Leadership in Indian Academia: The Missing Minerva?

1
Leadership in Indian Academia The Missing
Minerva?
Neelam Kumar CSIR-NISTADS India Email
neelam_nistads_at_yahoo.com/ kumarneelam28_at_gmail.com
2
abstract

• Gender-based disadvantages of a patriarchal
  culture continue even in the twenty-first century
  India.
• Numerically, the Indian higher education system
  is one of the largest in the world, with 659
  universities (out of which only around six are
  womens universities) and approximately 4500
  womens colleges out of about 35,539
  under-graduate colleges.
• Modern education for women in India began in the
  early years of the nineteenth century and by the
  1880s universities started admitting them. The
  progress was extremely slow until 1921, but there
  had been a phenomenal growth over the decades.
  India has a rich legacy of eminent women in
  different fields.
• Hansaben Mehta as early as 1946, not only became
  a Vice Chancellor, but could make outstanding
  contributions to the development of education in
  India.
• Despite consistent increase in the number of
  women students enrolled in higher education, low
  number of women in academic positions especially
  at leadership level remains a disturbing mark in
  Indian academia.
• Higher education system in India essentially
  reflect masculine ethos! Vertical as well as
  hierarchical segregation in terms of gender
  remains a persistent phenomenon.
• Though, there is lack of systematic and
  comprehensive data, it is clear that only a
  handful of women hold the positions of authority
  or decision-making, such as Rector or Dean.

3
Initiatives!

• Indian educational policies are somewhat away
  from serious or meaningful gender concerns. A few
  meaningless efforts, with somewhat superficial
  objectives, to enhance and increase the number of
  women manager in higher education have recently
  been initiated. The persistent gender gap in
  education reflects poorly on the Indian policies
  and the missing Minervas!
•  
• The specific objectives of the scheme of capacity
  building of Women Manager in Higher Education are
  to develop a perspective plan and strategy for
  reducing the gender gap in higher education
  system, to offer various training programmes at
  different levels for stimulating women to aspire
  to become administrators etc. A scheme has
  initiated by UGC and implemented to increase the
  participation of women in higher education
  management for better gender balance to
  sensitize the higher education system through
  policies and procedures, and to develop
  qualitative higher education by involving the
  unutilized pool of women capable of becoming
  administrators.

CAPACITY BUILDING FOR WOMEN MANAGERS IN HIGHER
EDUCATION DURING 2007-2012.
4

• The specific objectives of the scheme are to
  develop
• 1) a perspective plan and strategy for reducing
  the gender gap in the higher education system, to
  offer various training programmes at different
  levels to women for stimulating them to
• aspire to become administrators, to develop
  relevant training materials for various
  programmes in print and electronic
• media, to support gender positive initiatives
  such as gender equity cell and developing
  sensitivity index, etc., to
• increase and support development of linkages
  among women managers in higher education through
  networking etc.

5
some of the prevalent problems of women in higher
education in India

• Fewer in number! More women than ever enroll in
  higher education, yet the number of women in
  senior leadership remains low.
• Lower in number at higher echelons. as one moves
  up the ladder of power and prestige, the female
  faces disappear face barriers at entry and at all
  stages of the academic ladder
• Women remain at the outer circle. For example,
  they are in low numbers in the editorial boards.
• The under-representation of women on boards and
  at the head of higher-education institutions
  reflects their difficulty to influence the
  policies.
• Women are in low numbers in the prestigious
  positions, editorial boards and also lesser
  recipients of awards. Even if women are nominated
  for research prizes however unconscious bias and
  men running prize panels seems to be swaying
  award outcomes!
• While 60 of the countrys university lecturers
  are women, the proportion falls to 40 at the
  level of associate professor and slumps to 20 at
  the professor level.
• .

