STEMming Gender Divide in India

11 February will be the 10^th International Women’s Day in Science. All around the world, the spotlight will be on bright and bold women scientists who are trailblazers and made pathbreaking contributions in the field of Science and Technology.

I would like to take this moment to reflect on the Indian women scientists, the force and mind that helped India leap towards becoming a secure and progressive nation. K Sumathy, the R&D Head at Bharat Biotech, was instrumental in development of Covaxin, India’s first indigenous Covid vaccine.  Tessy Thomas, called the ‘missile woman of India’ was the Project Director at the Defence Research and Development Organisation, leading development of Agni IV and V missiles. Ritu Karidhal, Deputy Operations Director for India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, the ‘Rocket Woman of India,’ led the successful mission operations and technical planning. These are some of the names and role models, whose stories have ignited hopes of many aspiring young Indian women who would like a career in STEM and make the country proud.

What are the drivers at policy and programme level to promote women in STEM in India?

Breaking myths and stereotypes around STEM is crucial to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5 (gender equality) which includes women’s use of enabling technology, including ICT as a means of achieving economic empowerment and greater agency and  also many other STEM-related SDGs.

The New Education Policy 2020 in India proposes multidisciplinary learning through integration of the humanities and arts with STEM. This will contribute to increased creativity and innovation, critical thinking, research and higher-order thinking capacities resulting in positive learning outcomes for students.

Another Ministry dedicated to women and child welfare and development, the MWCD in its policy for empowerment for women aims to strengthen programmes to bring about a greater involvement of women in STEM including measures to step up development of scientific temper, motivate girls to take up STEM in higher education and also ensure that development projects with scientific and technical inputs involve women fully.

Many diagnostic studies have been carried out by the government to examine various forms of barriers preventing women’s participation in STEM, and on that basis, formulate evidence backed programmes and policies to address structural issues.  As part of this, three key national science academies; the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) Bangalore, The Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Delhi and The National Academy of Sciences India (NASI) Allahabad came together to constitute an inter-academy panel to formulate a roadmap for women in STEM to encourage their participation in country’s scientific research and development efforts. 

The women in STEM roadmap recommends improvement in information accessibility for young women interested in pursuing science as despite many government programmes, the information is not available in colleges and schools and in semi urban areas. It also advises increasing number of women scientists and technologists in key and decision-making position in academies, other government and research organisations, setting up grievance cell and institutional gender audit, corporate sector to earmark funds, more scholarships and programmes for women so that they join at any point of their career. It also referenced ATHENA programme of the UK as an example to  strengthen gender-based data collection and analysis.

Research in science and technology in the country is led by four major government agencies - the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Earth Sciences (DES) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). In addition, the Department of Space and Department of Atomic Energy (DOS and DAE) invest heavily in basic as well as mission-oriented research. They are also the main avenues for women scientists to pursue their careers in this field.

Examples of government programmes to encourage employment and retention of women in STEM

In accordance with the above stated roadmap suggestions, DST has taken several steps to improve the gender ratio and increase participation of women in STEM. It restructured all the women specific programmes under one umbrella ‘Women in Science and Engineering  - Knowledge Involvement Research Advancement through Nurturing (WISE-KIRAN),’ which aims to address issues related with women scientists such as unemployment, career breaks, relocation etc through its various programme strands. More than 2200 women scientists and technologists have benefitted from the Women Scientists Scheme strand the last five years including receiving fellowship support for continuing higher education in Science and Technology after a break in career.

DST also launched a ‘Mobility’ programme to address relocation issue of working women scientists. It provides a filler opportunity to women scientists who are facing difficulties in their present job due to relocation while searching other career option at new place. In addition, the Indo-US Fellowship for Women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Medicine) provides opportunities to Indian women scientists, engineers and technologists to undertake international collaborative research in premier institutions in USA for short duration to enhance their research capabilities.

The ‘Consolidation of University Research through Innovation and Excellence in Women Universities (CURIE)’ as the name suggests aims to strengthen R&D infrastructure of women-only universities and to help enhance women’s participation in R&D activities in the S&T domain. This is leading to significant increase in number of quality publications including papers in journals of repute by the faculty and researchers of beneficiary universities.

DST’s new initiative ‘Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI),’ a collaborative project with the British Council,  was started during 2019-20. It aims to transform institutions with a more gender-sensitive approach and greater inclusiveness in institutional systems and processes, with the ultimate goal to improve gender equity.

