Women in Physics in India, 2005

Rohini M. Godbole, Neelima Gupte, Pratibha Jolly, Shobhana Narasimhan, and Sumathi Rao
Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 795, 129 (2005); doi: 10.1063/1.2128297
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2128297
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/proceeding/aipcp/795?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
Articles you may be interested in
Women in Physics in the U.K.: Update 20022005
AIP Conf. Proc. 795, 173 (2005); 10.1063/1.2128319
Women in Physics in Switzerland
AIP Conf. Proc. 795, 163 (2005); 10.1063/1.2128314
Women in Physics in Spain: Changes Since 2002
AIP Conf. Proc. 795, 159 (2005); 10.1063/1.2128312
Women in Physics: The Mexican Working Group
AIP Conf. Proc. 795, 141 (2005); 10.1063/1.2128303
Women in Physics in Germany
AIP Conf. Proc. 795, 123 (2005); 10.1063/1.2128294

Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions IP: 122.177.184.18 On: Fri, 08 Jul 2016 11:21:51

Women in Physics in India, 2005

Rohini M. Godbole1, Neelima Gupte2, Pratibha Jolly3,
Shobhana Narasimhan4, and Sumathi Rao5
1

Indian Institute of Science; 2Indian Institute of Technology Madras; 3Miranda House, University of Delhi;
4
Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research; 5Harish-Chandra Research Institute

As in most countries, the percentage of women in physics and other sciences in India is low; however, the nature
of the problem may be somewhat different in India than in many Western countries. For example, there does not
seem to be a general perception that women lack the intellectual skills required for a career in physics; instead, the
problems seem to arise more from societal perceptions of appropriate roles for women. In the last few years some
promising measures have been introduced to improve the situation of women in science in India.

THE CURRENT SITUATION

Both the percentage and the number of women enrolled in universities has increased steadily in the last few
decades in all subjects, including science. Total enrollment of women has grown from 396,745 (10.9%) in 1950
1951 to a healthy 8,399,443 (39.4%) in 20002001. In 20002001, 39.4% of all university science students were
women (a slight increase over 37% in 19951996). It is impressive that over a third of science students are women.
The percentage enrollment of women in the sciences in 20002001 was 39% at the bachelors level, 42.5% at the
masters level, and 37.2% at the PhD level. In physics, women constitute 30% enrollment at the masters level, but
the proportion of women drops sharply to about 20% at the PhD level in physics. This situation is better than in
engineering (where women constitute 21.8% of students at the bachelors, 15.8% at the masters, and 16.5% at the
PhD levels), but worse than in medicine (44.4% at the bachelors, 34.4% at the masters, 29.3% at the PhD levels).
However, the most serious problems for women in the sciences, above all in physics, start at the post-PhD level.
The number of women faculty members in the physics departments of Indian universities and research institutes is
found to be dismal, rarely crossing even 10%. A survey of eight premier research institutes found 20 of the 245
physics faculty were women, while in the seven Indian Institutes of Technology 16 of 201 physics faculty were
women. The universities fared little better: 11 university physics departments surveyed had only 30 women faculty
members out of 258. In many cases this fraction has remained roughly constant over more than a decade.
What causes this precipitous drop in the percentage of women at the faculty level? The greatest factors are
probably increased responsibilities on women due to marriage and motherhood, as well as possible biases in facultylevel hiring. Efforts to increase the percentage of women in physics should perhaps focus on these factors.
Other indicators of standing in the physics community exhibit an even more shocking scenario. The Bhatnagar
Award (the premier national science award) has never gone to a woman physicist, and to very few women at all (8
of 333 awards). Almost no women physicists are laboratory directors or members of grant-awarding committees.
An important point that has not yet received enough attention is that most of the women in physics (and other
sciences) come from urban backgrounds. Serious efforts are needed to reach to women in rural areas.

