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‘To improve gender ratio at IITs, start at school level’
The Economic Times | By Prachi Verma , ET Bureau| Feb 27, 2018 |
Representational Image
With the admission process a few months away at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), this year focus is on creating 14% seats for women. The government has recently sent out a directive to the IITs urging them to increase womens numbers in admission by creating supernumerary seats (if required) from this year. Experts appreciate the move but said that intervention at the school level is the need of the hour. Only 8% of women got admitted last year to the IITs. There needs to be a shift in how families and female students think about professional choices for women. A large percentage of women decide not to join IITs despite having qualified the exam their decision to opt out is a huge loss to the institutions and to the society at large, said Ruchira Shukla, regional lead, South Asia, venture capital-International Finance Corporation.
This is often driven by the misconception that engineering is not an ideal profession for women, said Shukla, who graduated from IIT Delhi in 1994. Despite outdoing the boys at the boards in the 12th standard, women either do not get through or do not opt for the IITs. The ministry of human resources development (MHRD) sent out a directive to all 23 IITs to have a better representation of women at India s premium engineering colleges. This directive states that each of the IITs should bring up the percentage of women by 14% in 2018 (by creating supernumerary seats, if required) Shukla advocates for successful women who graduated from IITs to serve as role models to inspire young women. This will help groom a strong set of women leaders bringing a multitude of benefits to India and the world economy, she said. SKEWED GENDER DIVERSITY Last year, when IITs admitted nearly 11,000 students, the percentage of women at some of the institutes fell even below 10%. IIT-Kanpur had only 54 women among the 826 it admitted in 2017, a percentage of 6.5% while IIT-Guwahati had only 6.3% women among 643 students. IIT Delhi and Bombay admitted over 10% women students last year. Among all the IITs, IIT Mandi fared better in terms of women admissions last year with over 14% women joining the institute.
Every year, many highly talented women just miss a seat at the IITs. The main reason is societal biases that place geographical constraints on women and deny them equal access to preparation for the highly competitive JEE (Advanced) entrance exam, said Timothy A Gonsalves, director, IIT Mandi. IITs are also targeting schools to inspire young girls to take up STEM courses in higher studies. Going forward, a strong effort is needed to expose school girls to engineering as a career, Gonsalves explained. The imperatives of an equitable gender ratio at classrooms include diverse viewpoints resulting in better learning for all students and ensuring engineering team members of both genders that would cater to the needs of the whole society. The governments aim is to improve the gender ratio at the engineering colleges to at least 20%, or one woman in every five students, by 2020. It will create more supernumerary seats by then if that is needed to achieve the target. Shruti Joshi, currently in the third year of B-tech at IIT-Kanpur, supports the decision of creating supernumerary seats for women. Creating of supernumerary seats for girls will undoubtedly create an atmosphere of inclusion in every campus, said Joshi. She suggests that the coaching classes should take a cue and offer special scholarships to girls. – Courtesy
Why India beats Britain for women in tech
CityAM | 14 September 2017 | Anouska Streets | Opinion |
Something about Indian society and its education system makes the tech industry there both more attractive and more hospitable to women than it is in Britain (Source: Getty)
The technology sector is notorious for under-representing women. If asked to name top male industry figures, the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and the late Steve Jobs roll off the tongue with ease. But most people would struggle to name their female counterparts. This doesn’t mean that women aren’t carving themselves out a space in the industry. If you pick a slice of the sector from emerging economies, particularly in India, you’ll find that there are significantly more high profile women in tech there than in the western world. To start with, 30 per cent of India’s tech workforce is female, compared with one in five in the UK. At the same time, India’s gender parity statistics continue to rise, while the UK’s have stagnated over the past five years. In most indices (economic opportunity, educational attainment, health), women in India have access to a much narrower set of opportunities than British women. So clearly something about Indian society and its education system makes the tech industry there both more attractive and more hospitable to women than it is in Britain. If we can figure out what it is that creates this difference, we can begin to improve the landscape in the UK. In Britain and the US, the tech sector is stereotypically seen as “geeky”. Girls are just as likely as boys to study STEM subjects up to GCSE level in UK schools, but research shows a drop in participation at A-Level and beyond. The misconception persists that the sole aim of computer science courses is to produce a workforce of programmers. This belief alienates teenage girls, who already have negative cultural ideas of what it is to be a computer geek, and so distance themselves from other tech opportunities.