Examples of government programmes which incentivise continued education in STEM

DST’s Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scheme works to enhance rates of attachment of talented young women to undertake higher education in science intensive programmes. It provides scholarships and mentorship for 17-22 year olds, 1000 fellowships every year for doctoral degree in both basic and applied sciences including engineering and medicine for ages 22-27 years and assured opportunity every year for 1000 post- doctoral researchers for ages 27-32 years, through contractual and tenure track positions for five years in both basic and applied sciences area.

A new programme Vigyan Jyoti funded by DST, is for meritorious girl students for 15–18 year olds. It aims to increase participation of women in STEM, especially in the fields where women are underrepresented. It will help students to plan their journey from school to college and thereafter from research to a job of their choice in the field of science.

Last year on the International Day of Women & Young Girls in Science, the Ministry of Women & Child Development in association with other government ministries carried out an online campaign to celebrate women who have carved a niche for themselves in the field of STEM and to also encourage young girls who aspire to excel in STEM.  The campaign honoured 700 young girls from across the country who have performed well in the subjects of Maths and Science.

What is the ground-reality?

According to a 2020 United Nations report[1],  Indian women scientists are only 14% of the 280,000 scientists, engineers and technologists employed in research institutions in the country. This is much less than the global proportion of women which is 30% amongst the world’s scientific researchers. It is also paradoxical to the fact that India has the highest proportion of women graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in the world at 43%, more than the developed nations like the US (34%), UK (38%), Germany (27%) and France (32%).

For three years, from 2017/18 to 2019/20, we find consistent growth in Indian women STEM graduates, that is those women students who have completed their STEM study at UG/PG/MPhil and PhD level of higher education. Interestingly, during this period,  growth in women STEM graduates was 5% but the male student numbers declined by 4.7 %[2]. This however is not good enough to yet cover the 14% gap between men and women STEM enrolment as per the All India Survey on Higher Education 2019-20 report.

Another interesting development is the rise of online learning platforms like Coursera and upGrad. These are resulting in an increased participation by women. On Coursera, the female students made up 33 per cent of Indian STEM course enrolments in 2020, up from 22 per cent in previous years, while upGrad saw a 27 per cent rise.

Despite the rising women STEM graduate numbers, a large number of qualified women scientists opt for undergraduate or school level teaching assignments and only 15-20% join tenured faculty positions in research institutions and universities in India and others completely drop out of science according to a 2017 report by Indian policy think-tank NITI Aayog.  Even in recent times, whilst STEM related jobs are growing at a healthy rate, and 60 to 65 million jobs are likely to be created in the digital core sectors by 2025, women continue to be under-represented[3].

Factors affecting careers of women in science

A career in science begins soon after completing one’s PhD, which coincides for most Indian women with marriage and family commitments. Breaks or temporary research positions of 3-5 years taken by women to balance their dual role often puts them at a disadvantage at later stage of their career. A more recent Kelly Global Workforce Insights survey (KGWI) also affirms the same observation, that the Indian women in STEM drop out of workforce at key phases in their lives, notably around childbearing years and later at mid-management levels.

Apart from this, KGWI survey indicates that Indian women in STEM are subjected to subtle biases in their workspaces, such as gender bias in performance evaluations and no opportunities to go to the top position. With fewer female peers and leaders, they are at a risk of exclusion and isolation in male-dominated workspaces.

An insider insight[4] points out that very few female scientists in India are able to get academy memberships, which is considered a stepping stone for establishing scientific achievements in India. For this, one needs to be nominated and then elected. Academic merit plays an important role but there are several unwritten rules such as knowing people in decision-making bodies which comes into play in the process. In this area, women scientists easily lose out, as personal interactions with male colleagues are deeply constrained by the patriarchal cultural barriers of so-called morality.  A similar issue is faced by the Indian female scientists to find a place on the government-constituted advisory bodies such as the research advisory board, scientific advisory committee or research council for various national institutions or being a part of the committees that make decisions about accepting or rejecting projects for extramural funding.

Another common feature seen is that the women in STEM are able to publish less and are paid less for their research. They are not able to progress as far as men in their careers according to the UNESCO study.

Other issues highlighted by Indian studies (INSA report and Niti Aayog) include the need for age relaxation in eligibility criteria, an extension of institutional provision of non-academic infrastructure like housing, transport and medical help, and flexibility in employment contracts allowing for choice regarding time commitment for women scientists. There are also some institutions which do not permit both the spouses to work in the same unit or institution, and this creates an impediment for women scientists seeking employment.

