Abstract

Women's involvement in higher education has exceeded than men in numerous South Asian nations as well as in Pakistan. STEM education, however, does not reflect this tendency, as a result, women are less likely to seek jobs in STEM fields. The present study seeks to demonstrate the importance of STEM education for women in achieving gender equality and promoting sustainability. The study aims to examine the enrolment trends of women in STEM programs at the tertiary level in Punjab and to identify the main factors that contribute to the gender gap in STEM programs. The current study employed a mixed method research approach. For this purpose two public and two private engineering and technology universities in Lahore were chosen by lottery method of random sampling by applying the ratio analysis method. In order to investigate the key factors sustaining the gender STEM gap at the tertiary level,

a total of 150 participants were selected using stratified sampling techniques. Four qualitative interviews were also conducted with these participants to gain a deeper understanding of the key factors and barriers to achieving gender equality in STEM sectors. To analyze quantitative data, SPSS software was used, descriptive statistics, T-Test and ANOVA were applied on demographic variables. On ENVIVO software, qualitative data were analyzed through coding and thematic analysis. The findings identify a range of causes, rank them according to importance, and make recommendations as how to increase women's participation in STEM Education in order to meet SDGs (5).