This stigma is less much prevalent in India. In Indian culture, it seems that students – male and female – are opting for courses with an obvious career path, with the most popular courses being medicine, engineering, law – and now technology. Indian girls also have a plethora of prominent female role models to look up to, women who have managed to make it to the top in the tech sector. The likes of Kumud Srinivasan (who until recently was the president of Intel India), Aruna Jayanthi (chief executive of Capgemini India) and Vanitha Narayanan (chief executive of IBM India), are great examples of Indian women excelling in technology, with their success frequently celebrated in the media. In fact, in addition to her role at IBM, Narayanan is also chairperson of the board of governors of India’s National Institute of Technology, and was the first woman chairperson of the American Chamber of Commerce in India. In the UK however, the lack of female role models is influencing girls’ perception of what they can achieve in tech. We need to do more to promote successful female role models to demonstrate the sheer range of jobs in tech out there today, and how they can be a creative, exciting, and powerful way to make a difference in the world. It is only by hearing from people working in the sector that young women with an interest in tech will shed their inhibitions. The tech industry is already a major driver of prosperity for the UK, and we have the potential to be world leaders, but we must do more to nurture our female talent if we wish to remain competitive. A lot has been invested at the grassroots level to increase girls’ engagement in STEM, but more resources should be committed to championing the women that are already succeeding in the sector. Young women in the UK have a choice as to whether they want to pursue technology, but if they see more prominent female role models in a variety of fields, maybe we’ll start to see more of them turning an interest into a career. – Anouska Streets is head of engineering at FINkit. – Courtesy
49.5 Per Cent Women In Mechanical Engineering At MIT; What India Can Learn
ND TV | Education | Written by Anisha Singh | August 25, 2017 |
The lack of women in mechanical engineering has been the subject of many running jokes for years. Hence it comes as quite a surprise that the MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering comprised of 49.5 per cent females as of fall 2016.
49.5% Women In Mechanical Engineering At MIT; What India Can Learn
New Delhi: The gender gap in the field of engineering has been a concern which doesn’t seem to go away despite the increase in percentage of girls enrolling for higher studies in the last decade. The percentage of women in engineering stream is one of the lowest with only about 30% women making up the total number of students enrolled across the country. The number of women who take up mechanical engineering is lesser still. The lack of women in mechanical engineering has been the subject of many running jokes for years. Hence it comes as quite a surprise that the MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering comprised of 49.5 per cent females as of fall 2016. Kath Xu ’16, senior lecturer in mechanical engineering Dawn Wendell ’04 SM ’06 PhD ’11, and Andrea Walsh lecturer in comparative media studies and writing studied the reasons for the increased gender diversity in MIT Mechanical Engineering department and presented their results in June at the 2017 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference. The study is revealing in many ways and can be utilized back home in India to bring down the increased gender gap in engineering streams.
Gender Parity as recruitment tool
One of the tools employed by MIT was to showcase the number of women and minorities at the institute. By showcasing the number of women on campus through blogs and Campus Preview Weekend, MIT was able to pull in more female applicants. Indian institutes do not follow a similar admission process, but showcasing the engineering institutes with favorable gender diversity, the possibility of receiving more female applicants can be increased. In 2017, total candidates who registered for the JEE Main exam, an entrance exam for admission to engineering institutes, were 1186454 out of which 856897 were boys, 329554 were girls, and 3 were transgender candidates.
Female Faculty as Existence Proof
In their study, the researchers found that female students looked up to female faculty not just for guidance and mentorship but also as a proof of existence of women in the department. It was clear that having more women in leadership positions helped female students to have perspective about engineering and career in engineering. This can work in India too, were the gender ratio in terms of faculty in an engineering institute is low too.
