Progress Women Achieved in Maths, Science and Technology - Essay Example

Teacher’s Progress Women have achieved in Maths, Science and Technology Introduction: Women all across the world have been subject to some form of discrimination from their male counterparts in one way or the other over a period of time, and history is testimony of that. Although some progressive parts of the world have been able to put this discrimination behind them over the passage of time, however, there still remain cultures and societies where the concept of women in the professional sphere is relatively new and developing, while there are also those societies where the concept of women in the professional spheres, or even the idea of them getting education, is unacceptable. This paper takes into consideration the conditions of women in the professional spheres in India, a country that has been known to hold strong biases towards the female population and prefer the birth of males in their households. All throughout the long history of the country, it can be seen that gender inequality has prevailed in the societies of the region as a whole whose reflection could also be seen in the educational and professional spheres. The past century however, could be seen to have brought a change in this respect. People as a whole got more inclined towards working for the betterment of the status of women in India, and to make efforts for the positive development of women in the region. During this period there have been developments in this domain in regards to greater involvement of women in the public spheres, striving for more balance in the ratios of men to women in the school enrolments, and an increased visibility of women in the labour force etc. (Segran, 2010). Although, these developments might signify the start of changes in the fundamental mind-sets of the people over there, but India still has a long way to go in terms of trying to somewhat suppress gender discrimination in the region as a whole. Furthermore, the paper would now shed light on the legal and societal implication on the status of women in India, and the extent of their role and presence in the domain of maths, science and technology. The Legal System: Over the past few decades, it can be seen that the legal system has played a major role in India for the protection of the rights of women. It all began with the British colonization in South Asia. Although, Britain had the initial policy of non-intervention, however, once it had well established itself in the region, it started reforming the constitutions and the legal system for the betterment of every strata of the society as a whole, particularly for women that had been observed to be subject to serious violence, both within and outside their households. This was an attempt to civilize the people of the nation. The efforts on their part, combined by the local liberals, started to bring about reforms for women, which in turn resulted in somewhat betterment of their status and lives (Dasgupta, 2002a). Previously, the women of India could not gain access to the justice system on violation of their rights, but ever since the British colonization, the need to utilize the legal system to combat violence against women has been greatly stressed upon. Over the past few decades, the Indian legal and justice system has brought about various innovations to cater to the disadvantaged population of the country, in terms of violation of human rights, particularly for women. This in turn, has also enabled them to create an increased awareness about the issues of women for creation of policies and developmental initiatives. Other than that, the courts have also been able to give the women a public voice and it has put in great efforts to eliminate discrimination of women on legal fronts at least, if not completely on a societal level, which would require a much longer time (Dasgupta, 2002b). Societal Norms: Gender inequality has always been a major issue for the women of India. The aspect of gender closely defines the roles and behaviours assigned to men and women in India. This process of gendering begins as soon as the birth of a child, which if it’s a boy is celebrated, and in case of a girl is mourned upon. Over the past years, people also used to get their infant aborted during pregnancy on knowing a female gender. This has also led to an unbalance between male to female ratio with the proportion of males in the society being higher than females. In the same context, during the bringing up of children, boys are given more attention and freedom while the females are suppressed and subjugated, both within and outside the household (Hussain, 2010). Such a system actually hampers the involvement of women on the educational, political, and professional fronts, which in turn also has adverse effects on the society as a whole. The females of the country are often found suffering from high mortality rates. Such inequalities in the country actually have roots in the socio economic conditions of the nation, and also the religious practices that, having been accumulated from historic times, have now resulted in huge gaps among the standpoint of men and women (Hussain, 2010). It is their conception that a woman must never be on her own and independent. During the initial stages of her life she should be under her father; in her youth she must be subject to her husband, and if he passes away, then to her sons. They are trained and taught to stay simple, naive, and shy and to condition themselves to tolerate suffering (Bahuguna, 2009). The constitution of India has incorporated in itself laws that enable the rights of the women to be protected on a legal and justice level. Recently, India has also been active in bringing in various forums and human right activists in its attempts to create a balance on gender issues. This has, in turn, enabled women to gain a better access to basic human rights, such as that of education, which has also enabled them to rise on an educational, political, and professional front in all sorts of fields. Professional Practice in Maths: In the years gone by, it can be seen that women were discouraged from pursuing maths in various countries across the globe. Sometimes, the tactic was also to make the women think and feel that they were not smart enough to do maths, so as to discourage them from looking into it. In case of India, the scenario was such that it was more socially rather than biologically or psychologically unsuitable for most of the girls to get into this field of study. Consequently, the women that did however pursue this field would eventually settle down as teachers or lecturers in institutes, rather than go for pure research in mathematics, which might seem a bit more intimidating (Padmavati, n.d.). Overall, it can be seen that such subjects have a better socioeconomic standing in the West for women than in Asia, however, it can be said that the fear of the subject (maths) itself is less prevalent in Asian countries (India included) than in the West. In a general comparison to the women in the field of mathematics in the West and India shows that despite great potential, there are fewer women in this domain of study than in the West. There are, however, a number of notable females that have not only succeeded in establishing themselves as proper mathematicians in India alone, but have also been able to get themselves recognized for their skills and abilities in this domain in the international context as well. One of them is Bhama Srinivasan, who is currently a professor in the University of Illinois, and is well recognized for her work in representation theory of finite groups (Nair, 2012). While, another such lady is Ramadorai Sujatha who is a professor at TATA Institute of Fundamental Research, and has also won international maths prize in 2006. Professional Practice in Science: As is the case with other fields, women in India have had to fight their way to get accepted as capable