Dr. Parinda Vasa works in the Institute of Physics at the University of Oldenburg in the field of ultra-fast nanotechnology. From 2006 to 2008, she was a Georg Forster Research Fellow at Ilmenau University of Technology.
Cover Story: Careers with Obstacles - Women in Academia
It’s a Long Road to Gender Equality
Parinda Vasa, Physicist, India
Women are very much underrepresented in science and technology in India at all academic levels with representation being marginal or none at higher levels. The overall percentage is less than twenty percent at graduate student level and reduces to less than five percent at faculty level – many physics departments having no woman faculty member at all. Universities and institutes as well as the government are trying to bridge the gap but it’s a slow process as this has to be done at the lower level first. There are initiatives which promote parents to provide higher education for a girl child. Also there are scholarships and funding reserved only for women applicants.
In India as well as Germany institutes encourage women applicants, but the main difference is in the social structure. Here, in Germany, women are much more socially and economically independent compared to India. Most of the time it’s the social constraint that is hindering Indian women from pursuing higher education or careers. This is also the reason why achieving gender balance in workplaces is a much slower process.
I am a member of Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future forum, a network for female academics. It is a good platform for sharing experiences as well as opinions, but in a working group network, gender should not be an issue. Having “men only” and “women only” work-related networks only increases the differences rather than bridging the gap.
Comment on article
If you are an Humboldtian and have logged in, you have the option of commenting on this article or other Humboldtians' comments. (Please read the comment guidelines first)Comment guidelines
After logging in, Humboldtians have the option of participating in discussion of articles in Humboldt Kosmos and contributing comments of up to 1,000 characters for publication in German or English. If the comment is published it will appear under your name.
Every comment will be checked by the editors and published as soon as possible unless there are objections on legal or content grounds. The editors reserve the right to abridge and revise comments where necessary. Please bear in mind that published comments can be accessed by anyone on the Internet and may be located by search engines.
Top of page
PrintAlexander von Humboldt-Stiftung/Foundation