Women in Engineering Science and Technology

Sagnik Bhattacharjee 2 year, Department of Civil Engineering Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur (Email ID: sb.ssj4@gmail.com)
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ABSTRACT Engineering is a vital field for the economic and technological development of our country. Hence, it requires the full participation of the available human resource which should include the participation of both sexes. However, even in the 21st century, this is still a male dominated sector. In India, the contribution of women in engineering is highly under-represented. Women in the west have taken the leap forward in proving themselves equal to men but unfortunately, women in India have yet to take any such step. All across the globe, women are underrepresented and face discrimination. What are the reasons behind this phenomenon which still prevails despite the arrival of the 21th century? This is a multidimensional question. There are various factors involved in the under representation of women. Women are discriminated against in every fields of professionalism, whether it is industry or in academics. They are considered incompetent for complex and vital field such as engineering and hence are restricted to their homes. There is a popular notion that even if they are capable of working, they will be more adaptable in the medical and biological sciences due to their delicate nature. They are deliberately kept out of fields which involves a lot of mathematics. This is done in the form of social and professional barriers. On the other hand, women all over the world have made extraordinary contributions in physical sciences and engineering and have even proven that they equivalent if not better than men in every field of academics. It should be appropriate to remember at this point that if women can go through the excruciating agony of labour to produce a child, which is the most extraordinary form of engineering, then they are certainly capable of achieving great things for themselves. Women in India and other developing countries tend to sit back so that men can do all the major work while they themselves can do the easier work. This is mainly due to their tendency of asking for help in every step which has been cultivated by the environment in which they were raised. The responsibility of bringing down all barriers down so that they can climb up the ladder of achievements freely lies not only with men but also with women. Women must break free and take the main initiative and be self confident.

KEY WORDS Women, Engineering, Science, Empowerment

BACKGROUND The term engineering is defined by Wikipedia as the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design, build and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems materials and processes. To be an engineer means to be a lifeline of modern society. For a rapidly developing country like India, it is unarguably the backbone of the economy. The rise in the number of engineering researchers is an index of the commitment of this country towards modernisation, technological development, innovations and upgradation for the society and the economy. A critical increase in the number of research engineers with innovation, enthusiasm, creative ideas and a vision to drive civilization forward is a necessary prerequisite for securing national economic growth in the future knowledge based economy. But in order to achieve this, full participation of all citizens is necessary. Unfortunately, even in todays contemporary world, engineering continues to be a male dominated sector of science. During the past 50 years, women have made remarkable progress in education and at the work place during. In fields such as law, business and medicine, which were originally considered to be male precincts, women have made outstanding achievements. Furthermore, women have also excelled in intense scientific fields such as biology, chemistry, anthropology, pharmacy, psychology, social sciences and even physics. However, in the field of engineering science and technology, the progress made by women is significantly low. Historically, the participation of women in engineering goes back all the way to the 16th century. Even before engineering was acknowledged as a formal profession, women who possessed the skill of an engineer were generally well known as inventors. Engineering education was formally started in the late 18th century but none of the budding engineering institutions admitted girl students.

ENGINEERING-A MALE DOMINATED AREA Is engineering truly a male dominated field? The answer is no. In China, 40 percent of engineers are women. In the former Soviet Union, the percentage goes up to 58 percent. All over the world, women have and are making noteworthy achievements in engineering and technology every day. The proportion of women engineers in the world is increasing but at snails pace. In western countries and also in the developing countries, the proportion of women researchers and engineers are comparatively low and very few of their achievements have been acknowledged by the general public. This can be shown by the relatively lower number of women faculty members publishing research papers, academic publication and also their participation in critical engineering projects. For example, everyone in India knows about the manufacture of Brahmo Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles by the government of India which involved a team of reputed scientists. However, very few people know that this group was headed by a woman scientist. This gives us a clear notion of the extent of the under-representation of women in engineering and research. Media, publishers, newspaper are often unenthusiastic about accentuating the achievements and becloud their work with a less important or equivalent male competitor. The contribution of women in engineering in India was negligible till the early 1980s. It is only in the past 15 years that there has been an increment in the number of women engineers. This increase originated in the south and spread all over the country. During the year 2010, there was a tremendous increment in the enrolment of women in engineering and technological courses. This was an indicator that women in India have

become equipped to contend with men fairly in this male- dominated field. However, we still have a long way to go to optimise the full potential of women in engineering science and technology.

