Can I Be an Engineer? Factors Influencing Women’s Decisions to Pursue Undergraduate Engineering Studies in the Middle East and North Africa

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), different institutional and cultural factors seemingly play a significant role in influencing women’s decisions to enroll in undergraduate engineering programs. In this work, we aim to uncover key influences that affect young women’s decisions to pursue undergraduate engineering studies in Lebanon, an Arab country in the MENA region. First, we conducted a survey during a student-led engineering summer program in 2024 at the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut. The survey participants were 47 high school female students from diverse regions and backgrounds in Lebanon. Next, to analyze the collected and cleaned data, we adopted an inductive thematic analysis approach. We conducted a round of open coding, followed by focused coding to generate our findings inductively from the raw data. We further analyzed the former in the context of social cognitive career theory. We employed multiple validity strategies to bolster the quality of research in our work. Our preliminary findings indicate that stereotypes, exposure to women engineers’ experiences, and the perception of certain engineering fields as male-dominated influenced women’s decisions to pursue engineering studies. Additionally, high schools, universities, the media, and governmental policies were perceived as influential factors by the survey respondents. These diverse influences seemed to impact women’s decisions to apply for and pursue undergraduate engineering studies both negatively and positively. Moreover, young women seemed to favor a major over another based on job market prospects and particular encouragement from parents and educators to justify their preferences. Finally, this work proposes recommendations for high schools and university outreach programs aimed at enhancing the inclusivity and attractiveness of undergraduate engineering programs for young women specifically in Lebanon and more broadly across the MENA region.