EFFORTS TO RAISE CONSCIOUSNESS

The First IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics (Paris, 2002) led to an explicit recognition of
the problems faced by women in physics in India. We have seen the need to stop the selective dropping out of
women at higher levels. Women physicists are networking more. Sexual and/or gender-based harassment, once a
taboo topic, is more openly acknowledged. Articles and talks about and by women scientists have circulated.
Officially mandated policies in India are frequently supportive of women; for example, all institutions must have
daycare facilities and womens grievance cells to deal with complaints of sexual harassment. However, we have
realized that these mandates have rarely been implemented in practice. Several of the delegates from 2002 have now
CP795 Women in Physics, 2nd IUPAP International Conference on Women in Physics
edited by Beverly Karplus Hartline and Ariel Michelman-Ribeiro
2005 American Institute of Physics 0-7354-0278-7/05/$22.50

129
Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions IP: 122.177.184.18 On: Fri, 08 Jul 2016 11:21:51

managed to set up these womens grievance cells at their home institutes, and other institutes have followed suit. A
panel on women in science was arranged at the annual meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2003. An
international conference, Women in Science: Is the Glass Ceiling Disappearing?, was held in 2004 to discuss
barriers to womens progress in the science and engineering disciplines. It brought together working scientists and
social scientists who studied gender issues. The 2004 international conference Statphys included a session on
women in physics, where it was agreed that while individual scientists may not feel they have faced discrimination,
the statistics indicate there is cause for concern. The IUPAP Conference on Physics Education, to be held in New
Delhi in August 2005, will include a session on teaching physics in ways that encourage and nurture women.
The Department of Science and Technology created fellowships to get women back into science after a break in
their career. In the 3 years since, about 600 women have benefited from them. The Department has also increased
the maximum age to qualify for government jobs by 5 years for women to allow for a break in their career. The
Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister is looking at ways to increase the number of women in
science. The University Grants Commission now gives 50 postdoctoral grants per year for women who have had a
career break. The LOreal Art & Science Foundation has started a fellowship for girls in Mumbai to pursue science.
Two of the major scientific academies in the country have recently paid attention to the problems of women in
science. In 2003 the Indian Academy of Sciences created a Committee on Women in Science. The convener of this
committee was Prof. Rohini Godbole, one of the authors and an invited speaker at the First IUPAP Conference. The
committee has recommended several measures to the Academy that have been accepted, such as compiling a larger
database of information about women in science; a role model program to involve mentoring, lectures, and
workshops for girl students in science; and books that give biographical sketches of eminent women scientists.
The Indian National Science Academy commissioned a survey to obtain information on the hurdles faced by
women who pursue scientific careers. The resulting report examines various aspects of the societal problems faced
by Indian women in the pursuit of science, and makes several concrete recommendations.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations, most of which are in line with the IUPAP resolutions of the First and Second
International Conferences on Women in Physics, have been made by several of the above bodies:
Make new support systems, such as science camps for girls, for inclusion of underrepresented categories and
increasing the number of girls competing in university entrance exams (now very low in India).
Offer incentives to institutions to hire women and make it possible for spouses to work at the same institution.
Modify organizational structures to make workplaces more women-friendly. Child care, flextime, and parttime jobs are recommended. Some flexibility in rules regarding leave, age limits, and transfers is suggested.
Give accomplished women speaking slots at conferences and memberships on decision-making bodies.
Monitor compliance with the government mandate for grievance cells for sexual offenses and discrimination.
The ability to refer certain cases to a central cell for redress has also been recommended.
Unfortunately, the measures mentioned above may not solve the problems faced by women in surmounting the
barrier of the first faculty position; concrete measures to lower this barrier are called for. The exclusion of women
from informal networks of professionals is still difficult to overcome. Conscious and unconscious discouragement
faced by young women who want to take up careers needs to be countered by support groups and mentors, which do
not now exist to any great extent. The invisibility of women to groups that recommend career advancement of
various types persists. Finally, few initiatives are specific to women in physics as opposed to women in science.

REFERENCES
1. University Grants Commission, University Development in IndiaBasic Facts and Figures on Institutions of Higher
Education, Student Enrollment, and Teaching Staff, New Delhi: Information and Statistics Bureau.
2. N. Gupte, J. Gyanchandani, S. Nair, and S. Rao, Women in Physics: An Indian Perspective, in Women in Physics, The
IUPAP International Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings 628, American Institute of Physics, New York, 2002.
3. R. Godbole, N. Gupte, and S. Rao, Current Science, 83, 359 (2002).
4. Indian National Science Academy, Science Career for Indian Women, 2004 [www.insaindia.org/Scienceservice/science.htm].

130
Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions IP: 122.177.184.18 On: Fri, 08 Jul 2016 11:21:51