Academic performance is one of the reasons for gender imbalance in STEM education. This study has two objectives: analyzing women’s participation in STEM education and investigating the factors affecting women’s achievements in Engineering and Technology university majors in Ethiopia. Secondary data have been analyzed to establish women’s involvement in STEM education using enrollment and graduation data and to observe the gender gap. Primary data were collected from 376 women students of engineering and technology. The OLS multiple regression model results reveal that the academic performance of women in engineering and technology education is positively influenced by students’ capabilities to gather information about the institution before joining the university. Interventions followed by institutions for supporting women students, peer learning habits of students, and the accessibility of university infrastructure also positively affect women’s academic performance. In contrast, sexual harassment and the existence of engineering and technology professionals in the family negatively influence the academic performance of women. Hence, educational organizations, governments, and other stakeholders should work to enhance women’s academic performance and reduce the gender gap in STEM education. Engineering colleges must also give attention to students’ psychological, economic, and educational support, try to fulfill infrastructure and learning equipment, and protect students from sexual harassment through strong commitment and regulations.

Economic growth of countries is one of the fundamental questions in economics. Most African countries are opening their economies for welcoming of foreign investors. As such Ethiopia, like many African countries took measures to attract and improve foreign direct investment. The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) for economic growth of Ethiopia over the period of 1981-2013. The study shows an overview of Ethiopian economy and investment environment by the help of descriptive and econometric methods of analysis to establish empirical investigation for the contribution of FDI on Ethiopian economy. OLS method of time series analysis is employed to analyse the data. The stationary of the variables have been checked by using Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) Unit Root test and hence they are stationery at first difference. The co- integration test also shows that there is a long run relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Accordingly, the finding of the study shows that FDI, GDP per capita, exchange rate, total investment as percentage of GDP, inflow of FDI stock, trade as percentage of GDP, annual growth rate of GDP and liberalization of the economy have positive impact on Ethiopian GDP. Whereas Gross fixed domestic investment, inflows of FDI and Gross capital formation influence economic growth of Ethiopia negatively. This finding suggests that there should be better policy framework to attract and improve the volume of FDI through creating conducive environment for investment.

Recently, women in engineering and technology education have been given due importance in academic studies. In this background, the study has been carried out with two objectives. The first is to compare women's participation in engineering and technology vis-à-vis other STEM subjects. It has been done based on secondary data of enrollment, and the second one is to discuss the factors affecting their choice of pursuing engineering and technology. The average registration of women in engineering and technology is 24%, lower than any other study field. The second objective has been analyzed based on primary data collected from 384 women students learning engineering and technology and other science subjects (i.e., chemistry, biology, mathematics, statistics, physics). The result of Logit regression on factors affecting women's choice of learning engineering and technology reveals that expected salary is the most influencing factor. Other factors, high school education performance (results of grade 12 exam), the presence of an engineer and technologist in the family, access to role models, and the family's annual income, positively affect women's choice of learning engineering and technology education. All stakeholders, such as the government, teaching institutions, and associations dealing with women in engineering and technology education, must have appropriate measures for making role models more visible.INDEX TERMS women, choice of field stream, engineering and technology education, Ethiopia

Engineering and Technology Education is a means to sustain and accelerate the overall development in a country and it has a direct effect on individuals’ productivity and earnings as well. But the problem is there is gender disparity in distribution especially in developing countries among educational branches. In Ethiopia, despite significant improvements in the last couple of years, women are still under-represented in engineering and technology. Since the share of Ethiopian women in science and technology programs in higher education has been low, the governments apply a policy to stream 70% of all university entrants to be in the science and technology track indirectly to increase their entry into these fields. Even if this types of policy is applying, their participation in engineering and technology education and employment is very low proportion. The main purpose of this study is an attempt to assess trends and share of women in the field of engineering and technology regarding to their share of enrollment, employment and professional positions from the period 2000 -12 based on available secondary data collected from different sources. The collected quantitative data were analyzed by using descriptive data analysis techniques. Result from the data shows that there is low share of women in engineering and technology enrollment, employment and professional position status as compared to male in the country. Even if the share of enrollment of women in higher education is on improved status, their share of enrollment in engineering and technology filed is quite low that on average below 30 percent per year. In addition, this grate disparity and low participation of women in engineering and technology invites further investigation regarding to what is the reason behind.