Abstract
Although there is a demand for the requirement for natural sciences skills, to date, the connection between natural sciences subject choices and their impact on female students’ educational pathways has not been widely studied. Natural sciences include Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science and Geography. In this paper we therefore investigate the factors that motivate Zimbabwean female students to choose natural sciences at university. The main body of data for the research was generated through semi-structured interviews. The preliminary results reflect that there are three are the main factors that motivated female students in the sample to choose natural sciences programmes: (1) self-efficacy, ability (2) the influence of their female teachers, relatives, parents and friends (3) relevance of natural sciences. Hence these three factors promote the constitution of a natural science identity, which in turn motivates the choice of natural sciences as a career female amongst female students.
 
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Highlights
There has been an investigation and analysis that worldwide there is generally a low number of tertiary students taking up natural sciences (Stine & Matthews, 2009)
The results presented reflect the factors that ten Masvingo(in Zimbabwe) female students revealed in their detailed account as stimulating to study natural sciences
Most of Masvingo female students consider natural sciences as masculine subjects. They regard them as more demanding and challenging, opt for social sciences, bachelor of arts degrees or going to teaching colleges and nursing schools. This has contributed to a low number of female students taking up natural sciences
Summary
There has been an investigation and analysis that worldwide there is generally a low number of tertiary students taking up natural sciences (Stine & Matthews, 2009). The female enrollment in natural sciences is lower than the male one. Numerous studies have been done on the reasons for the gender differences in natural sciences (e.g., Allen & Eisenhart, 2017; Perez, Cromley, & Kaplan, 2014). As a result, Wang and Degol (2016) discussed on six different reasons for underrepresentation of female in natural sciences. The reasons that were pointed out were (a) cognitive ability, (b) relative cognitive strengths, (c) occupational interests or preferences, (d) lifestyle values or work/family balance preferences, (e) field-specific ability beliefs, and (f) gender-related stereotypes and biases.
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