[Grustaf]

Great initiative Laila!

Interesting that the proportion of female CS students is so high in those countries, I imagine it's more like 10% in most Western countries. Based on you inside perspective, do you have any theories about why this is so?

Anecdotally, I've worked for a lot of startups in Scandinavia, and one in Jordan, and that one had the most women!

[ZephyrBlu]

I've seen reasoning elsewhere along the following lines:

Because there is a stronger economic incentive in Middle Eastern countries compared to western countries, more women go into STEM fields.

[toyg]

Could it also be that there is still a bit of a stigma in male circles, for that type of work? Traditional male stereotypes in the Middle East are still very, very well-entrenched; sitting at your desk "playing" with computers is probably not respected as much as elsewhere.

[Frypa]

> Could it also be that there is still a bit of a stigma in male circles, for that type of work?

No it's not. You are actually considered a genius if you work in STEM in general

> sitting at your desk "playing" with computers is probably not respected as much as elsewhere.

I'd say this changed in the last decade a lot. But there is a difference between sitting home playing video games while jobless and working in STEM.

[ilianam]

Laila has been in back-to-back calls since she posted this (thanks to everyone who filled out the form & booked a meeting with her!) so I'll share what I know on this topic.

The high proportion of women studying STEM is definitely not a reflection of men not being interested in these fields. Engineering of all types are admired in the region, and computer science has gained traction in the past 5 years. There's increasing participation in competitive programming competitions... and that's mostly men so far.

Until about 5 years ago both men and women in Palestine were pressured by their parents to study medicine. That has changed because people have become aware of the opportunities in the tech sector and the unemployment facing all other fields. There's an exam you have to take at the end of high school in Palestine called "tawjihi"... it's similar to the A-levels in the UK or the matural in Poland, closest equivalent in the USA would be the SATs. At one university I know of in Palestine, 5 years ago a "tawjihi" score of 78 could allow you to study computer science. Now it's 92+. So it's a more in-demand field amongst both mena and women. (That's one reason it makes sense to start Manara now: the pool of super smart talent in computer science is growing quickly.)

As for why women study STEM and do so well in it... Laila always tells me that it was so normal to her that she didn’t really think about it. Women studied Physics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, etc at high rates. I remember telling a woman in Gaza once about the stereotype that we have in the United States that men are better than women in these areas, and her response was, "Are you kidding? We all know women are super stars in those fields."

The fact that women do well in STEM starts off early: it's the only region in the world where girls outperform boys in high school math (and again, not because the boys are underperforming).

I have a hypothesis for this but it’s really just a wild guess. I ran across one study in the USA in which middle school girls’ math scores improved dramatically & quickly as soon as their math classes were separated by gender (i.e., girls did better when studying this subject with just other girls). In countries like Palestine most elementary, middle, and high schools are separate for girls and boys, so that might be a part of the reason for girls' confidence...