Context:<\/strong><\/p>\n About the theme:<\/strong><\/p>\n Lost opportunities:<\/strong><\/p>\n Why did these talented women fail to get their due?<\/strong><\/p>\n Initiatives taken towards social transformation:<\/strong><\/p>\n The \u2018leaky pipeline\u2019 problem:<\/strong><\/p>\n India\u2019s performance in Global Gender Gap Index 2020:<\/strong><\/p>\n Way forward:<\/strong><\/p>\n For more such notes, Articles, News & Views Join our Telegram Channel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/img\/62407943\/Master.jpg\")
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\n\u2022 For the last 33 years, on this day, research institutes and other academic centres in the country have been holding public outreach programmes or conducting meetings on select topics.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n\u2022 This is a timely and relevant theme, but it is also rather ironic given that Raman himself did not warm up to the idea of women in science.
\n\u2022 For some time, this prejudice meant that women candidates were refused admission to the Indian Institute of Science in the 1930s, during Raman\u2019s tenure as director.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n\u2022 Like many others of the time, he imbibed the sexist views that were part of society then. Among his three women students, only Anna Mani was able to choose a scientific career, although she could not get a doctoral degree.
\n\u2022 Sunanda Bai was not awarded a PhD, and committed suicide for unknown reasons.
\n\u2022 Lalitha Doraiswamy left her studies and chose to marry Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-yqQHN8ERvwc\/XIJPGzk4KqI\/AAAAAAAAVHA\/BnMyf9P_iEkMkiJGEzMd3ftOCUX_rF5XwCLcBGAs\/s1600\/1%2B-%2BWomen%2527s%2Bequality%2Bmeans%2Bmore%2BGDP%2B-%2BSocial%2BIssues.png\")
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\n\u2022 The success of Janaki Ammal, who chose to leave India, versus the stories of the other women tells us about lost opportunities.
\n\u2022 The cultural and gender norms that engendered discrimination even during a renaissance of sorts in India was a major reason why the country lost out on an important opportunity to build a culture of including women in science during the pre-Independence days.
\n\u2022 These stories of gender discrimination help in our understanding of the current discourse on the social and organisational conditions that regulate women\u2019s participation in science education and research.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n\u2022 While cultural and social causes are considered the primary reasons for gender discrimination, at least in India, organisational factors have also played a big role in preventing gender parity in science.
\n\u2022 This can be changed if more women are given leadership positions.
\n\u2022 Lack of women leaders and women role models may be preventing more women from entering the field.
\n\u2022 Compared to the pre-Independence days, one encouraging fact is that there is an exponential growth in the participation of women in the undergraduate and graduate levels.
\n\u2022 In the U.K., women account for 40% of undergraduate students who pursue degrees in the physical sciences and mathematical sciences and 14% in engineering and technology.
\n\u2022 In India, the corresponding figures are about 40% and 18%, respectively.
\n\u2022 More than 40% of PhD-holders in India are women. These figures, according to various estimates published in Current Science, show that social shackles are loosening.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n\u2022 The percentage of women in faculty positions drops to less than 20%; only a few reach the top positions of institutes and universities.
\n\u2022 This is also the time when many of them become mothers, sometimes because of familial pressure.
\n\u2022 The Indian Science Academies are aware of the problem. But the reform should start from their own backyard. In all the three science academies combined, only about 10% are women Fellows.
\n\u2022 Including more women in science is not only important from the human rights perspective; it also impacts the quality of science and the advancement of society itself.
\n\u2022 This is not to say that the situation is hopeless. There have been changes that give us hope too.
\n\u2022 The role of women engineers in the launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation\u2019s second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, is now legendary.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n\u2022 The report also says it would take nearly a hundred years to close the gender gap in various fields in India compared to the time it would take in other countries.
\n\u2022 The Indian scientific community should act as a pressure group to build greater focus on the issue and push for concrete measures to address the problem. As a simple first step, India should relax certain norms for women.
\n\u2022 The expansion of maternity leave to 26 weeks from the previous 12 weeks shows that the present government is seized of the matter, but how this will affect the hiring of women workers is yet to be seen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n\u2022 Without supportive institutional structures in place, women, when they are pregnant, worry about gaps in publications, how they will do fieldwork, whether they will get promotions.
\n\u2022 Productivity concerns are high for women, especially in academia where the number of papers you publish is a marker of productivity.
\n\u2022 In India, we have many examples of women researchers who are involved in exciting scientific experiments.
\n\u2022 It is imperative that we understand and remove the sexism and institutional obstacles that prevent more women from entering the scientific field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n