Women in STEM Postgraduate Education Across 40 African Universities

Fisher, Monica's mixed-methods study includes quantitative survey data from 163 women who completed STEM PhDs at 40 African universities. It examines challenges like financial stress, gender stereotypes, and work-life balance, alongside success factors such as passion and family support. Qualitative data comes from focus group discussions with female STEM postgraduate students at four African institutions.

Use Cases

• Analyze reported challenges like financial stress and sexual harassment to identify common barriers for women in STEM across 40 African universities.
• Correlate success factors such as passion for field and family support with demographic or institutional variables from the survey.
• Compare qualitative themes from focus group discussions with quantitative survey results on topics like gender stereotypes and work-life balance.

Strengths

• Quantitative data is based on a defined sample of 163 women who completed STEM PhDs.
• Qualitative insights are drawn from seven focus group discussions, providing depth to the survey findings.
• The study covers a specific, under-researched population: women postgraduate students in STEM across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Limitations

• The quantitative sample size of 163 respondents may limit statistical power for detailed subgroup analyses.
• Data collection was conducted in 2019/2020, so findings may not reflect more recent developments.
• Geographic coverage is limited to universities in Sub-Saharan Africa, with focus groups at only four institutions.

Provenance

Source

ICPSR Harvested Dataverse, author Monica Fisher.

Collection Method

Mixed-methods: online survey and focus group discussions.

Time Range

Data collected in 2019 and 2020.

Freshness

Data was collected in 2019/2020; the metadata record was last updated in 2026.

Geography

Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically 40 African universities for the survey and four for focus groups.