What the article is about:
- The article talks about increasing numbers of Indian women aspiring for career in science, and what can be done to improve that further.
Relevance:
- Paper 1: Essay
- GS2: Gender, Education, Issues related to women.
Analysis:
- According to data released by the Department of science and technology, the percentage of women in scientific and technological fields has increased ( from 13.9% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2018) over the last two decades.
Women across various disciplines:
- Women in health sciences is now pegged at 24.5%.
- While the percentage is 22.5 in natural sciences and agriculture.
- In engineering and technology, the participation is 14.5%.
- Women occupy key research and leadership positions in institutions such as council of scientific and industrial research, defence research and development organisation and Indian space research organisation.
Yet, a lot more remains to be done:
- According to2018 Global gender gap report, India is ranked 108 out of 149 countries.
- The 2019 all India survey on higher education shows a significant lag in female participation at doctoral levels.
Reasons responsible for this lag:
- Pressure of marriage and family planning.
- Loneliness of being an outlier in a male domain, where biases are rampant.
- Burden of academic housekeeping in comparison to their male counterparts.
Way ahead:
- To achieve the target of 30 percent women a post doctoral level by 2030 set by science, technology and innovation policy 2020, further benefits could come from a system of mentoring and an availability of funds.
