Advertisment

Participation Of Women In Scientific Research Increases But There Is Still Work To Be Done

A variety of factors such as the gender wage gap, lack of facilities, and societal pressure still serve as a hindrance to women in STEM.

author-image
Ritika Joshi
New Update
Women Unemployment Pandemic Jobs, Women In Scientific Research
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) revealed that data showed that the participation of women in scientific research has increased over the years. Meanwhile, a PhD student at CSIR raised the issue of female hygiene issues at the institutes.
Advertisment

Earlier this month, Nallathamby Kalaiselvi made history as the first female director general of CSIR. According to official data, the participation of women in scientific research has been increasing over the last two decades. 28 percent of the participants in research and development projects were women in 2018-19, a 13 percent rise from 2000-01.

Kalaiselvi attributed the rise of women’s participation to natural progression and government programmes. She said that in several CSIR labs, women’s participation increased due to facilities being available.

Women In Scientific Research

While the number of women in scientific research has increased, it seems that the status of facilities for women has not increased.

Meenal Bhalerao, a student pursuing a PhD in CSIR National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) complained there was a lack of a proper mechanism to dispose of sanitary napkins across the CSIR institutes. She raised the issue while interacting with Union Minister Jitendra Singh.

Bhalerao said, “Recently, we came across that there are many CSIR institutes which do not have proper sanitary pad disposal machines.” She asked what the Ministry of Science and Technology was doing for the betterment of female researchers.

Advertisment

India leads the world in producing female graduates in STEM at 43 percent but ranks 19th in employing them. A variety of factors such as the gender wage gap, lack of facilities, and societal pressure still serve as a hindrance to women in STEM.

Why are institutes and the government waiting for women to raise concerns before taking necessary steps? Rather than waiting for women to experience the shortcomings faced due to gender discrimination and raise their voices, institutes should be ensuring they have proper facilities in place for all types of employees, regardless of the number of women.

Institutes should not be waiting for the percentage of women in the field to increase before making the environment female-friendly.


Suggested Reading: Who Is Nallathamby Kalaiselvi? First Female Director General Of India's Top Scientific Body

women in STEM
Advertisment