Accepting the existence of Gender Gap
The researchers said that the first step to bridging the gap is to accept that there is a gap. The researchers also addressed the cultural biases and said that subtle changes helped in slowly combating the gender gap and that it was still a long way to go. In India, engineering institutes have incorporated various schemes to combat the gender gap in its classrooms. Only recently, IITs increased the number of seats reserved for women from 2018 onwards. The NITs too are pondering over increasing the number of seats for female students.
Challenges in India
Apart from the factors mentioned above, there are certain other challenges which are exclusive to India. One of the glaring reason for less women in engineering streams and still lesser in mechanical engineering is the assumption that these are fields meant for men. The career path for engineers is male-dominated too making it difficult for women to stay in the field after completing the course. Many female engineers we spoke to confirmed that their co-workers or female classmates chose to quit after marriage or pregnancy. – Courtesy
This online course aims to spread STEM education to women from small cities across India
Edex Live | Reshma Ravishanker | 03rd August 2017 |
Participants have to use the knowledge gained from the course and make a submission for the project
The Anita Borg Institute (ABI) India launched 2017 Codeathon.in for women students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) from smaller cities across India. As a part of the event, participants have to use the knowledge gained from the online course and make a submission for the project: Navigate the Mars Rover. The project involves designing and implementing a solution that will apply a variety of shortest path algorithms to help the Mars Rover find the optimal path between the starting point and the destination marked by the user. The end user will have the ability to choose the algorithm to be used. This initiative is an online platform that offers the students an opportunity to enhance their coding skills while developing innovative solutions.
“Currently, the industry efforts in this area are concentrated in the six to eight metro cities. At times there is so much happening that the talent in these cities is spoilt for choices. There is a large pool of untapped talent in smaller cities that have a lot of knowledge, they need more exposure and confidence-building. 2017 Codethon.in aims to bridge this gap. The participation from colleges and students in the selected cities has been positive and we look forward to some great coding”, said Geetha Kannan, MD, ABI India. The event is being held in select engineering colleges in Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Mysore (Karnataka) and a few cities in Kerala. It will be conducted online from July and will go on until September 2017. It will also offer all participants coaching and practical experience that will better prepare them students for exciting careers in technology. – Courtesy / Click here to take a look at Codeathon.in / The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology is a nonprofit organization founded by computer scientist Anita Borg. The institute’s primary aim is to recruit, retain, and advance women in technology.The institute’s most prominent program is the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, the world’s largest gathering of women in computing. https://anitaborg.org/about-us/india/
Engineering: What suits girls best
The Hindu | July 10, 2016 | Engineering: What suits her best |
Trends indicate women are inclined to taking up IT jobs. They can do well in non-IT disciplines too. But, to ensure a long-term career, here’s what they should consider before choosing an engineering branch.
Recently, I attended a career fair organised by The Hindu Education Plus. At the event, I discovered that girls have 33 per cent of seats reserved for them in engineering colleges in almost all categories. However, the big question many of the parents were asking is which branch is actually suitable for their daughter? To find an answer for this question, let us first refine it. This leads to three questions:
- Can a girl pursue and excel in any branch of engineering?
- Can she get a suitable job in any branch of engineering after graduation?
- Which branches of engineering are suitable for girls when they reach the age of 35, after they take up family responsibilities?
My answer to the first question is yes. In my mind, a girl who is good at studies can pursue any branch of engineering.
The second question prompted me to undertake a small research. I asked my team to pull out some data of female job-seekers with an engineering degree, aged between 22 and 27, from a popular job board. Here are the findings of my analysis of 188 random resumes.
Branches pursued: Computer science (45.76 per cent pursued it) is the most popular branch among girls, followed by Electronics (34.57 per cent), Electrical (14.3 per cent), Mechanical (3.72 per cent) and Civil (1.59 per cent) engineering. I am a bit surprised by this low percentage of girl students completing their civil or mechanical engineering.
