Vartika Bhandari, 40, Allahabad ISC 1998 Board Leader, is a senior software engineer at Google in San Francisco. Chaitra Chandrasekhar, 38, a 1998 ICSE topper from a Bangalore school, is a partner at Oliver Wyman consulting firm in New York. Jerene Mathews, 31, 2006 Topper CBSE Class 12 from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kottayam, is a pediatric dermatologist in Thiruvalla, Kerala.
These women may not have broken the glass ceiling at their workplace yet, but they are surely on their way there, perched at the top of the ladder. And yet, as a four-month investigation by The Indian Express of 86 National School Board leaders (51 men and 35 women) from 1996 to 2015 shows, their gender does matter.
Read | 20 years later, where are the first of the Board? More than half are abroad, the majority in science and technology.
Perhaps not as much as he does among the “average” of his cohort, but his burden is inescapable: from his underrepresentation in science and technology to fewer female toppers going abroad than his male counterparts; from promising suspended careers to those that accommodate family obligations.
Fewer women have moved abroad than their male counterparts
More than half of the toppers currently study or live abroad, but there is a significant gender gap between them. Only 40% (14 out of 35) of female toppers are studying / working abroad, but for men, that proportion is 63%.
These numbers are small and should not lead to radical generalizations, says Poonam Batra, a professor of education at the University of Delhi, but acknowledges that a “gender lens” is important in understanding such trends.
“Gender often influences decision-making related to the education of children in a family. With the decline in academic standards in public universities and an increase in disposable income, many more privileged families are sending their children abroad for higher studies. Usually it is the child in the family who has an advantage in such decisions. However, these trends will need to be rigorously investigated, as contexts vary considerably. “
Swati Prusty, 27, who led the CBSE Class 12 exam in 2010, says she never really liked settling abroad. Therefore, studying at a foreign university did not have much appeal. “As I knew I would be working in India, there was no point in taking out a loan to study abroad and then go back to work for financial reasons, among others,” he said, adding that he turned down a scholarship with the National University of Singapore to study abroad. engineering in India.
“I wanted to be close to my parents so that I could travel (to Bhubaneswar) and meet with them regularly. There is a sense of security in staying in your own country, with your own people, that you can’t find anywhere else, ”he said.
Prusty, who holds a BA in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from BITS-Pilani and an MBA from IIM Bangalore, is now a Strategy Consultant at L&T Infotech in Mumbai.
Shalaka Kulkarni, pursuing an MBA from Yale School of Management, first ICSE Class 10 degree in 2012.
Family commitments strongest factor
While there is little difference in the academic goals of these achievements at the graduate level, roughly the same proportion of men (45%) and women (43%) who have completed or are still pursuing a master’s degree, there is a gap at the highest level research. Only a fifth of female toppers have opted for a Ph.D. compared to a third of men.
Sohini Chaprala, 30, the best of 2008 in the CBSE Class 12, is a Research Manager at Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit organization founded by American economist Dean Karlan, in Dhaka.
After a Master of Economics (Integrated) from IIT-Kanpur, Chaprala was considering a PhD or other master’s degree in public policy / administration but, he says, life had other plans.
“I got married and all priorities were reconfigured; Now, there are limitations on mobility and a longer commitment (like a Ph.D. or an academic career) and that naturally sets the career back. I’m not bitter about social norms or my changing circumstances, but things definitely would have been different, career-wise, if I wasn’t a woman, ”says Chaprala, who has been managing her baby, her career, and her marriage at a distance. . – her husband runs his business from Hyderabad.
Underrepresented women in STEM
The gender gap in university science education has been progressively closing in recent years.
According to the 2018 edition of the All India Higher Education Survey (AISHE), for the first time, there were as many women as men in undergraduate programs: out of 48.19 lakh of students enrolled, 50.7% were men and 49.3% women. In addition, their presence at the master’s level was the highest in history: in 2017-18, for every 100 men who enrolled in the master’s degree, there were 171 women. Five years earlier, there were 138 women in bachelor’s programs for every 100 men.
While, as AISHE suggests, the gender gap in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) has been narrowing lately, the gulf is still too large and is also reflected at the top, even though most of the National leaders are from the mainstream of science.
