Influencers and Role Models: young people’s understandings of gender imbalances in subject areas

1. Influencers and Role Models: young people’s understandings of gender imbalances in subject areas Rhona McComiskie (Robert Gordon University) Amy McDermott (University of Stirling)

2. Scottish Funding Council Gender Action PlanGender Imbalance in Universities

3. RGU Project: Tackling Gender Imbalance “Too many young people continue to make choices which conform to gender stereotypes which in turn limit their longer term career opportunities. We need to counter the influence of early culture and prejudice to better enable young people to make choices which are right for them in the long term.” • Consider gender inequalities and tackle gender imbalances at subject level • Investigate the reasons behind gender imbalances • Take forward action to actively address gender disparities • Focus on engaging younger pupils prior to subject choice

4. RGU Research • Institutional data to examine patterns of application, enrolment, satisfaction and achievement • Focus groups with pupils in S2 and S5/6 to explore gender stereotypes in relation to occupations, key influencers and barriers • Focus groups with pupils in S1-S3 to explore perceptions of school subjects and the influence of gender on subject choice • Teacher focus group to gather knowledge, experience and views on key influences impacting on subject choice and the gender divide in key subject areas

5. Where are the role models? “There’s not many famous female physicists is there? Like Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein.” “You would think of all the good sports persons as being male like Usain Bolt, Mo Farrah, they’re all male.” “If a joiner came to your house, it would mostly be a male rather than female cos it’s just the way it is.” “There is no reason why a woman couldn’t be a pilot but I’ve never seen one.”

6. What would help? • Role models! • Inspirational individuals “It would be nice if people from the university were to come out to our schools and talk about courses on offer. It could inspire people, because so many people don’t know what they want to do.” “Seeing someone who works in the profession, for example a woman in Engineering would be encouraging.” • People like me “It would make a difference if you are encouraged by someone who has had similar experiences and has empathy for your situation.”

7. A word of caution… “It doesn’t seem to make a difference what gender the teacher is. We’ve had female physics teachers for ten years but the girls are not choosing the subjects so it’s not about having role models.” “Use of role models must be treated with more caution than is currently found…they have little effect as standalone interventions on gender participation balances, but can be part of broader solutions that focus, again, on impacting the educational choice process.” Higher Education Academy, ‘Whose Job Is It Anyway?’

8. Who are the influencers? “My mum encouraged me to think about health careers. She could see my skills and qualities.” “I would probably speak to a brother or sister for advice and they would tell me to do what I’m good at and give me a rough description.” “My brother was interested in nursing but his friends made him change his mind. Now he’s doing Computer Aided design.” “Why do you take Physics? It’s hard, it’s for boys.”

9. Impact on subject choice “Your mum’s cooking supper and your dad’s out working and comes home, that’s why I think why girls pick Home Economics.” “Chemistry is for boys because they like explosions, dangerous chemicals and acids. Home Economics is for girls because they like sewing.” “Why don’t you choose Biology? There are more girls there.” “It would kind of make you think more about do you really want to take this subject and make you think harder.” “I know that sometimes when people choose a more boy subject, they get asked why did you do that, why would you even think of doing that?” “I’ve been called weird for liking science, but I don’t really mind because I like it.”

10. University of Stirling Project • Combination of outreach and engagement activities, and research • Target subjects: • Accounting • Computer Science • Law • Mathematics • Nursing • Primary Teaching • Social Work • Sport

11. University of Stirling Research ‘What impact can Universities have in challenging gendered assumptions and social norms regarding professional subject choice and applications to University, in particular from widening participation capacity?’ • Interviews of 4th Year high school pupils; gaining data on their perceptions of subjects areas, influencers and university engagement activities • Interviews with University applicants; assessing why they chose the course and seeking who they believed influenced this decision, their views on barriers to education • Qualitative focus group with teachers in target schools; investigating what, in their opinions on gender imbalances, can HEIs and others do better and/or more in terms of support • Views on gender and subject imbalances • Visibility of educational and career pathways • Influencers and role models

12. Definitions of “influence” • Influencers are seen as those who shape the decision making process, and role models are inspirational figures who are looked up to. • Influence through support vs influence through experiences and opinions • “My mum’s been like huge and helped me like she’s got like loads of university books and we’re just looking through all of the entry requirements” (Participant 3) • “Medicine’s quite big in my family like my grandad was surgeon, my gran worked with children in hospitals like was a child nurse and my auntie’s a midwife so it’s always been something” (Participant 8).

13. Who are the influencers? • “Well my family have always supported me in whatever decision I wanted to make so they, I wouldn’t say they influenced me but they guided me… like they said “you’re good at computing and you’re good at music so if you enjoy them you should take them””. (Participant 6) • “My history teacher when I was in Fourth Year, she was like really enthusiastic about the subject and she got me like really enthusiastic and loved it too and I carried on throughout school” (Applicant participant 4) • “I think there is a lot of influence from peer groups” (Focus group participant)

14. The importance of visibility • “Children often pick careers on people that they have in their family and I think that’s a big influence, they don’t know other careers.” (Focus group participant). • “Well, most girls you see when people mention design and manufacture and woodwork or anything they’re always like no, no, and then when you see boys and they are looking at maybe business or something you get, like, the stereotypes” (Participant 9)

15. Role models • “I know someone that works with the American company, she is a woman engineer and I thought that just sounds really cool so she probably inspired me” (Participant 11) • “cause when you’re a kid you, always you're surrounded by this, like the age I grew up in you're surrounded by like media and things like that and new things happening in the world and new technology coming out and it was more related to kind of sports athletes or celebrities or signers or something like that and instantly, as soon as you watch them a couple of times you say "I wantae be like that person" and that was kinda a goal for ye.” (Participant 2)

16. What can we do? Opinions from young people • “because I think like when it is a man or a women's job they're set that to think from young that it’s a men or a women's job whereas if you kinda changed it younger and told them about it when they were younger then it would all change” (Participant 7). • “learning more, cause I don't, I think a lot of guys won't know a lot about nursing and probably just think aw that’s a woman's job I don't wanna do that, that kinda thing, I think like you know if they learnt a bit more they might know more about it and might wanna do it.” (Participant 12). • “Almost have a representative male and female so that… there’ll be some males or females who maybe feel more [comfortable] speaking to a female or vice versa… just the fact that they can see [it] is important” (Focus group participant). • “Maybe make more women think about it and consider it because I guess I’m currently I think the only female who is interested in my school about piloting because I’ve heard other guys saying ‘I wanna be a pilot’ but I am the only female who has said that but for me that pushes me forward to prove people wrong but I guess for others it might push them back.” (Participant 1)

17. Influencing the Influencers: Create a ‘Rich Picture’ A Rich Picture is a way to explore, acknowledge and define a situation and express it through diagrams to create a preliminary mental model. A rich picture helps to open discussion and come to a broad, shared understanding of a situation. • Structures • Processes • Climate • People • Issues expressed by people • Conflict