"She's done outstandingly, even though she has two children," reads a recommendation letter for a post-doctoral research programme. Another says that the applicant is "good at teamwork and pleasant to work with". Even in 2016, Indian women battle the same perceptions their predecessors faced when they started working in science and engineering.
"Studies have shown that when you look at women in science, whether they have children or not has no effect on their success," saidSandhya Visweswariah, a JC Bose National Fellow at theIndian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. The perception that a woman's research work is ‘risky’ while a man's may be ‘revolutionary’ is a hard one to shake.
"When I was building my company, in the first few years I certainly felt that being a woman was working against me. Banks didn't want to lend, there was a big difference in how investors approached me," said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman & Managing Director at Biocon, addressing the audience at the Women in Science, Engineering and Research (WiSER) event held at the IISc. on Saturday.
Although at least 25 per cent of students in graduate and postgraduate studies in science are women, studies show that this number drops to 10 per cent at professorial levels. One of the reasons this happens is because a career in academia requires several years of work. "We see a strong representation of women in engineering sectors, especially software engineering. But for a person to complete their PhD and start research would take at least 6 years after graduation, and for some women it's not always feasible," said an IISc. alumni.
Women scientists, however, strongly feel that women do not need special reservation to make a mark; what is needed is to be determined and assertive in their goals.
"We talk about reservation for women, but in ISRO, it happened automatically. Everyone came here on merit and fell in love with their jobs," said T.K. Anuradha, Programme Director, Geosat, Indian Space Research Organisation. Around 30 per cent of the employees at ISRO are women, she added.
While the alumni had a chance to recall their days in the hallowed portals of IISc., the biggest winners were the young students, who eagerly interacted with the speakers and other alumni, grateful to meet the women who cleared the way for them.
What women really want is equal opportunity and equity in the way they can participate in science, technology, engineering and research
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon
