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If you are interested in Indian women scientists and engineers, there is a nice compilation (a bit tiresome to read, but worth it, IMO) of biographical essays c
by shas3 10y ago
If you are interested in Indian women scientists and engineers, there is a nice compilation (a bit tiresome to read, but worth it, IMO) of biographical essays called 'Lilavati's Daughters' https://ia800402.us.archive.org/33/items/LilavatisDaughters-WomenScientistsOfIndia/lilavatis-daughters.pdf https://ia800402.us.archive.org/33/items/LilavatisDaughters-...
My perception of it, growing up plugged in to the Indian science and engineering community is this: Indian Government organizations (essentially, the major employers till the 1990s) were quite progressive when it came to women in the workplace than you'd think based on population statistics of women-at-work, etc. The reason for this imbalance is inequality: millions of women suffering terrible inequality in the lower socio-economic and lower-caste segments of the population offset gains on the higher end.
- gnufied 10y agoIt it my somewhat anecdotal experience that, in spite of gender inequalities there are far more percentage of Indian women in tech than their western counterparts (particularly US). I remember rubyconfindia 2010 - where 30-40% participants were women. Ola bini or one of the keynote speakers commented this is first rubyconf. where he has seen so many women and I could concur because I have been to many conferences here in US and there never were that many women. Tech. meetups is another story though. Most meetups in India are organized on weekends and there are hardly any women.
- kumarm 10y agoSeveral South Indian States has 30% seats in Engineering Colleges reserved for Woman. Significantly contributed to increase in women in Tech.
- shas3 10y agoThere are only four South Indian states. I am aware of caste-based quotas, but not gender-based ones. Can you provide a source for this?
- abc_lisper 10y agoThere are. I lived through it. For the same grade, a girl could get into a better school than me.
- kumarm 10y agoNo there are 5 South Indian States. Here is a link to explaining Quotas in Colleges for AP and Telangana. http://www.netbadi.in/reservation-quotas.html?showall=1 http://www.netbadi.in/reservation-quotas.html?showall=1 Women's Quota for both states in 33.3% (1/3rd has to be women). Personally I think it worked well. The Quota was first implemented in 1993.
- BadassFractal 10y agoThere were a couple of studies that showed that in developing countries where social support structures aren't strong you generally see a lot more women go into the less gender traditional fields such as engineering. See Eastern Europe, China, India etc. However once a country's quality of life goes up dramatically, women generally (this word is key, there are always outliers) will gravitate towards more traditional feminine occupations such as nursing, teaching, etc . See the Scandinavian countries.
- BeetleB 10y ago>There were a couple of studies that showed that in developing countries where social support structures aren't strong you generally see a lot more women go into the less gender traditional fields such as engineering. See Eastern Europe, China, India etc. I had to read that twice to follow you. Be careful with your wording. What you meant was government funded social structures, as opposed to actual social structures (family structure, etc). Most Indians who move to the US will be quick to tell you how much worse the social support structures are in the US. In India, there is usually little need for daycare (relatives almost always look after the kids). Same goes for taking care of the chronically unhealthy people, etc.
- BadassFractal 10y agoThat's fair, cheers.
- zdkl 10y agoDoes anyone have a link to these studies?
- joericky233223 10y agoThat's the point. The author merely guessed it from the data of other studies which is impressive and totally correct
- edblarney 10y ago
- thewhitetulip 10y agoThid is maybe becayse IT/CS is considered "female" fields and "safe" for girls to get a degree into. My mother annoyed me for a month when I told her I wanted to get into IT, she told me it was a women field you take admission in mechanical etc
- throwaway6497 10y agoWow thanks for sharing this. Read Viji's story. Truly inspiring that she was determined to fight cancer, finish her PhD, do great work, find a spouse who would marry her fully aware that cancer would consume her eventually, and support her research. What a great story!
- ra1n85 10y agoI'd be curious as to how much of this is a product of culture and parenting. I'm willing to bet, given my experience, that parents in India are far more pragmatic than those in the West when it comes to advising their children regarding education and lifestyle choices. Becoming a doctor or engineer in a in-demand field not only carries the potential for a high income, but also opens the door to emigrating to another country. Good data point: 11% of physicians in the UK are immigrants from India[1]. [1]http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMsa050004 http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMsa050004
- shas3 10y agoIt was very difficult to do anything other than engineering, medicine, finance, law, and science in India pre-2000s. Then, with the software and internet and mobile revolutions, in the late 90s and 2000s, software and electronics were substantially more lucrative than pure science or other branches of engineering. Things are becoming more like the US nowadays- with liberal arts being a viable option as the middle class is becoming richer and as children of the first wave of software nouveau riche come of age and their wealth providing some cushion for the liberal-arts and creative types. There were not enough well-paying jobs (copywriter, creative, real estate agent, retail manager, etc. like in the US) like in the US for people with generic qualifications like English literature, etc. One way out for people with those qualifications was to write banking or governmental entrance exams for jobs. But these too leaned quantitative and had math components making them harder for liberal arts graduates. From what I've heard from the few people I've met from USSR and China, the situation was similar there too.
- fpoling 10y agoI recently worked for a project in a Norwegian bank. Despite the claims of gender equality in Norway over 80% of IT personal and management there are male and most women work in testing. It was rather interesting to see then when the bank signed a contract with an Indian company, women were like 50% of their IT folks with no gender devisions like testing/development. There were still less women at management positions from the Indian company, but the ratio is better than in the Norwegian bank.
- rimliu 10y agoI wonder, why many think that equality should result in 50:50 distribution.
- kodfodrasz 10y agoI also wonder, as usually slightly more women live in a country than man, and woman have a slightly longer expected lifespan, which are effects which would distort the distribution.
- fpoling 10y agoLaw of large numbers.
- brianwawok 10y agoAssuming both genders are equally talented at a skill, and both genders equally enjoy a skill. We can both offer equal opportunities, and realize different genders want different things out of a job.
- fpoling 10y agoThat bank experience shows that women from India do show equal skills in IT. So the difference comes not from gender but from other things.