Home // ICONS 2022, The Seventeenth International Conference on Systems // View article
Authors:
Evelina Anita Iversen
Mo Mansouri
Keywords: Complex systems, education, gender studies, STEM.
Abstract:
Gender equality in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) has been an ongoing concern of policymakers and researchers. The equality issues of socioeconomic systems are inherently complex due to their dynamic nature and many tightly coupled variables. These initial conditions of the systemic gender issue inspired the authors of this paper to apply the systems multistakeholder approach to this topic. The goal is to show that it is possible to assess and organise the dynamic behaviour of the agents influencing the mechanics of women’s choices. The authors chose Casual Loop Diagrams (CLD) as a visualisation tool. Firstly, the paper focuses on socioeconomic factors that affect adolescent girls’ willingness and ability to pursue a STEM-related education and career. It has been shown that the problem is multifaceted; hence, the decision has been made to focus on the mechanisms that influence college enrollment. Furthermore, the authors considered the geopolitical context with Norway in focus. The paper also outlines the choice dynamic and suggests that relatable female representation can increase gender parity in STEM. Finally, it has been shown that CLD might be a useful modelling tool for the multidisciplinary team working on solving systemic issues. CLD has the capability of bringing a middle ground between policymakers, social scientists and other specialists required to analyse the issue thoroughly.
Pages: 1 to 5
Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2022
Publication date: April 24, 2022
Published in: conference
ISSN: 2308-4243
ISBN: 978-1-61208-941-6
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Dates: from April 24, 2022 to April 28, 2022