulida for the discussion.

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アジア・ジェンダー文化学研究【第 3 号】2019

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Gender and Culture in Asia Vol.3, 2019