“It matters little whether men or women have more brains; all we women need to do to exert our proper influence is just use all the brains we have.”
- American anatomist Florence Rena Sabin, who in 1925 became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Women have made tremendous progress in education and the workplace during the past 30 years. Even in historically male-dominated fields such as business, law, sports, and medicine, women have made impressive gains. In scientific areas, however, women’s educational gains have been less dramatic, and their progress in the workplace is still slower. In an era when women are increasingly prominent in medicine, law, and business, why are so few women becoming scientists and engineers? Women scientists are an exception rather than a rule. Between 1901 and 2010, only sixteen women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, physiology, or medicine.
The striking disparity between the numbers of men and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics has often been considered evidence of biologically driven gender differences in abilities and interests. Most people associate science and math fields with “male” and humanities and arts fields with “female”. Not only that, people often hold negative opinions of women in “masculine” positions, like scientists or engineers. When a woman is clearly competent in a “masculine” job, she is considered less likeable.
Though the ladies face challenges like their counterparts in other professions do, traversing a male-dominated and demanding profession like research and development in India is no cakewalk. In India, women remain underrepresented in science and in decision-making bodies concerned with scientific issues. This is both a waste of human resources and a serious obstacle to the development of the sciences and to Indian society as a whole. The legal parity with men that women now enjoy—and for which they fought for so long—has empowered them to fulfil more of their potential and enabled society to tap into the talents and abilities of this long-neglected half of society. Despite the gains that have been made, invisible glass ceilings still hinder the progress of bright women. India still underutilizes women scientists in the research domain, particularly in the so-called ‘hard sciences’ and in leadership positions, and the scientific community remains male-dominated.
Problems Unique to the Women Scientists
Amid all the dilemmas and stresses of balancing job responsibilities, following her passion, going ahead with her aspirations, and looking after her family—kids and husband—a woman handles and balances a lot of stress, which deprives her of peace, rest, and sleep.
Non-acceptance of talent
In some parts of India, a woman going out to work is looked down upon and her character or morals are questioned. A working woman who is beautiful, well-maintained, presentable, friendly with everyone, and progressing in her career instead of being complimented is disrespected and disgusted; she is questioned or commented on about her dignity and morals.
Discrimination at work
Discrimination starts at the very level of recruitment and interviewing, where recruiters and interviewers see women as incompetent for challenging roles and ask questions like whether they would be able to continue after marriage. Many women appear to encounter a series of challenges at mid-career that contribute to their leaving careers in scientific fields. Women experience feelings of isolation, an unsupportive work environment, extreme work schedules, and unclear rules about advancement and success as major factors in their decision to leave. Women’s higher attrition rate in scientific institutes is mainly due to dissatisfaction with departmental culture, lesser advancement opportunities, leadership roles, and no research support.
The gender bias
Women in scientific fields can experience bias that negatively influences their progress and participation. Although instances of explicit bias may be decreasing, implicit bias continues to have an adverse effect. Implicit biases may reflect, be stronger than, or, in some cases, contradict explicitly held beliefs or values. Therefore, even individuals who espouse a belief in gender equity and equality may harbour implicit biases about women’s suitability in science.
Health and safety issues
Women are also more prone to certain types of work-related health issues. Mental health is an area of concern as well; women have higher rates of stress and anxiety disorders because of concerns over, you guessed it, balancing a heavy workload with the demands of family. Sexual harassment is also a noted stressor. Women are also more likely to become victims of sexual harassment, which is difficult to prove and embarrassing to report.
Leadership and the glass ceiling
Despite the number of degrees that women earn and the number of women in the workplace, there is a dearth of women who rise to top leadership roles. The difficulty women face in breaking what’s commonly referred to as the “glass ceiling” is often attributed to management’s concern that an otherwise qualified woman will leave work to have a baby or focus on family issues. However, it could also reflect a woman’s conscious desire to avoid high-risk, high-profile, and high-paying roles, given the fact that she wants to give greater attention and time to her family. Discrimination against women creates a hierarchical social construct that favours men.