6

• The number of women in higher education is now
  equal to, and in many South Asian countries
  surpasses, men at undergraduate level. Yet, this
  has not translated into senior appointments and
  leaderships positions within higher education
  institutions themselves. For example, only three
  per cent of vice-chancellors in India
  were women (six of the 13 female vice-chancellors
  are at women-only institutions) in the year 2002.
• A December 2009 UGC study found that of the
  countrys 431 recognized universities, only 13
  had women vice-chancellors just 3 of the total
  and just under half of these were at women-only
  colleges.
• Another study later reported that there are
  nine women vice-chancellors against the total
  number of 70, two pro pro vice-chancellors
  against 24, two proctor/rector against 19, 50
  deans against 367, six registrars against 77, 27
  deputy registrars against 298, 67 assistant
  registrars against 504, five controller of
  examination against 57, three finance officers
  against 66, 723 academic council members against
  42167, 31 members of finance committee against
  400 and 31 members of finance boards against 400
  in India
•  

7

• Women head the exclusive womens universities of
  India
• Numerically, the Indian higher education system
  is one of the largest in the world
• "glass ceiling effects women are still under-
  represented in positions of power, responsibility
  and leadership, despite the dramatic increase in
  their formal employment over the last five
  decades.
• Even for women who succeed at university, the
  route to the top in academia is difficult.
• In general, in India, it is very difficult to get
  gender segregated data.
• a survey was carried out reveals the same trend
  women accounted for less than 10 vice
  chancellors, registrars. In senior academic
  administrative positions like Deans, Directors,
  Heads of Departments etc., again there were less
  than 10 women.
• Mainly where there were women, they came in
  because of the rotation system. that the
  percentage of women at all levels of
  decision-making is very small, be it in the
  administrative or academic hierarchy. In fact, as
  the level goes higher, the percentage share of
  women goes down!

8
(No Transcript)
9
A typical career graph!
10
Enrolment An increasing trend!
11
Women researchers Increase but very slow and low!
12
(No Transcript)
13
(No Transcript)
14
FIGURE 1. PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN PROFESSORS AND
EXECUTIVE HEADS IN SELECTED COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES
15
Possible reasons?

• gendered divisions of labour gender bias and
  misrecognition stereotypes of management and
  masculinity and work/life balance challenges.
• Recently structured interventions have been
  developed to encourage more women to enter
  leadership positions in universities. These are
  based on the assumption that Often women think
  they are good at academics and there is no need
  to get into administrative issues. Many dont
  even think about leadership roles. The UGC
  programme aims to build awareness among women
  about their capacity to lead in higher
  education,

16
A PICTURE IN EU!
17
NOT QUITE DIFFERENT!
18
Women do not get equal recognition in the field
of science. The following figure illustrates this
well
Source Indian Academy of Sciences
19

• In India the first graduate degrees were granted
  to women in 1883,
• Dr. Kadambini Basu received her medical degree in
  1886 from Calcutta University.
• Modern education for women in India began in the
  early years of the nineteenth century and by the
  1880s universities started admitting them.
  Progress was extremely slow particularly until
  1921.
• Female literacy crawled from 0.2 per cent in 1881
  to 1.8 per cent in 1921.
• There was a relatively quicker pace after 1921
  and a substantial advance came about only after
  independence.
• Yet, the National Committee on Women's Education
  could register a slow progress of women's
  education in the first decade of independence.
• Analysis of documents pertaining to womens
  education in India in the period 18501920 has
  shown that the number of female students in
  schools and colleges in India increased by a
  factor of eight between 1881 and 1915. Till 1911,
  nowhere in British India more than one per cent
  of the female population had access to education
  at any level.

20

• The development strategy in independent India in
  the 1950s depended heavily on the planning.
  Therefore, development plans were prepared for
  five years and are referred to as the Five-Year
  Plans.
• The very First Plan (1951-56) of the Government
  gave some attention to women but, as a subject of
  welfare.
• The shift in the approach from welfare to
  development of women could take place only in
  the Sixth Plan (1980-85). The Sixth Five Year
  Plan for the first time included a chapter on
  "Women and Development".
• Though the Fifth and the Sixth Five Year Plans
  talked of womens education, these did not stress
  the need for any planned programmes to ensure
  womens participation in science or technology.
• Gender-blindness is evident in all the other
  subsequent plans and policies related to science.
  While addressing questions of equity in access to
  higher education, no mention is made to
  specifically ensure that women have access to
  science education. It is as if the gender
  component need not be considered while discussing
  ways to strengthen science teaching or improving
  infrastructure.
• the report of the committee on the status of
  women, 1974 also provided a broader perspective
  which led to a shift from a welfare approach to
  making women active partners in the development
  process.

