WOMEN IN ENGINEERING

EDUCATION AND
EMPLOYMENT
PROSPECTS FOR RURAL
WOMEN IN INDIA
 Equity dimensions of Gender
disparity in engineering education
• Equity dimensions of gender disparity affects
human resource development of any country

• low participation of women in engineering and

technology education and employment is a
technological divide

• Information age, ICT, digital divide and gender

based digital divide
 Current position in India
• Engineering traditionally looked upon as a
profession only for men
• From 1 per cent or so in the 1970s, the
enrolment of women for the country as a
whole is now more than 15 per cent in India.
• From a few hundred, today the out-turn is
around 10,000.
 Status of women engineers
• gender factors typical to women restrict
higher education and job opportunities for
women engineers
• difficulty in being accepted as equals in a
male-dominated profession and difficulty
in rising to the top
• there is discrimination against women that
sometimes operates in subtle ways
 A quick glance

• Women enrolment of total enrolment.

16.2%
• Graduates:
15.43
• Largest presence in Electronics Engineering
37.1
• Employed including self employed
54.9%
• Technical educational institutions
29.8
• Teaching
31.8
 A Quick Glance
• Mostly in teaching jobs
• Very low presence in other capacities
• Upper Level Managerial positions only
3.9%
• women engineers hardly at the head of
professional bodies or recognized with any
prestigious awards.
 Prospects For Rural Women
• Even this limited picture of engineering and
technology education and profession primarily
an urban phenomena in India
• So what are the prospects for rural women in
the engineering and technology sphere in
India?
• 70% Indian population resides in rural areas.
A majority of Indian women live in the rural
areas.
Literacy and education in rural india
• The general enrolment rate (GER) was
8.99% for rural area and 24.52% for urban
area in 2001
• the GER in rural areas almost three times
lower compared with urban area.
• completion of at least 12 years of
schooling at pre graduation stage (Higher
Secondary) is a decisive requirement for
entering engineering degree courses
 Enrolment and retention

• Low enrolment and low retention of girls in rural areas

• The drop out rate is higher among girls

• Gender gap is less at primary level and higher in

higher levels. It is highest at school leaving and
Degree levels.
 problems
• Distance from home and far off location of schools

• Lack of hostel facilities

• Safety and security concerns

 Socio cultural factors
• entrenched patriarchal attitudes
• results in early marriages, early
motherhood engaging girls in child bearing
and rearing roles rather than in education
• participation of rural girls in higher
education continues to be low and
negligible in engineering and technology
sphere.
 Rural women largely excluded
• Many schemes and programmes for enhancing
women’s presence and participation in
engineering education and profession from time
to time
• But benefits have been restricted to the urban
areas and have not been very effective for rural
women.
• Rural women remain largely excluded from
engineering and technology education and
employment in India. Urgent need to address
and redress this problem
 THANK YOU

MALATHI SUBRMANIAN
msdrcdu@gmail.com

&
ANUPAMA SAXENA
anupama66@rediffmail.com

INDIA