POLICY CENTRE AND GENDER LAB

By Urvashi Malav Abstract  A very small number of women after high school pursue their degrees in technical fields.  For instance, only around  21 per cent of engineering majors are women and only around 19% of computer and information science majors are women. However, we do not need statistics to realize women’s under-representation. We all have seen how society has been and continues to be biased and stereotypical when it comes to women handling any type of technology. Be it the annoyance and gaze on women drivers on the road or females going for technical-like operations at home. We never expect our mothers to change the bulb (a very minimal kind of work) or carry the cars to the service centres. Even when females know how to drive cars, they do depend on their male counterparts for small affairs like - servicing of the cars, change of stepneys etc. Most of the women themselves feel that they are incapable of doing these tasks. This article delves into the historical...

Book Review: Enslaved Daughters by Sudhir Chandra The scriptures forbid the sacrifice of female animals, but in the case of human beings sacrificing  females gives the greatest satisfaction. - Rabindranath Tagore, Chaturanga By Mahima Kumari WHY THE BOOK: Embarking on an exploration of Sudhir Chandra's "Enslaved Daughters," my choice to unearth  historical nuances is propelled by a poignant juxtaposition with contemporary judgments on age of  consent and the contentious terrain of marital rape. In a world where progress seems palpable, the  underlying intricacies of age-based consent merit scrutiny. Consider the journey from 10 to 18 - a span  apparently granted to women by the benevolence of societal norms. Yet, in this stride toward  modernity, statistical realities paint a compelling portrait. The World Health Organization reveals that  globally, girls as young as 11 commence menstruation, and by the age of 13, they can bear a child. How  then,...

By Liya Ann Mary ‘Girlboss’ and ‘Shattering the Glass Ceiling’ are phrases that are ever so popular among feminists these days, or white/elite feminists to be more precise. While it is easy to believe that capitalism and feminism can go hand in hand or that you attain the "epitome" of feminism by being the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the reality is very different. Feminism has come far and has faced its fair share of hurdles along the way, if not more. But today, it faces one of the worst enemies possible: capitalism. This is not your average "blame everything on capitalism" argument. But today, feminism as a whole is questioned and threatened. The movement is being appropriated and hijacked by capitalism. These might seem like scandalous claims, but if you analyse the facts and figures, the picture becomes quite clear. Now, all of us have a basic understanding of what capitalism and feminism are. And that in itself should be proof enough of how ...

By Ishika Khatri "To succeed, we must recognize that the gender gap in STEM is not just a women's issue, it is an issue and we all have a role to play." - Sheryl Sandberg The acronym STEM was introduced in 2001 by scientific administrators in the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). It stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The organization used the term while referring to the career fields in these disciplines or a curriculum that integrated knowledge and skills from these fields. They thus pointed to an interdisciplinary and applied approach. However, what becomes crucial to note here is the gender gap in STEM careers. For years women have been underrepresented in these fields and the problem persists and it thus becomes a pressing issue globally. Some figures to substantiate the argument are cited as follows: Women make up only 28% of the workforce in STEM despite 52% of women being enrolled in these courses for their graduation. Furthermore, ...