- In a typical middle-class society, as you would recollect, there was this prejudice surrounding the girl-child pursuing higher professional education. Getting into IITs and IIMs for the girl-child was always challenging since the head of the family usually decided it is worthwhile for the male progeny to pursue higher studies rather than the female. Why? You see, the girl was always meant to move away from the place of birth after matrimony to start her own family. As modern society evolved over the years, the preconceived notions and prejudicial treatment towards other sex too gradually changed for good. The largely misogynistic and patriarchal mindset hasn’t undergone complete alteration yet in the Indian context. But some positive changes are visible for sure.
PC: Education and Careers Desk
- Yes, we have heard enough of gender parity, equality, unbiased treatment, a level playing field, and equal opportunities being bandied about by every stakeholder in society. Hitherto considered male fiefdoms in certain verticals have gradually started yielding grounds to females as well, including flying fighter jets. This is some change indeed. More changes are envisaged and hearteningly is visible on the ground too. As reported in newspapers, this year, for the first time, women make up 30% of the IIT-JEE applicant pool. Needless to mention, this is an entirely welcome tiding and makes wonderful news for women activists warming their cockles. Note that JEE results have long been grim advertisements for the glaring gendered disparity.
- Girls routinely outperform boys in boards and medical entrance is known. That JEE has remained a hurdle was partly because many girls didn’t even try. The reasons for this gender gap are complex. It is not differences in innate ability or a lack of interest in scientific and technical education. Implicit biases and the lack of role models might be central to the scarcity of women in science in the West, but in India, women make up 43% of the STEM education pool, one of the highest ratios in the world. The government has made active interventions to spark girls’ interest in STEM study, and institutions are assessed for gender inclusion. IITs have tried to mend the gap too-the horizontal supernumerary quota gives the JEE Advance passed women an edge.
PC: THE TIMES OF INDIA
- This has ensured the presence of women reaches 20% on IIT campuses, a visible improvement. The reluctance to aim for the IITs, then, is not rooted in individual psyches as much as social constraints, and in the design of the high-stakes JEE. The exam, which usually involves years of intensive coaching in faraway locations, did not just filter out girls, it has also been skewed against students from rural and lower-income backgrounds. This year’s jump in candidates from OBC and EWS categories is also heartening on that front. If the IITs are to be a magnet for India’s brightest minds in science and technology, they must make sure that social disparities don’t come in the way of talent. Yes, even more progress would be par for the course out
