The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Pushing the glass ceiling

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Saturday, Mar 08, 2008
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Pushing the glass ceiling

Divya Gandhi

Bangalore: “You really do not need a study to prove that women are under-represented in Indian science. What we need to know is why,” says Rohini Godbole, Professor, Centre for High Energy Physics at the Indian Institute of Science.

The results of a pioneering study she conducted in 2004 for the Indian National Science Academy had confirmed what she already knew: while the number of women enrolled for PhDs in science is substantial (37 per cent of all science PhDs) and increasing, less than 15 per cent make it to faculty positions in top scientific institutes.

In some institutes such as the IISc, women comprise only 6.6 per cent of faculty. In short, “women study science, but few do science,” Prof. Godbole concluded.

Only between 3 to 5 per cent of fellows elected to the three national science academies are women, and only two top national institutes are headed by women.

So why is Indian science losing its “scientific woman power”?

What constitutes the proverbial glass ceiling that prevents women scientists from occupying the top positions in science institutes? The “Women in Science” panel at the Indian Academy of Science, chaired by Prof. Godbole, is now looking for answers to this question in a survey of 1,000 women PhD holders.

“The glass ceiling manifests in subtle forms,” says Prof Godbole. She cites her own example: when she joined an Indian university in 1980 as the first woman faculty at its physics department, her head of department expressed a distinct doubt about her ability to teach the Mathematical Methods course, even though she had been a successful theoretical particle physicist with a Ph.D. from a top U.S. university. “The most charitable comment I can make is that this was due to the department head’s unfamiliarity with women teaching physics,” she added.

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