Women In Science: Opportunities And Challenges (vol. 1: Western Zone)

Gender disparity is one of the crucial problems in the academic world and scientific development. Although women have made significant contribution in the field of science, but still received less appreciation for the same. There are three major reasons for low participation of women in science and technology, our cultural setup or our mind set, economic aspect and infrastructure aspect. Unfortunately, women and girls have long been underrepresented in S&T education and employment, though myriad opportunities are offered by governmental agencies in the past, but these have not been sufficient to meet the challenges. Given the focus of the present government on promotion of girl and women education, we need concerted efforts to promote intellectual capacities of women in general and women scientist in particular. From the year 2003 to present day, the fund allocation in this direction has been increased manifold, displaying Department of Science and Technology's sincere commitment towards accomplishing the targets.

There is a negative gender stereotypes concerning the perceived suitability of women in science and technology careers at all levels. Although women continue to be underrepresented in science, but the key change is that now they are vocal for the need of change in this stereotype and to professionally empower women in this realm. Therefore, the present document assesses the effectiveness of the various women empowering programs started by the Government of India to bring women back to mainstream. The present study gauged the various aspects concerning professional development in academia, research, and professional settings among women beneficiaries from the Punjab, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir. More comprehensive multicentric studies are needed for continuous evaluation of effectiveness of women empowering governmental policies for the larger interest of scientific progress and society.