Jobs after graduation: Of the 188, 78.19 per cent have taken up jobs in the areas of IT hardware or IT software, irrespective of the engineering branch they pursued; 12.81 per cent have taken up jobs in functional areas such as administration, HR management, logistics and business development. Only 9 per cent are working in core engineering jobs. This means that women engineers, irrespective of the branch of engineering they pursue, are switching to jobs in IT/Software or other functional areas not related to engineering. In other words, most of them are not applying for jobs in core engineering.
To find an answer to the third question, I analysed 188 resumes of women engineers with over ten years of work experience. The findings are:
Job roles after 10-15 years: 56.71 per cent of them are in an IT role. 20.14 per cent of them are in engineering jobs. 19.4 per cent are in jobs that are not related to engineering. The percentage of women in core engineering jobs has come down from 20 (10-15 years work experience group) to 9 (0-5 years work experience group).
Why do women prefer IT jobs? The first reason is that IT jobs provide two flexibility options — one is they allow employees to work from home and the second is they allow women to rejoin after a career break. This is not the case with core engineering jobs. The second reason is that the IT industry has better HR policies including adequate maternity leave and the option to take a sabbatical. Again, this is not possible in core engineering jobs.
There are a few core engineering jobs that women engineers can take up, if they are interested. Let us explore them.
Electronics and Electrical: In this domain, core jobs are in design and development and in production. In India, only a few public sector companies have undertaken design and development which is why job opportunities are also very few in this domain. Most of the jobs in production are in assembly, where women find the work environment-friendly.
Mechanical: In this domain, jobs are in design, manufacturing, production, materials, maintenance and projects. In terms of numbers, manufacturing and maintenance jobs rank at the top. But women shun these jobs because the engagement with workmen is very high, the job involves physical activity or they have work in night shifts. Women engineers are found in jobs dealing with design, materials and production planning. However, such job roles are very few.
Civil: Here, jobs are in design and development, project planning and execution. Execution involves site visits, long commute to project sites, and interaction with workmen, which many women are not comfortable with. So, women civil engineers usually take up jobs that do not involve site visits, that is, in areas of design and development and project planning. These numbers are again very small.
So in conclusion, we can say that women are inclined to take up jobs in the IT industry owing to women-friendly environment. There is nothing that can stop them from pursuing a career in other engineering disciplines. However, to ensure a long-term career, women must still consider a few parameters before choosing the engineering branch. They include:
- Which branch comes with more prospects of landing you a job soon after the completion of your engineering programme?
- Which field readily welcomes women employees returning to work after a career break?
- Does the field allow seamless migration to a different functional role after a career break, if necessary?
The writer is chairman, TMI Group. – Courtesy
143 of 300 girls cleared JEE under Udaan scheme of CBSE: HRD Minister Smriti Irani
ABP Live | IANS | Friday, 29 April 2016 |
New Delhi: Under the “Udaan” scheme of CBSE, 143 out of 300 girls from the initial batch had cleared the JEE exam, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said on Friday. The HRD ministry’s programme Udaan is a CBSE project launched in November 2014 to mitigate the gap between school education and engineering entrance examination. “About a year-and-a-half back, I implored in a conversation with CBSE that less number of girls make it to the reputed institutes like IIT. So we started Udaan under which we ensured that girls who belong to low income families are given resources and support needed to face the competitive exams,” said Irani. “I’m glad to share today in one of our first batches out of 300 girls, 143 passed the JEE exam,” the minister added while speaking at a programme at IIT Delhi. Irani was visiting the IIT Delhi Campus to inaugurate the new lecture hall complex. She also laid the foundation stone of the proposed Engineering Blocks and the Research Park. The minister also inaugurated the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) Cell in the campus. UBA is an HRD ministry programme under which the government with help of IITs, NITs and other engineering institutes helps develop the rural areas by equipping them with technology.