Seven out of 10 male toppers have studied engineering for a college degree. Among female toppers, that number was just a third, with another quarter earmarked for BCom or administration.
Shalaka Kulkarni, 24, was among a dozen girls in her class of about 130 during her days at IIT-Bombay, where she studied Electrical Engineering in 2012. “In the classroom, we all receive the same treatment regardless of gender. However, I did observe that boys participated in class much more than girls, they gave answers more often. Like me, many girls sometimes thought that their answers might not be correct and refrained from participating, ”said Kulkarni, who led the ICSE Board in 2012 with 98.8% and is now pursuing an MBA from the School of Management from Yale.
This underrepresentation in STEM undergraduate programs reflects the broader trend of women being totally absent from STEM jobs, which are among the highest paying jobs in today’s economy.
Less than a fifth of currently working female toppers are employed in the STEM sector; Among the male toppers employed, about two-fifths are in STEM jobs.
The difference in the choice of subjects comes into play at the school level. A higher proportion of the first men (96%) chose Science in Classes 11 and 12 compared to 71% of the women. While 10 female toppers had studied Commerce, only two male toppers out of 51 had chosen that stream.
Ameeta Wattal, Principal of Springdales School, Pusa Road, says that the fact that fewer female toppers choose STEM subjects probably explains the finding of their comparatively smaller presence abroad. “In India, a foreign degree, particularly in mathematics and science, is valued over others, as universities abroad have a cutting-edge curriculum in these fields, which eventually translates into well-paying jobs abroad. Parents in India will likely be more willing to take a hefty loan to fund a bachelor’s degree in engineering or science rather than, say, psychology. Women, traditionally, have been less interested in these sectors, and this possibly explains why they found fewer female toppers studying and working abroad, ”she said.
Social and cultural challenges
Despite their impressive accomplishments, many of the women leaders admitted to facing obstacles in the form of socio-cultural barriers and family obligations, even if this was not always in the form of overt family pressure. Some of them say they reconfigured their careers to fulfill traditional roles.
Of the 45 male toppers who responded to this newspaper’s questionnaire, none spoke of being affected by an anticipated or actual need to balance academics / career and family.
In contrast, among the 35 toppers women, many of them spoke of facing obstacles on condition of anonymity, there is a twenty-something, who adapted her work life to her family.
“Once I got married, I didn’t want to take a job where I couldn’t control my working hours. (I) restricted travel and regulated my work hours … so automatically, the jobs I could apply for were limited, ”said the topper. When asked why he felt the need to do so, he said, “My family life needed it… my husband works from 11 am to 6 pm and had limited travel obligations,” she said.
It is not surprising then that the majority of top women, more than 60%, are from Tier 1 cities, while for men, the trend is just the opposite. More than 60% are from Tier 2 and 3 cities.
Shalini Prasad, 41, attended the Loreto Convent School in Asansol until Class 10 and did her high school at De Nobili School, Mugma, Dhanbad. She is one of the top 13 women in Tier 2 and 3 cities. Prasad, who led the ISC Class 12 exam in 1997, is now Vice President (Finance) of British Petroleum in London.
She credits two men with helping her dreams take off. “Growing up, I was sure I wanted to study at SRCC in Delhi. My father had only one condition: that I score high enough on my board exam to secure a shelter. Much later, when I was feeling stuck in my job in Bangalore, it was my father-in-law who pointed out that Enrst & Young was recruiting in London and that I should apply, ”he said.
However, there are many others who struggled with social expectations.
“During my graduate studies, my family pressured me to get married. This had an impact on me, as people often discussed this and even made fun of me. I was quite upset, but I have not given in to the pressure and I will not, “said another winner, who led nationally with 99%. His parents, for now, have given in to their decision to continue studying.
Being a minority in a male-dominated workspace can end up impeding achievement, says Spriha Biswas, 26, the 2011 ICSE national leader who went on to study Metallurgical Engineering at IIT-Bombay.
Although he says that he has yet to face any gender discrimination, there is a footnote in his statement. “… But obviously, being a woman you are always in the minority, be it in college or in the workplace. Which means that you don’t always have a peer group to discuss and share your ideas as freely as your male counterparts do … All of these factors become very important when you want to advance in a profession, ”said Biswas, who works as Head Product Manager at ScribeTech, a medical transcription company in Mumbai.
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