Women's Role in Any Field of Study Related to MSE - Report Example

Womens Role in Any Field Of Study Related To MSE (Math, Science, and Engineering) Issues to do with gender inrelation to sciences, mathematics and engineering courses have elicited much debate and research among many scholars. Women participation in and taking of various courses in the aforementioned fields has been rather plagued with many problems ranging from cultural orientations, environment and general upbringing. There have been threats to women in participating in these fields and this could be depicted by the gender ratio approximated at 3 men to every 1 woman. Previous researches have given biological as well as sociological explanations in presenting these differences. One argument presented is of the view that the manners in which these subjects are organized in their environments actually play a major role in contributing to this existing gap. However, this paper tries to explain the role of women in relation to engineering with a particular emphasis on India through time to the current trend (Luhaorg and Zivian 607-620). The period under study is in the 1980s. A research carried out by Dr. Carol C. Mukhopadhyay, Professor of Anthropology, had various findings which seem so interesting as far as this paper is concerned. Indeed, there were a set of cultural and social factors in context that combined with the then system of education in India, which worked heavily to reduce the number of women entering into these engineering courses. There were pressures that macro-structurally and micro-structurally posed a constraint on women’s entry into these subjects. The cultural and social orientation brought about a major constraint that restricted women towards preserving the patrifocal cultural model of family (Mukhopadhyay 2-23). The wide spread of this kind of family model within the Indian society could help explain the prominence it had as a factor impeding the entry of women in the engineering courses, since it gave a framework under which decisions regarding to education were made. In this kind of model, sons are centrally reinforced and women are put on the periphery as part of its structural feature, and it stressed on foregoing the individual needs of girl-child to the collective goals of family and its welfare. The issue of gender-differentiation in relation to responsibilities was prominent. Sexuality of women was regulated so as to keep the purity of patriline and maintenance of family honor by restricting female-male interactions and carrying out arranged marriages. The kind of behaviors which were attributed to women were those of obedience, adaptability, restraint, personal sacrifice, nurturance, and all the traits thought necessary to maintaining harmony within the family (Mukhopadhyay 1-8). This kind of model led to the educational goals for men and women being differentiated. The differentiation took the direction of separating the various courses into what a woman can do and what should be left to men to do. The sons had a primary responsibility to their natal families and as such the families were very willing to invest in their education with all available resources. Benefit of educating a son was to his family, while that of women was to his husband and his family (Mukhopadhyay 1-8). The post-independence stress on education, science and technology and the prestige and occupations that it built for these courses brought about the aforementioned macro-structural pressures. This kind of perception and actions did lead to enormous expansion in the number of Indians joining education and subsequently enrolling for these engineering courses. Given that many families could not afford the higher fees charged for educating students, especially in these engineering courses, the choice was simple: pump any available resources towards the male child since this would benefit the family directly, while grooming and marrying off daughters. The role of women in these engineering courses was thus not emphasized or recognized by the cultural and social systems of the then India. The trend was very obvious to an extent that the level of school attrition for girls in all educational stages was very pronounced. It was essential to devote limited resources in educating sons than it was for daughters (Mukhopadhyay 1-8). The role of women in engineering courses was exacerbated by the fact that pursuing engineering was more costly, competitive and difficult than the arts and humanities. As such, women, if educated, were pushed towards taking arts, humanities and other social friendly courses which would enhance their marriageability rather than derailing it. Currently, an interesting phenomenon has taken Centre stage. Given that at the above period rich families managed to afford educating both male and female children and allowed to take their subjects of choice, those women who took up engineering courses excelled both academically and in marriage! Better educated husbands currently prefer marrying a woman with same level of education and it gets even more surprising when male engineers prefer marrying women from the engineering classes. The value attached to an earning daughter-in-law has elicited much preference. The trend has actually provided enough evidence that giving needed education to a girl child does actually increase her marriageability and in essence still maintain the patrifocal cultural family model. The on-going campaigns on gender equality have also done a lot in creating awareness on the need to give both male and female children an equal chance to pursue their goals and this has made it possible for more women to enter engineering courses, albeit at a lower rate than their male counterparts. I could say that the role of women in the recent years has been well received within the Indian society, although; various issues such as poverty and inconsistent spread of changes in cultural beliefs across the massive Indian society still holds back this growth. As such, women are still being under-represented in the engineering courses, despite the government efforts to try and change this trend. The retention rate for women students within the engineering courses is also still on the lower side due to various issues such as forced marriages and betrothal, where would be husband decides to put certain pressures on what the woman he should marry needs to do or act. The role of women in engineering courses has thus continued to be pegged more on what the society wants as is opposed to what an individual woman lady needs (Luhaorg and Zivian 607-620). There are still cases where the parents decide which course their daughter should do, most especially based on their personal and family beliefs. Another factor that seems to play a very important role in low women enrolment in engineering courses in India could be the negative attitude exhibited by women toward the engineering courses. This could still be traced back to the society’s belief that engineering is hard and only men can do it well and that women are soft and thus should be left to do lenient or soft courses such as arts and humanities. Women think of engineering in terms of tool boxes, machines, oil, grease, getting dirty and straining to study for it (Park 145-152). Works Cited Luhaorg, H., and Zivian, M. T. Gender role conflict: The interaction of gender, gender role, and occupation. Sex Roles, 33, 1995: 607-620. Mukhopadhyay, Carol C. Sati or Shakti: Women, Culture and Politics in India, In Perspectives on Power. J. OBarr, ed. pp. 11-26. Durham: Duke University Press, 1982: 2-23 Mukhopadhyay Carol C. Dr., The Cultural Context of Gendered Science: An Indian Case Study, California State University, 1988: 1-8 Park Lora E., Cook Kathleen E. and Greenwa Anthony G. Implicit Indicators of Womens Persistence i n Math, Science, and Engineering. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 6, 2001: 145-152 Read More