WOMEN IN STEM – S & T
News: ‘Science
should make country atma nirbhar’: PM Modi inaugurates 108th Indian Science
Congress in Nagpur
What's in the news?
● India
is now one of the top three countries in
the world when it comes to the number of PhD research works and startup ecosystems, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi said.
● Inaugurating
the 108th Indian Science Congress (ISC)
being held in Nagpur via video conferencing, PM Modi told the gathered
scientists that the country is now ranked 40th on the Global Innovation Index
2022, up from the 81st rank in 2015, and underlined that scientific
developments should ultimately make the country atma nirbhar.
Key takeaways:
● This
year, the Indian Science Congress is focused on ‘Science and Technology for Sustainable Development with Women
Empowerment’ and will showcase achievements made by women scientists as
well as young innovators across the country.
● PM
Modi pointed out that women’s participation in extramural research has doubled
over the last eight years.
Backdrop of Representation of Women in STEM:
● Increase in women
participation in
R&D projects from 13% in 2000-01 to 28%.
● The
number of women principal investigators in R&D had risen more than four
times from 232 in 2000-01 to 941 in 2016-17.
● The
percentage of women among researchers
went from 13.9% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2018.
● The
increase in women’s participation, especially in research, is due to a combination of government programmes and
natural progression.
● Results
of the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2019 showed a 53% and 55% participation of women in
science education at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels respectively.
● The
Department of Science and Technology supported the Gender Advancement for
Transforming Institutions (GATI) project,
based on the UK’s Athena Swan Charter, was introduced.
● In
the first phase of GATI, 30 educational and research institutes have been
selected by DST, with a focus on women’s participation in leadership roles,
faculty, and the numbers of women students and researchers.
Causes for lack of representation:
1. Stereotypes:
● The
paucity of women in STEM is not merely due to skill inadequacy, but also a result of assigned stereotypical
gender roles.
● It
is still considered okay to judge the parental or life-partner status of a
woman scientist while deciding to hire her or give her a leadership position,
overlooking her merit.
2. Patriarchal and Societal Causes:
● There
are patriarchal attitudes in hiring practices or awarding fellowships and
grants etc.
● Matters
related to marriage and childbirth,
responsibility related to running of households and elder care further
hinder the representation of women in these ‘non-conventional’ fields.
3. Lack of Role Models:
● Lack
of women leaders and women role models may be preventing more women from
entering these fields.
4. Absence of Supportive Institutional Structure:
● Women
leave the workforce, due to the absence of supportive institutional structures
during pregnancy, safety issues in
fieldwork and workplace.
5. Less women specific science institutes:
● Only 11% of colleges in
India are exclusively for women, majority of
which offer arts and commerce rather than science.
6. Economic factors:
● This
is another major constraint for women in pursuing science.
● Even
for families with greater resources, economic considerations affect the pursuit
of a science degree as a science which is generally more expensive than an arts or a commerce degree.
7. Considered as Burden:
● Families expect daughters
to marry and assume obligations to their husband’s
family.
● Many
families think that a daughter’s education would primarily benefit her in-laws
rather than her natal family. Such families traditionally view boy's education
differently from girls.
Government initiatives:
1. Vigyan Jyoti Programme:
● It
was launched to address the
underrepresentation of women in different fields of Science Technology
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in the country.
● Initially,
it was introduced at the school level wherein meritorious girl students of Class 9-12 were being encouraged to pursue
higher education and career in the STEM field.
● Recently,
the programme was extended to 100 districts in its 2nd phase.
2. KIRAN scheme:
● It
was launched in 2014-15 to provide
opportunities for women scientists in moving up the academic and administrative
ladder.
● The
Department of Science & Technology has also additionally established
Artificial Intelligence (AI) labs in women universities with the goal to foster
AI innovations and to prepare skilled manpower for AI-based jobs in future.
3. WISTEMM Program:
● Under
the Indo-US Fellowship for Women in STEMM (WISTEMM) program, women scientists
can work in research labs in the US.
4. GATI Program:
● The
Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI) program was launched to
develop a comprehensive charter and
a framework for assessing gender equality in STEM.
5. Women Scientist Scheme:
● The
Women Scientist Scheme aims to provide opportunities to women scientists and
technologists who desire to return to
mainstream science after a break in career due to social responsibilities.
6. CURIE:
● Consolidation
of university research for innovation and excellence in women universities
(CURIE): KIRAN is involved in taking proactive measures through the component -
CURIE, to develop state-of-the-art
infrastructure in women universities to attract, train and retain promising
girl students in S&T domains.
7. Women technology parks:
● Women
technology parks (WTPs) act as a single
window hub for convergence of diversified technologies, leading to
socio-economic development of women through capacity building and adoption of
location-specific technologies.
8. Training and capacity building:
● Several
training programmes specifically for capacity building of women scientists
working in various sectors covering multifarious themes are conducted in
partnership with premier institutions including the National Programme for Training of Women Scientists and Technologists
in the Government that provided an opportunity to over 1000 women scientists to
upgrade their knowledge base and skills.
Solutions to increase Women participation in STEM:
1. Holistic approach:
● Getting
more girls and women into STEM education and careers requires holistic and
integrated responses that reach across various sectors.
● Society has to understand
that women are an important human resource
and can play an important role in economic growth.
2. Private participation:
● Companies
can invest in building female talent in a multitude of ways, some of which
include providing more internship opportunities for women, giving STEM
scholarships to meritorious yet economically backward girls, and focusing on
retaining women employees in the workforce to maintain better gender ratios.
3. Spread awareness:
● Awareness
needs to be spread among parents that pursuing science for girls is not as
difficult as it is presumed.
● With
family support and encouragement, girls can be high achievers in science.
4. Mentoring:
● Along
with family support, having teachers who mentor and encourage girls in STEM
subjects can have more impact.
● Mentorship
programmes for girls at secondary and senior secondary levels are the need of
the hour.
5. Make education gender sensitive:
● There
is a need to promote positive stereotypes of roles of women in textbooks. It is
important that when girls come out of school, they have the dream to carve a
path for themselves.
● Education
for boys at school level should be in the direction of making them gender
sensitive.
6. STEM scholarships to meritorious girls:
● Scholarships
to meritorious girls at school levels can provide a boost to girls to pursue
science at graduate and postgraduate levels and take up science as a career.
WAY FORWARD:
● The problem needs to be
addressed at two levels - at societal level which requires long term effort and
at the policy and institutional level, which can be started with immediate
effect.
● There
is an immediate need to invest in
supporting infrastructure, incentivising institutions to promote gender equity,
transparency in decision making to bridge the persisting gender imbalance in
STEM majors.
● However,
schools need to break the ‘gendered
notions of intelligence’ and encourage girls not only to take science at
secondary and higher secondary level but also to pursue their career in STEM.
● This
would help not only in women being able to chase their dreams but science
itself would be benefitted from other points of view.