21
The policies and programmes related to womens
access to higher education (particularly science
and technology) and their career growth are often
face critique and also held responsible apart
from the constraints discussed above. The
shortfalls are often attributed to the lack of
clarity on the purpose of womens education in
educational planning. For instance, the National
Committee on Womens Education (1956) set up to
scrutinize the special problems of women's
education, on the one hand emphasized the need to
bridge the gap between the education of men and
women and on the other reiterated the traditional
gender roles in society. Similarly, all the
other important commissions such as the
University Education Commission (1948-49)
Secondary Education Commission (1952-53)
National Commission on Women's Education (1958)
National Council for Women's Education
Baktavatsalam Committee (1963) National
Committee on Women's Education (1970) were
hesitant in defining the aims of women's
education, and seem to have been caught in
contradictory value systems while defining the
purpose of female education. The Draft National
Policy on Education admitted that although
education had expanded in all sectors yet
imbalances and inequalities continued to exist.
By the 1970s, however, there was a growing
awareness that gender is an important social
category, which needs to be taken into account in
development planning. The Women's Decade in India
began in 1975 with an official report of the
Committee on the Status of Women in India. The
Report of the Committee on the Status of Women
(1974), better known as the Towards Equality
Report, set clear guidelines on the aims of
female education. In recent years there are
various efforts by government bodies to also
enhance womens access to science careers.
22
GLIMPSES OM WOMEN IN SCIENCE IN INDIA
In colonial India science education aimed at
creating local pillars of support for the
colonial government. Those days to think of a
female Indian scientist was virtually impossible.
It is only in the twentieth century that some
women could get some training in physics and
other basic sciences. In the field of medicine
of course a very limited opportunity opened up in
1880s and one finds a few Indian women doctors
like Kadambini Basu, Anandi Bai and Hemvati Sen.
Yet, the number of women in science and medicine
remained low over the years. By 1890 women had
secured admission to medical colleges or schools
in Agra, Bombay, Calcutta and Lahore. During
year 1941-42, the enrolment pattern in Indian
universities for the shows that the total number
of girls enrolled for undergraduate course in
science was 903 in comparison to 11, 217 boys.
Only 83 girls were enrolled for a postgraduate
course in science in contrast to 1,321 boys.
While in medicine their number was 778 against
6,093 boys, in the engineering only 1 was
enrolled with 2,718 boys . The debates,
however, continued over the subjects taught to
women. Even a Committee on Differentiation of
Curricula for Boys and Girls was established in
1964. Science and technology in India could
witness expansion in the post-Independence era.
What has been the situation of women?
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
Women participation in extramural RD
projects has increased significantly to 31 in
2009-10 from 13 in 2000-01 due to various
initiatives undertaken by the Government in ST
sector. In absolute terms, 1,324 women Principal
Investigators (PI) during 2009-10 availed
extramural RD support as against 232 in 2000-01.

26
As on 1st April 2010, there were 27,532 (14.3)
women out of total RD personnel directly engaged
in RD activities
27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
EMPLOYMENT PATTERN

• In all, there were 61,050 women employed in RD
  establishments, which was 15.6 of the total
  employed in such establishments.
• The percentage of women by nature of activity was
  12.7 (19,707) primarily engaged in RD
  activities, 14.9 (15,802) in auxiliary
  activities and 19.6 (25,541) in administrative
  activities.
• By level of qualifications they were comprised of
  18.7 Ph.Ds, 39.2 Post Graduates, 31.6
  Graduates and 10.5 Diploma Holders and other
  qualifications.
• By field of science, it was noted that 29.9 were
  from natural sciences, 39.0 were from
  engineering and technology, 14.8 were from
  medicine, 10.3 were from agricultural sciences
  while 6.0 were with background in social
  sciences.

30

• Out of every 100 women employed in Central
• Sector, 29.2 were engaged directly in RD
• activities, 28.1 were performing auxiliary
  activities
• and 42.6 were providing administrative support.
• The percentage of women working for
  Administrative
• activities is quite high as compared to working
  for
• RD and auxiliary activities.

31
(No Transcript)
32
(No Transcript)