Trained Scientific Women Power: How Much are we Losing and Why?

WIR and MIR have reported flexibility in
timings as an important provision, a larger
percentage of responses by MIR indicated
the need for refresher courses, fellowships,
awareness and sensitization campaigns to
retain women in Science. In contrast,
women perceive provisions such as
accommodation and transportation as
provisions that would help them balance
their career and family. Since most scientific
organizations have a greater proportion of men
compared to women, especially on decisionmaking
posts, the differences in understanding of
the problem between men and women could have
important implications. Provisions that are
designed without taking into account the
experiences of both, women and men, who are
part of this work space will not yield the desired
results. Thus, it may be important to consider
the view points of gender sensitive men
scientists along with gender sensitive
women scientists who have a nuanced
understanding of the complex functioning
of S&T organizations. It must be emphasized
that the S&T organizations in our country are varied
and hence experiences of one organization cannot
represent the other. Sociological studies of S&T
organizations with a democratic multi
disciplinary team will go a long way to
provide useful insights that will help the
country frame policies that can retain the
talent pool of both women and men.
Excluding the experiences of women in Science
can lead to inadequate provisions. Thus, it is
important that more women are represented
on committees and decision making posts
to influence the policies that can be
conducive to women.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The primary purpose of the study was to develop a
comprehensive set of recommendations and policy
directions that are evidence-based and that would
motivate and retain women in Science research.
Various bodies have dealt with this issue and
formulated recommendations based on data and/or
group discussions, meetings and suggestions as well
as feedback from various women scientists. Some
of these recommendations are available in reports
such as:
(1) ‘Science career for Indian women: An
examination of Indian women’s access to and
retention in scientific careers’ (October 2004) by
Indian National Science Academy (INSA). (2)
‘Women in Physics in India’ by Rohini Godbole,
Neelima Gupte, Pratibha Jolly, Shobhana Narasimhan
and Sumathi Rao presented at the Second IUPAP
Conference on Women in Physics held at Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil between May 23-25, 2005. (3)
‘Evaluating and enhancing women’s participation in
scientific and technological research: The Indian
Initiatives’ (January 2010) by National Task Force
for Women, Department of Science & Technology,
Government of India.
Interestingly many of the recommendations
mentioned in the above reports find resonance with
the recommendations of this report. However, since
this study for the first time has included sub- groups
of women scientists and men scientists that were
not covered by the earlier reports, several different
and nuanced recommendations have emerged from
this study.
The recommendations have been developed through
interactions with a wide range of women and men
scientists from different parts of the country. While
the purview of the survey covered only those with a
PhD in Science, Engineering or Medicine, adequate
care was taken to represent members from a range
of scientific organizational settings like autonomous
institutions, research organizations, universities and
colleges, industries that are government owned and
private sectors. For the first time, this study has
covered women scientists who may not be currently
employed as well as men scientists. The data
convincingly revealed that the groups were not
homogenous and the diverse experiences of the subgroups
of women scientists and men scientists has
vitally informed our recommendations. Thus, the
myth of ‘one size fits all’ accepted by Science
policy makers has been questioned through
this study and an attempt was made to represent
the many different voices and needs that Science
policy makers have to respond to if there is to be a
serious engagement with the central question of
attracting and retaining women in Science.
Integral to retaining women in Science is acquiring
information on the number of women PhDs in
Science. An important move in this direction will be
to build on the existing database created by the IAS
on a mission mode by assigning dedicated staff and
targeting completion of a comprehensive database
within one year’s time. It will also be important to
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