enough to get into the field of science. The various domains of science as well were stratified in terms of defining and restricting in context of the fields in which women can or cannot enter, which were sometimes considered as lying outside the realm of their abilities and capabilities. Those who even did turn out to excel in male dominated domains of science were then considered as exceptions (Sharma, 2004). Although such conceptions are on a decline, and with the advancement of media and technology people are getting more aware of their surroundings, and hence, are getting more liberal in terms of such ideals, however, the proportion of women in the field of science is incomparably low in the professional sphere as compared to men. The female scientists only form 18% of the whole population of scientists in the region (Kumar, 2007). It can be seen that in lower education levels, girls mostly score better in science subjects as compared to their male counterparts. However, the decline in this proportion of females with an aptitude for science is evident by such a low proportion of female scientists at professional level. Even the women that do go on to pursue a career in the field have to specifically strategize and struggle to remain in the main stream (Sharma, 2004). Another issue, however, for women that are in this field, and are working shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts in organizations, is that they might be subject to biases and discrimination in the office environment. Despite all these challenges, there have been women in India including Sujatha Sharma and Rani Bang that have well established themselves in the fields of medicine and research respectively. Professional Practice in Technology One of the most prominent technology booms over the past decade has been in India. This boom in technology, however, has not been equally beneficial for all the parties concerned. Technology is being socially developed and perceived as well. Like all other technical related fields of study, the field of technology as well, is of the sort that is male dominated, which can in a way be attributed to its inclination towards masculinity and power in the eyes of the locals. Such a classification, despite being abstract and artificial in construct, does have material implications (Das & das, 2006). The participation of women and their knowledge in this field might have increased tremendously in this field over the past few years, but it remains unrecognized, and there are major gender inequality issues as well. This is why the proportion of women in technology related fields is just 10% as researchers and 5% as managers. Women are explicitly excluded from many activities and they do face some amount of resistance when it comes to their professions in science and technology, no matter from which background they may be due to the high demands of these careers, which in turn make them unable to cater to their families (Das & Das, 2006). Other than that, women that do come into this field are from affluent backgrounds, as the lower strata of women are still backward in terms of their knowledge of technology advancements. This field of study, hence, is just restricted to those who can afford it. Moreover, access to technology could also be hampered in specific regions. As a result of these barriers, the use of technology is always discriminatory (Das & Das, 2006). Professional Practice in Engineering: It is the general understanding of modern societies that the attainment of knowledge and education does not only constitute the primary human rights of women, but it is also a factor that greatly influences the economic and social development of the countries. This concept is not just prevalent in the developed nations but is also being embraced in the developing nations as well. Although the representation of women in India in the field of engineering was negligible till the 1980’s, the past couple of decades have shown a remarkable increase in their level of involvement in this field of study. Despite the increasing number of women doing engineering, they still are subject to numerous challenges in their career development (Parikh & Sukhatme, 2004). The past couple of decades have shown a tremendous boom in the economy of India. Consequently, it is understood that such a boom has to be backed by well competent and diverse people in the engineering and science workforce due to which, women in the society also have a critical role to play because they form a significant chunk of population of the country. Studies show that the amount of women dropping their engineering doctorates is far greater than that of men, attributing to the phenomena of ‘leaky pipeline’ (Pareek, 2007). Furthermore, the number of women going for academic positions in engineering academics or related fields is further less than the number of females receiving their doctorates. It goes on to show that the same restrictions are being applied in this case as well, where by the females are being restricted by the societal norms to establish a career in challenging fields such as that of engineering (Pareel, 2007). Conclusion and Recommendations: The overall review of the paper goes to show that Indian women do have great potential of excelling in the challenging fields such as that of science, mathematics, technology and engineering etc. However, they are under pressure from social restrictions and having lived in a discriminated society, their work environments and educational mind-sets are also sexually discriminated. This factor, along with their responsibilities at home primarily to cater to their families first, constraints them from pursuing full fledge careers in fields that they actually have an aptitude for. Although, the legal system has worked greatly for the betterment of the fairer sex of their society, however, they still have a long way to go before they actually change the mind-sets of the people. In this context, it is suggested that the government tries to enhance female participation, both at a higher education and a professional level. It should make attempts to recognize the efforts of women in these fields and also try to mitigate the discriminative approach and behaviour of males in the work environment. It should also encourage women to pursue higher studies through incentives such as scholarships etc. References Bahuguna, N. J. “Single women break their silence” IPS. 2009. Web. http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48953 Dasgupta, M. “Social action for women?” LGD. 2002. Web. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/lgd/2002_1/dasgupta/ Das, K. & Das, B. “Technology and women in India” XIV International Economic History Congress. 2006. Web. http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers1/Das.pdf Hussain, Y. “Gender Inequality” Azad India Foundation. 2010. Web. http://azadindia.org/social-issues/GenderInequality.html Kumar, N. “Women and science in India”. CSIR. 2007. Web. http://www.nistads.res.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=197&Itemid=110 Nair, M. “Fear of maths is much less among Indians” The Times of India. 2012. Web http://www.timescrest.com/coverstory/fear-of-maths-is-much-less-among-asians-7017 Padmavati, B. S. “Women mathematics in Indian universities”. University of Hyderabad. Web. http://www.imsc.res.in/~jniyer/IWMpadma.pdf Pareek, S. “Why we need more women engineers”. Hindustan Times. 2007. Web. http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/ColumnsOthers/Why-we-need-more-women-engineers/Article1-215639.aspx Parikh, P. P. & Sukhatme, S. P. “Women engineers in India”. Economic and Political Weekly. 2004: 39(2), 193-201. Print. Segran, G. “Gender discrimination in India: a reality check”. Insead Knowledge. 2010. Web. http://knowledge.insead.edu/gender-discrimination-in-india-101213.cfm Sharma, K. “Can science be women friendly?” India Together. 2004. Web. http://www.indiatogether.org/2004/jun/ksh-science.htm Read More