Motherhood : The umbilical cord
The most significant event in any woman’s personal and professional life is motherhood. Their lives are never the same after they assume the role of mothers. Due to the responsibilities of motherhood, many women have to leave their careers, and then they struggle or fail to return. Most of the time, the women have to take a complete break from active office work, by availing of maternity and childcare leaves, and devote their energies to taking care of the infant. The paternity leave, on the other hand, is for just 15 days, which shows the largely insignificant role the fathers play in infant care. Even when they return to their offices, much of their mental attention is still on their children, which results in an inevitable slackening of their research drive. They often feel guilty for not being able to devote their time to their jobs and homes. Women scientists are constantly bogged down by conflicts between career demands and the needs of their children. For most, it is a balancing act that strives to satisfy a mother’s need to be present during her child’s formative years while maintaining the income stream the family counts on for survival
Family duties
Despite their adaptability, working moms face challenges unique to the demands of juggling domestic responsibilities alongside work obligations. Successfully managing a career and meeting familial obligations is a (un)realistic expectation for most working women. Finding the time to grocery shop, clean the house, do laundry, and cook dinner—never mind take care of the kids—is difficult even when that’s the only job you have. Add a demanding boss, deadlines, and the ambition to succeed, and you have a recipe for anxiety that causes many women to feel overwhelmed and guilty. In today’s modern era, even after working in the corporate world and taking up challenging roles as executives, directors, scientists, IT professionals, etc.; the age-old image of a woman as a homemaker has not changed much. Even if she works, comes home tired, or has to leave early for work, she is expected to cook food, take care of the kids, and perform all other household duties. Her male counterparts may volunteer, but they hold no responsibilities. In India, if a working scientist is living in a joint family, she is still expected to be at the beck and call of the monster-in-law (mother-in-law, I mean, no pun intended) and take care of the entire extended family. In the cities with the rising trend of nuclear families, there is no support from elders, and women workers shoulder approximately three times as many household chores as their male partners and also bear most of the childcare responsibilities. It is they who make most of the sacrifices, both professional and personal, not the men in their lives. Housework is still ‘woman’s work’.
Let’s Solve the Problem
“One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields, and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.”
– President Barack Obama, February 2013
Encouraging more girls and women to enter scientific fields will require careful attention to the environment in our classrooms, workplaces, and throughout our culture. Practical ways have to be employed in which families, schools, and communities can create an environment of encouragement that can disrupt negative stereotypes about women’s capacity in these demanding fields. A lot of work is needed to ensure that women and girls have full access to educational and employment opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The number of Indian women scientists, in general, and at top positions, in particular, is too few, and we need to ask about the relative absence of women in science and whether we are doing enough to encourage the participation of women in science in India. There is an urgent need for policy solutions to remove gender-based disparities in science and other sectors. We have to encourage the participation and retention of Indian women scientists in science and technology, which is important for national development and the success of other programmes. We should also take note of the results of a study published last year that showed that 60 percent of nearly 2,000 Indian women with PhDs in science who were surveyed were unemployed. The main reason cited was a lack of job opportunities. Only a very small number cited family reasons. This underlines the need for transparency in selection procedures at institutions and the importance of gender audits.
Senior women scientists should be involved in taking policy decisions relating to hiring norms and should also counsel young women, at all stages, on their career prospects. Over the years, I have seen several women whose drive to become scientists did not get fulfilled, primarily due to early family responsibility, a lack of childcare facilities, and the absence of strong support systems at home. Support from family is essential to sustain motivation, curiosity, imagination, and desire in women. But it is also essential for women with small children to have access to good childcare facilities, provided by the organisations where they work, some flexibility in their schedule, and the support and understanding of the authorities.
Schools: The formative years
The foundation for a scientific career is laid early in life. Parents and educators can do a great deal to encourage girls’ achievement and interest in math and science. Girls are less likely than boys to interpret their academic successes in math and science as an indication that they have the skills necessary to become successful engineers, physicists, or computer scientists. Encourage girls to see their success in high school math and science for what it is: not just a requirement for going to college but also an indication that they have the skills to succeed in a whole range of science and engineering professions.
Creating college environments that support women in science and technology
Although many young women graduate from high school well-prepared to pursue a science or engineering major, relatively few women pursue majors in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, and when they do, many capable women leave these majors before graduation. Colleges and universities can attract and retain more female science and engineering students if they improve departmental culture to promote their integration. More female faculty members who take an active interest in the progress of female students and mentor them can ensure that the girl students pass out with graduation and post-graduation degrees in science.