REASON BEHIND THE EXISTENCE OF FEWER WOMEN ENGINEERS Why are there so few women engineers in the world? This is a multidimensional question. There are various social, psychological, and environmental factors due to which the participation of women in this field is so low. 1) GLASS CEILING BARRIER There appears to be an invisible but impenetrable barrier between women and high status which prevents them from reaching the highest level despite their accomplishment. This process has been conceptually termed as the Glass Ceiling Barrier. Women are indirectly discouraged to climb the ladder of achievements by society, environment and even their male counterparts through covert and sometimes even naked gender based discrimination and chauvinism. Women face hurdles in every stage of the academic chase. For example, women are blocked from attaining full professorship in science and engineering departments in many institutions and universities. This is a serious obstruction to the development of the much desired gender diversity in engineering and discourages competent women from participating in the field of engineering and technology. Some men feel threatened by the slightest hint of professional incompetency when they are compared to a more skilled woman with equal qualification. The Glass Ceiling Barrier is just an outward manifestation of gender based prejudice which the superior men use to avoid women competitors in the higher level of the professional hierarchy. If women are to be considered equal to men, then it is of paramount importance that this barrier must be destroyed and all other gender based obstacles removed from professionalism, so that women can freely climb up the ladder to higher achievements. 2) GENDER PAY-GAP A gender pay-gap exists in majority of the countries in the world including India. Women researchers in every field receive much lower salary as compared to their male counterparts at equal position. By the very principle of social equality, men and women are to be treated equally and are to receive the same reward for their work. An average European woman earns around 68 percent of her male counterparts income. In India, around 48 percent of the available workforce constitutes of women. It is quite apparent that women do half of the total work if not more. In 2007, women earned 41.94 percent less than men. But the gender pay gap has come down to 28.13 percent for the year 2011. The constitution of India declares the state to be a social democratic state. It clearly states under section D of Article 39 that equal pay for equal work irrespective of the fact that the work is being done by a man or a woman. This form of discrimination is perhaps the most naked form of illegal gender based discrimination and this is unprecedented in modern times. This law is one of the founding laws of a state and gender equality is one of the basic principal of socio democratic society. Engineering is a huge service sector which has branches in both industrial as well as academic field. How can we expect to encourage women to contribute in engineering, when they cannot get a fair output to their inputs?

3) GENDER BASED DISCRIMINATION AND CHAUVINISM Even in the 21st century, women are considered intellectually inferior to men despite numerous examples that point otherwise. Men tend to sideline the achievements of women and this is done at conscious as well as sub-conscious levels. Most people perceive mathematics and sciences as male subjects and arts and humanities as female subjects. This has been further reinforced by stereotypes about womens inability to handle the complexities of the field of engineering, physical science and technology. For example, there is a popular belief that women are more apposite for natural sciences, medicals and biological sciences, and other slightly delicate fields which entail a degree of care and tenderness, which are considered characteristic features of women and hence will not do well in rigorous mathematics based subjects such as physical sciences and engineering. Today, women are excelling in all those fields which were up to that time considered to be male fields, in many of which they have performed significantly better than men. Despite many barriers and hurdles, women all over the world have participated in developments in engineering, science, mathematics and technology since the beginning of human civilisation. One good example out of copious others would be Shakuntala Devi who is most popularly known as the human computer. She is said to calculate multifarious arithmetic problems faster than a computer. In order to empower women, the general society must be convinced of the true capability of women. This can be done by bringing awareness of the various extraordinary achievements of women to the attention of general public. It should be noted that being a woman means that she will have to endure great pain and stress during the delivery of child. If women were physically weak, then they would not be able to go through with this excruciating pain and agony during labour and this would virtually mean the end of the human race. Women were built to achieve greatness much more than men because they have the power of tolerance. It is because of them that the human race is moving forward. If a woman can engineer a child in her wombs which is, arguably, by far the greatest form of engineering in the universe, then they are most certainly capable of engineering great achievements in the physical world. Their abilities must never be underestimated. 4) SOCIAL BARRIERS There exist many of social barriers which discourage women from going into academics and often persuade them to stay inside house to be good wives. This belief is ubiquitous not only in India but even in the West. Women all around the globe are often restricted to their respective homes engaged in common household activities. There are also other beliefs that declare women to be socially different from men. It claims that the purpose of women is to produce healthy offspring and be good mothers and wives. Even in the contemporary 21th century, these ideas still prevail. Many institutions avoid employing women engineers and scientists due to the fact that at a certain period of time, they will require maternal leaves. We must keep in mind that despite the fact what our country is producing engineers in an ever increasing rate, the number of quality engineers being produced in India is still quite low. Moreover we still face a critical shortage of engineers in the work force. A woman with an aptitude to be a great engineer is kept at home to do household chores and is replaced by a lesser qualified or under qualified engineer. This is a significant loss to the productive power of the country. Increasing the number of women engineers will not only provide a well-built engineering work-force for the economy, but it will also give a chance to improve the quality of engineers produced in the country. Due to such outdated social norms and prejudices, we are unable to utilise 100 % of our human resource for the betterment of society.

5) ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECT Environment also plays an essential role. In an ordinary platform, if a woman is to compete with a man on a one to one challenge, it will be received vehemently by other peers and colleagues. A woman taking a step forward is often viewed outrageously by her male counterparts. This makes it exceedingly difficult for a woman to get promoted to a higher post where she may have to lead a male dominated group and often where male workers will have to report to her. In addition to subtle biases, women are sometimes victims of behaviours including sexual harassment and overt discrimination. Women too play a big role in promoting a hostile environment for their own gender. 6) LACK OF SELF-CONFIDENCE AND INSPIRATION OF WOMEN TOWARDS HIGHER ACHIEVEMENTS There is a considerable number of women scientists and engineers who themselves believe that they will be unable to compete with men in these fields and tend to have an out of the way mind-set towards their work place. This is due to the help seeking nature of women which has been cultivated by the notion of the helpless woman in the society. Women have been raised in an environment where they are always expected to get help from others. This tendency is also reflected at the work place. Men on the other hand are trained from the very beginning to stand on their own feet so they so not face such problems. Also, the sensitivity of women towards failure is another reason for the feeling of such inferiority complex among themselves. Men would generally never take failure on a personal level. If a man gets a bad remark, he can laugh it off and forget about it and move forward. Women cannot overcome such a remark as casually as men do. If a woman gets a negative remark, then she would begin to doubt herself. For example, if a boy gets a C grade in a test, then his thoughts would be oh I got a C, big deal, but if a girl gets a C, the she would judge herself as incompetent. This is mainly due to the environment in which women are brought up where every time they fail to carry out a given task such as cooking, cleaning etc., they are ill treated. This is a general case and there are exceptions. The whole purpose of empowerment of women is for them to realise their potential and work for the development of society and not to be afraid of failure. For this to happen, they need to have the boldness and self confidence to step forward.

SOCIOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECT AND A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY Despite the various external factors discussed above, the central cause for the underrepresentation of womens contribution to engineering and technology in India is the hesitant attitude of middle class women towards laborious tasks. Women need to feel at par with men if they want recognition for their contribution. They need to understand that they are more than capable of doing every kind of work that men do. In fact, it has been found that there is a whole list of work that women can do better than men. Anthropologically, men are considered as hunters and the scouts whereas women are considered as nurturers. The protective nature of women enables them to do a list of things better than men such as designing and detailing of engineering structure, estimation of construction quality and quantity etc. They tend to remain on the periphery and give way to men who do those masculine works. Women sit at the computer and do work for which they are overqualified.

Let us take the case of Russia and analyze the status of women there. The history of this country is a contrast to that of India in terms of self confidence of working women. In Russia, where female population exceeds the male population by around 10 million, women have proved to be more efficient than men in every field of work, whether it is at home or in the office. Not only that, women in Russia maintain a high level of physical strength and stamina so that they could be at par with men. Even in their old age, they are proficient in carrying out the basic work requirements of life and seldom depend on their male counterparts. Women in Russia have as much self confidence as men do in every field, starting from engineering to literature. It is also noteworthy that in the case of Russia, there is a historical reason behind the advancement of women in the society. After the Second World War, 10 percent of the population of the Soviet Union was wiped out due to the Great Patriotic War. Most of the dead were men; hence the population of men in the Soviet Union was greatly reduced. In order to fill this void, women of Russia had no choice but to step forward and play a greater role towards social development. It is complimentary that the women of Russia did a praiseworthy job to rebuild their country which would later on become a world super power. If women in India and the other third world countries are to be as strong as women in Russia and the west, then they have to take the step forward and prove to the public openly that they are no less than men.

WOMEN EMPOWERING WOMEN How can women contribute towards the development of the society? There are many ways in which they can do that. One of them is to contribute meaningfully towards the field of engineering and technology. The relationship between development and engineering has already been discussed in the beginning of this paper. Women have a lot to offer in the field of engineering and technology. More women participation will benefit the progress in these fields because it will lead to a greater diversity of innovative designs and ideas. We must keep in mind that men and women have different strengths and weaknesses. They differ only in terms of choices not abilities. Diversification of engineering in terms of gender will generate new innovations and ideas which would not have been possible before. While men are realistic and intuitive, women are social and artistic. This difference can result into the generation a whole volume of new engineering ideas which will not only be attractive but will also tender the needs of the society. The social and creative dimension of new ideas provided by women engineers may be designed for the betterment of the society which is the central purpose of engineering. It is not enough to be practical and investigative. These qualities of women enable them to be more creative and imaginative. This can be demonstrated by the following case study: Suppose a car is to be manufactured based on a given model. This can be done by practical knowledge of the working and the mechanism of the manufacturing of the car. But if the car was to be further developed, then the quality of creativity is crucial, without which this task will become impossible. To be an engineer is to have the ability to create and hence it plays a role of paramount importance. Women can play a very critical role in this process. As in the fields of engineering research, women are seen have more perseverance than men. They tend to move from one stage to another very carefully. Although, this process can significantly slow down the research process, in the long run, it has proved to be highly time saving as it avoids making careless mistakes. Furthermore, women have a considerable advantage over men in terms of language and presentation.

CONCLUSION No one can alter the biological difference between men and women. Both genders have their own characteristic features and both view the world in different ways. But ignoring or sidelining the potential of women will definitely lead to a waste of human resource which is gross mistake for any country, whether in developed or developing. A woman who is intellectually capable but is forced to be confined within the four walls of her house is a loss to the nation and the world because the world will never know what she is capable of producing. In the field of engineering and technology, diversification with respect to gender improve the engineering potential and also lead to technological advancement which will undoubtedly lead to the development of the world economy as well as the society.

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