Abstract:

The need emerged to encourage Emirati students to pursue STEM careers and to encourage the UAE to stop relying on highly skilled migrant labour to fill high paying STEM positions. In considering the appropriateness of STEM, it is essential to understand the challenges UAE students face and what motivates them to pursue STEM careers. However, gender bias is a problem, as women in the UAE are underrepresented in STEM. Findings are similar to those present in other international studies. The paper identifies challenges experienced by UAE students when undertaking STEM studies by reviewing articles related to the topic. These articles have been extracted from Scopus, EBSCOhost, ProQuest, Google Scholar, government reports thesis and dissertations. This paper uses meta-ethnography and content analysis to support themes in the review literature. To summarize the above findings, there are a number of challenges faced by the UAE, such as gender differences, financial constraints, parental interference and difficulty of science-related subjects. The representation of women in science and engineering fields in the UAE is low compared to men, and even if students were to identify STEM as an empowering field for women, the above reason would further contribute to women not wanting to pursue STEM careers. Another reason for lower representation of women in STEM careers is family pressure, company policies, governmental policies, and lack of interest in engineering and science subjects. Another challenge is the cost of education in the UAE which has considerably increased. This increase in cost makes STEM education inaccessible to many UAE citizens, and this ultimately hinders the implementation of STEM education at all levels. The study concludes that although the UAE is expanding STEM career opportunities for Emiratis, there are no clear career paths for women, and a significant barrier prevents women from pursuing this option.

Keywords:

STEM, United Arab Emirates, women, underrepresentation, meta-ethnography.