Referring to the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, the minister said this is the first such initiative, an active engagement which would bring society close through technology. The minister said when extended support like academic help, especially for the marginalised students, they also realise their dreams and its relevance beyond the ambit of academics and start thinking of how they could help towards the betterment of the society and community. “For the first time in the history of India, we have taken a decision of waiving off fees for any student who passed the JEE exam and belongs to a family whose annual income is less than Rs.1 lakh,” said Irani. She added that the government had also waived off fees for specially abled students in order to assure that the government can encourage more students with special needs to become a part of the engineering fraternity. – Courtesy
Women honchos of tech firms appointed to NIT board of governors
Times of India | |
NEW DELHI: For the first time, top women executives of technology firms have been appointed chairpersons of the board of governors of five National Institutes of Technology (NIT) in a bid to encourage enrolment of more girls and break the glass ceiling in engineering. Kumud Srinivasan, president of Intel India, has been made chairperson of the prestigious NIT Trichy; Vanitha Narayanan, managing director of IBM India Private Limited, will head NIT Suratkal; Aruna Jayanthi, CEO of Capgemini India, will be chairperson of NIT Calicut; Vasantha Ramaswamy, founder director of Aprameya Associates, of NIT Rourkela and Jaya Panvalkar, formerly head of NVIDIA’s Pune design centre, will be chairperson of NIT Surat.
“Getting women to head NIT board of governors will have an impact in making these institutions more attractive for girls,” highly placed sources said. “Since many of the new chairpersons went to technology institutes and have worked at the highest levels in technology firms, they are best placed to break the stereotype that engineering is essentially a male profession. The HRD ministry is focused on increasing enrolment of girls in engineering institutes. CBSE has already launched ‘Udaan’, a scheme to attract girls to the engineering profession.”
The ministry expects that with so many women heading the board of NITs, NIT Council, the supreme governing body, will take decisions that will help increase the enrolment of girls in these institutes. Srinivasan has worked with Intel for over 25 years and made India the company’s largest non-manufacturing site outside the US. Narayanan, who did her masters in business from Chennai and Houston, is also a member of IBM’s integration and values team selected by the IBM chairperson. Jayanthi looks after technology and outsourcing services for Capgemini that has 40,000 employees. Ramaswamy has worked with Defence Research and Development Organization earlier and is credited with developing Slewing Ring Bearings that has made mining easier.
CBSE Bid to Up Girls’ Ratio in Engineering Stream; UDAAN; PRAGATI
Indian Express | By S Mannar Mannan | Published: 05th October 2014.
COIMBATORE: In an effort to address the low enrolment of girl students in engineering education, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has decided to give supplementary training on science and mathematics subjects to girls at senior secondary level through the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). “An initiative of CBSE, UDAAN, is to enable disadvantaged girls and other students from SC/ST and minorities to transit from school to post-school professional education especially in science and maths. The first flight of UDAAN is to address lower enrolment of girl in engineering colleges which is currently about 23 per cent girls as against 77 per cent of boys,” says a MHRD note on the highlights of the new initiatives taken up by Centre. It is aimed at reducing the quality gap between school education and engineering education entrance systems by focusing on the three dimensions, curriculum design, transaction and assessment, it added.
The CBSE will also provide free and online resources to the entire student population with special incentives and support to a thousand selected disadvantaged girls per year. Apart from this, the MHRD is also introducing new scholarship for girls ‘PRAGATI’ (Providing Assistance for Girls Advancement in Technical Education Initiative), where family income is less than `6 lakh per annum. Every year, 4,000 girls will get this scholarship, which is `30,000 or tuition fees, which ever is less and `2,000 per month for 10 months. Anna University former V-C P Mannar Jawahar said, this initiative by the Centre would help improve the girl’s education. “Enrolment of girls in professional education is good in states like TN and Kerala, where it is increasing every year. Girls are joining in large numbers in engineering courses like computer science, electrical, electronics and communication, information technology and biotechnology. But, in states like Bihar, girls enrolment in higher education is low, which will improve by the government’s initiative,” he said.
AICTE Scholarship for Girls under PRAGATI scheme & Scholarship for Differently abled students 2014-15
AICTE Applications for Scholarship to 1) Girls Under (PRAGATI) scheme and 2) Differently abled students
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