ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an international overview of access and success for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) undergraduate programs. It focuses on women’s share of STEM graduates to explore trends and compare women’s enrollment in STEM to men’s enrollment in STEM and to higher education in general. The book focuses on the expansion of higher education in Taiwan as it relates to the improved participation of women in STEM tertiary education and in the STEM labor market. It focuses on the persistence of gender inequality in undergraduate engineering education in Germany by analyzing individual factors that contribute to women’s tendency to consider but then opt out of engineering. The book describes several challenges to gender-based equity in STEM in a post-Soviet context and offer multiple policy suggestions for improvement.
