Title: Female Gender Stereotypes, Parental Influence and the Challenges Confronting Female Students' Engagement in Vocational Training: A Qualitative Study of Nakivale Vocational Training Centre, Isingiro District, Uganda
Authors: Ainomugisha Joshua
Dr. Imelda Kemeza (PhD)
Dr. Irene Aheisibwe (PhD)
Volume: 10
Issue: 8
Pages: 301-311
Publication Date: 2026/08/28
Abstract:
Female participation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Uganda remains persistently low, and nowhere more so than in refugee settlement contexts, where displacement, poverty and cultural heterogeneity intersect with entrenched gender norms. At Nakivale Vocational Training Centre, female enrolment has historically hovered between 12 and 14 per cent, with dropout reaching 55 per cent in 2018. While the statistical contours of this disparity are documented, comparatively little is known about how female trainees themselves experience, interpret and negotiate the barriers that constrain their engagement. This study therefore set out to establish, qualitatively, the challenges faced by female students in engaging in vocational training at Nakivale Vocational Training Centre as a result of female gender stereotypes and parental influence. The study formed the qualitative strand of a larger convergent parallel mixed-methods inquiry grounded in the pragmatic paradigm. Four focus group discussions were conducted with purposively selected female student leaders, each comprising five to seven participants drawn from diverse nationalities, courses of study and socio-economic backgrounds. Discussions lasted between forty and sixty minutes, were held in private instructional rooms within the Centre, and were audio-recorded with informed consent. Recordings were transcribed verbatim, verified against the audio and field notes, managed in NVivo 14, and analysed thematically following Creswell's six-step procedure using a hybrid coding frame that combined deductive codes derived from Gender Role Theory with inductive codes capturing context-specific meanings. Data saturation guided the final number of discussions. Content validity of the discussion guide was established through expert review by specialists from Finn Church Aid, the Office of the Prime Minister and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, yielding a Content Validity Index above 0.70. Three analytically aligned themes were generated. First, female gender stereotypes constructed vocational training, and technical courses in particular, as male-dominated domains; participants reported self-doubt, heightened scrutiny of their competence, a felt obligation to work harder to prove legitimacy, and subtle exclusion from practical group work that eroded their sense of belonging. Second, parental influence emerged as a decisive shaping force: many parents held limited understanding of vocational education and its employment potential, and some regarded it as inferior to academic schooling or unsuitable for girls, producing scepticism, withdrawal of emotional support and, occasionally, outright opposition. Third, female students' engagement was shaped simultaneously by constraint and enablement; domestic and caregiving responsibilities produced fatigue, absenteeism and withdrawal, yet peer networks, female instructors, successful graduates and equitable trainers sustained resilience and motivation, such that strongly perceived stereotypes did not translate uniformly into disengagement. The study concludes that the challenges confronting female students at Nakivale are neither purely attitudinal nor purely material, but arise from the interaction of socio-cultural stereotyping, family-level support systems and individual and institutional coping mechanisms. It recommends structured gender-sensitization reaching students, instructors and the wider settlement community; sustained parental engagement through career guidance and awareness activity; and family-inclusive institutional support systems that consolidate the protective factors participants themselves identified.