UK support towards gender equality in STEM

The British Council has been leading the efforts for the UK and facilitating collaborations between the UK and Indian institutions to deliver gender equality in STEM. Our world-wide approach in designing programmes to support women and girls in STEM is based on a lifecycle approach, from inspiring young girls to stay in STEM to supporting women working in STEM fields, reach positions of leadership and network with their peers in their region and the UK.

In India, we are currently piloting a new microbit coding programme for secondary schools by training teachers on coding and computational thinking skills who will deliver these skills  to students, primarily girls at their school.

The Newton Bhabha Fund, a UK Government-funded women in science programme delivered in partnership with the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune generates avenues to retain trained women workforce in science. It targets women who are making a transition from education to scientific careers, a stage where there is maximum attrition. The programme trained 370 women scientists to continue to remain in the STEM workforce by upskilling through 3 professional avenues – science administration & management, science journalism and science policy. Further, this programme created opportunities for women researchers from DST, DBT, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) – to progress their PhD placements and researcher links.

The UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), a bilateral programme and co-funded by UK’s Business Energy & Industrial Strategy, devolved administrations and India’s Ministry of Education, DST, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), and various other apex bodies has women as students (46%), as researchers (36%) and as women entrepreneurs (40%) in its research and innovation partnerships between the UK and Indian universities and the industry and academic engagement collaboration respectively.

MSDE Skills Partnerships Programme under UKIERI set a social inclusion and empowerment objective which aims at skilling and upskilling of marginalised segments of the population such as acid attack survivors, domestic abuse survivors, women from disadvantaged background. According to UKIERI's latest progress report, the seven MSDE partnerships during phase three of the programme, engaged 359 women.

Beyond initiatives that focus specifically on gender, other British Council projects also support gender equality in India. For example, a global science communication programme called FameLab attracts consistently higher participation of female scientists who become female role models to inspire other women and girls to follow a STEM career. In 2021, three of the four global winners of the FameLab Climate Change Communicators competition were women, including India’s Aditi Chandra.

A new Going Global Partnership Grants for India for Transnational Education was recently launched by the British Council, in the presence of leaders from Department of Education UK, All India Council of Technical Education, UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), ENIC and Universities UK International. A total of 44 partnerships involving 46 UK and 61 Indian Universities were awarded grants worth £1.2 million of which 36% are women academic leaders. Circular Economy, Intellectual Property & Law, Global Teacher Education, Electronics Packaging & Design, Green Chemistry, Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Sustainable Business Practices and Electric Vehicles are some of the themes of courses to be developed.

British Council is collaborating  with DST on GATI,  a pilot project which aims to support higher education, science and technology institutions in India to develop and practice gender inclusive processes and systems that will enable progress towards achieving gender equality in these institutions. The project has facilitated the development of a gender equality framework for the higher education and science sector in India, drawing upon the UK’s ATHENA model as a global best practice. GATI is also mentioned in the UK India Roadmap 2030, point 4.6 “Enhance cooperation between India and the UK on strengthening the role of women in STEMM at schools, universities, and research institutions and creating an enabling environment for equal participation of women in STEM disciplines through collaboration on new initiatives like Gender Advancement for Transforming Institutions (GATI) project. “

The first Women in Stem scholarships was conceptualised by the British Council India and launched in 2018 as part of India’s 70th anniversary. The first cohort consisted of 103 full tuition scholarships for Indian women to study a master’s programme in STEM subjects in the UK across 43 UK higher education institutions. The scholarships offered the women the chance to work in world-class research environments and collaborate in international research teams. The second year of Scholarships programme was launched covering full tuition fees for 56 Indian women from 19 states to study a master’s programme in STEM for the academic year 2019-20, with 40 UK higher education institutions. This scholarship programme has become a wider initiative, which is now available in other countries as well. In its third edition, 19 Indian women scholars went to the UK to pursue their courses across 8 UK universities.

The 2022 announcement has been made and can be found here.   For this season, the scholarships programme is in partnership with 26 UK universities with the aim of benefiting women from the Americas, South Asia, South East Asia, Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine. We are looking for women with a background in STEM, who can demonstrate their need for financial support and who wish to inspire future generations of women to pursue careers in STEM. 65 Scholarships are available for master’s and Early Academic Fellowships for women scholars in South Asia across 13 UK universities. . For more on this, you can check out short video about this programme.

Author:  Sandeepa Sahay, Coordinator, South Asia Region Insight Hub