Gender ratio in STEM careers is one of the most talked about issues today. There are some interesting facts about it which we must know.

Out of several career options like Medicine, Fashion Industry, Armed Forces, Teaching, Business etc., privileges for women have been more reinforced in STEM field than any other professional path. But still the improvement has not been much over the past fifty years. One reason could possibly be that women have failed to fruitfully respect these opportunities because of personal or societal reasons and approach to studies. In the context of India, we will analyse these reasons.

In 2018, 15% supernumerary seats were created for girls in the most prestigious engineering colleges, the IIT’s. So the gender ratio saw a sharp rise from around 7% to 17% from 2017 to 2018. But it came at several costs. I have felt the major drawbacks from the first day I stepped in IIT Delhi in 2018. Because of these exclusive seats, aspiring girls now think that their competition is only among girls. That breaks the very spirit which is required by any young girl to confidently step in themale-dominated field of technology. 

The main focus of the education system should be to train school and college girls to successfully carry forward their technological abilities to the world, and for that, an open competition with boys is much needed. Merely creating opportunities has no use if they do not serve the fundamental purpose, that is making women competent enough with men.

Another reason for the skewed gender ratio is attributed to fundamentals of socio-economic classes. Several media reporters and institutes have independently studied the background of Indian women who are successful presently in the STEM careers. According to them, more than 90% of them come from middle class economic families. Where does the influential high class society hide when it comes to educating their girls to pursue science and technology careers? The poor cannot afford education, even some middle class parents have to take loans to pay the college fees, but the rich have no excuse. 

The truth is that many people can afford their daughters to become rich spoilt brats, but they cannot take the pain of motivating and supporting them to do something challenging (I admit some parents are exceptions here, like mine). STEM careers are not the only challenging ones in terms of expertise and gender representation, but the tough competition does make this career path a very challenging profession for girls. How can they simply make it through without their parents’ support? This support and encouragement has been missing from almost every section of the society for ages.

But kudos to the wonderful women out there in industry and research in STEM, who have made an impact in the world. They all have unique struggles and deeply motivate the young girls to chase their dreams, overcoming all hurdles.

The society is progressing everyday and more opportunities are coming up for children to realise their passion at a young age. There is one unique thing called experiential learning which has recently come up. So I call out to all school girls, look up STEM activities and workshops on platforms like Experihub, experiment, observe and you will feel how amazing science and tech is. This is the first step, next is to follow your interests with full dedication and fight all hurdles. Women must earn their equal share in the STEM world, it is achievable!

By : Manupriya Gupta, IIT Delhi

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