WOMEN IN RESEARCH FIELD

Abstract

As we are living in the 20th Century equal participation of women plays a vital role in development. In today’s era due to the rising competition, India moving towards becoming a political and economic superpower, gender favoritism remains a major and incessant blot on our achievements. The Global Gender Gap data shows that women's economic participation and opportunity is least in India than in 95% of the 135 other countries studied. Men workers engaged in the formal sector earn more than women. From 2011 to 2012, there was a 7.5% increase in domestic violence, while over 5,000 dowry deaths were reported in 2018 in the country. According to a 2018 fact sheet prepared by UNESCO on women in science, only 28.8% of researchers are women. From 1901 to 2019, 334 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 616 Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine, of which only 20 have been won by women. UNESCO data from the year 2014-16 shows that only around 30% of female students select Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics-related fields in higher education. There are multiple reasons, which has held the growth of women such as the wrong approach of society for female participation in such field, responsibility, urge, and the most important one is the mindset, which has been earmarking women right from their framework. The country, therefore, has a long way to go to attain the Sustainable Development Goal of attaining gender inequality and empower all women and girls (SDG5). The Government of India has taken the various initiative to encourage the women participation such as GATI Scheme, KIRAN scheme, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme, and Vigyan Jyoti Scheme. This paper provides us details about the initiative by Indian Government and importance of women’s participation in research field.