Moroccan Female Engineering Graduates Outshine European and American Counterparts

The UNESCO placed Morocco among countries with a higher percentage of women graduating from engineering faculties compared to developed countries such as France, America and Canada.

In a soon-to-be-issued report that includes a chapter on gender equality in the field of science, the organization indicated that the percentage of women graduating from engineering faculties in Morocco reached 42.2% in 2018.

Figures for female higher education graduates by field indicate that this percentage reaches 44.2% in the field of agriculture, 72.3% in health and social sciences, and 48.7% in natural sciences. The report stated that the percentage of Moroccan women with a higher education diploma is (41.3%) in technology and communication sciences; social sciences and journalism (55.8%), administrative and law issues (48.7%), and arts and human sciences (47.9%).

The report notes that countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recorded the lowest levels worldwide, as the percentage in Australia is (23.2%) ; Canada (19.7%) ; Chile (17.7) ; France (26.1%) ; Japan (14%) ; Republic of Korea (20.1%), with 16.1% for Switzerland, and 20.4% for the USA.

“UNESCO” pointed to “the fact that women do not fully benefit from job opportunities available to highly educated and highly skilled professionals in advanced fields such as artificial intelligence, where there is one woman among every five professionals.”

The organization also stated that women who founded start-ups are still struggling to obtain financing, and they are still not adequately represented in large technology companies, whether in leadership positions or in technical jobs. Women are also more to leave technology because of weak career prospects as a major driver of this decision.

The report emphasized the need for women to be part of digital economy in order to prevent the Fourth Industrial Revolution from continuing to perpetuate gender bias, and warned that women’s failure to obtain adequate representation in the field of research and development is likely to be the cause for not taking their needs and opinions into consideration when designing products that affect our daily lives such as smart phone apps.