Reproducing Patriarchy from Within: A Qualitative Study on the Internalization of Gender Stereotypes Among Female STEM Students at the University of North Sumatra
Silvia Annisa, Harmona Daulay, Rizabuana, Grace Prima Apriani Sihombing

Universitas Sumatera Utara (1,2,3), Universitas Terbuka (4)

Abstract

Gender inequality in STEM education does not stem solely from external structural pressures but is also actively reproduced through the process of stereotype internalization that takes place within women^s groups themselves. As a retrospective study, this research uses empirical data collected at the University of North Sumatra as a reference point to examine the structural roots of the mechanism of patriarchal internalization within the STEM educational environment-a mechanism that, as demonstrated by recent literature, continues to operate persistently in the Southeast Asian context to this day (Varma et al., 2023- UNDP, 2024).
Using a descriptive qualitative approach through in-depth interviews with eight female students from four STEM-based faculties (the Faculty of Engineering, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, and the Faculty of Agriculture), this study found that gender stereotypes do not merely come from outside, but are actively accepted and justified by the informants as something normal and taken for granted. The informants consistently justified male dominance in leadership and technical competence, positioned women in administrative and support roles, and internalized this subordinate condition not as an injustice but as a structural norm. Within Bourdieu^s framework, these findings can be understood as a form of naturalized symbolic violence-where gender dominance is maintained not through coercion, but through the unconsciously accepted compliance of the dominated party. This study contributes to an understanding of why women^s representation in STEM in Indonesia faces persistent barriers despite open access to education, by demonstrating that the root of the problem lies in cultural factors and internalization, rather than merely structural and institutional factors.

Keywords: internalization of patriarchy- gender stereotypes- STEM- symbolic violence- higher education

Topic: Digital Power, Social Capital, and Inclusive Resilience: Interrogating Gender and Inequality in Technologically Mediated Societies (Digital Power- Social Capital- Inclusive Resilience)