Support work-life balance
Policies that effectively support work-life balance, such as paid maternity and childcare leaves that don’t affect the mothers’ career prospects, can go a long way in ensuring that women can rejoin their professional lives after a personal break. On-site, high-quality childcare facilities are especially important for the female workforce. The women workers need all the support from their families, in general, and their husbands, in particular. Such support can make sure that their minds do not wander to their families when involved in scientific endeavours.
Counteracting bias
Bias against women—both implicit and explicit—still exists in science and engineering. Even individuals who actively reject gender stereotypes often hold unconscious biases about women in science and engineering fields. Women in “male” jobs like engineering can also face overt discrimination. If scientists and engineers are aware that gender bias is a reality in scientific fields, they can work to interrupt the unconscious thought processes that lead to bias.
Create clear criteria for success and transparency
When the criteria for evaluation are vague or no objective measures of performance exist, an individual’s performance is likely to be ambiguous. When performance is ambiguous, people view women scientists as less competent than men. Women facing bias are likely to do better in institutions with clear criteria for success, clear structures for evaluation, and transparency in the evaluation process.
Conduct departmental reviews to assess the climate for female workers
Research finds that small improvements in the culture of a department can have a positive effect on the recruitment and retention of a female workforce. Although the climate within the department is important to both the female and male workforce, it appears to be more important for females and their overall satisfaction. When females experience a negative climate, they report lower job satisfaction and are more likely to consider leaving their position.
Role models
Men make up the majority of scientists and engineers in most Indian scientific institutions, and even though the percentages vary from one field to another, the overall pattern is clear. This means that there are few role models in science or engineering institutes for young females to follow. A low proportion of women scientists probably sends a message to girls that science is unattractive to women and they should avoid it too. Therefore, simply increasing the number of women working as scientists may be enough to encourage girls to pursue science.
The Silver Lining in the Dark Clouds
For much of human history, women were officially excluded from the scientific realm. However, in spite of their invisibility in the historical scientific narrative, this does not mean that science is exclusively a man’s world. Throughout the centuries, many women have managed to overcome their marginalisation and excel in their chosen fields, making vital contributions to the sum of human knowledge. Their personal struggles for recognition and the sacrifices they made for their science are moving testaments to human willpower, resourcefulness, and perseverance. Today, women are in the mainstream of science, and many of the world’s top scientists are women. In fact, the face of modern science would be unrecognisable without the major contributions made by women, including more than a dozen Nobel laureates, not to mention those pioneers who missed out on the accolades and recognition their work deserved.
It is heartening to know that according to official figures, there are up to 200 women scientists involved in India’s key weapon programmes like missiles, tanks, naval systems, and even light combat aircraft. About 15% of scientists at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), Delhi, are female. At the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), out of a staff and student population of 700, about 130–140 are female.
Tessy Thomas, the most famous woman scientist in India, is an extraordinary woman; she is a homemaker as well as a “missile maker”. Tessy Thomas serves as a role model and an inspiration for women scientists to achieve their dreams and have their feet planted in both worlds successfully. Tessy, hailed as India’s “missile woman” and “Agniputri”, is surely the most exemplary example of the excellence of Indian women in the male-dominated field of science and technology. Dr. Tessy Thomas has worked as a project director on the successful launch of India’s long-range, nuclear-capable Agni IV missile. One of the biggest accolades for Tessy came from none other than the former prime minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, when he told the Indian Science Congress in January 2012, “Ms. Thomas is an example of a woman making her mark in a traditionally male bastion and decisively breaking the glass ceiling.”
Conclusion
Women are critical to scientific organisations and businesses. There is increasing evidence that women and diversity in workplace teams and on scientific boards improve profitability and performance and that flexible working arrangements result in benefits to the employer as well as to the individual.
This situation of gender discrimination cannot be allowed to persist. In principle, women and men are equals and hence deserve equal opportunities. But it is not just about gender equality; providing women with greater access to the scientific frontiers is good for society and the economy as a whole. India is facing numerous economic and social challenges, including increased global competition, recession, climate change, and an ageing population. These will require all of its reserves of creativity and innovation, including those of women scientists and technicians, to overcome.
As a historian of science, Naomi Oreskes said recently, “The question is not why there haven’t been more women in science; the question is rather why we have not heard more about them.”