Archive by category | Gender

Being rocket woman

Posted by Subhra Priyadarshini | Categories: , ,

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle of the Indian Space Research Organisation, which carried the Mars Orbiter Mission satellite Mangalyaan. The payload included instruments developed by Dutta and her team.

Physicist Moumita Dutta from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, was part of the team that put a probe into Mars orbit in 2014.  In an interview with Elizabeth Gibney, a senior reporter for Nature based in London, she talks about the lure of optics, the challenge of crafting super-light sensors, and the rise in Indian women entering space science.  Read more

Women scientists on what plagues their growth

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Women scientists on what plagues their growth

On Women’s Day this March 8, when social media was going berserk with messages celebrating the ‘beauty, grace and sacrifice’ of women, a bunch of feisty women scientists were talking shop at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in the heart of Delhi.  Read more

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Women in science: Leak in the pipeline

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Many factors compel women to drop off the research radar.

A new study by UNESCO outlining the involvement of women in science has some stark figures for India. The Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS) has put together an interactive infographic on women in science to highlight the global gender gap in higher education and scientific research. They aptly call it the “leaky pipeline”.  Read more

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Hail women in science

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Hail women in science

I have heard women scientists across the world rant (with reason) about the oppressive policies of labs that stifle their growth. We have had very interesting discussions on the Nature India forum regarding gender issues in science. And, of course, about the sops that governments promise to make things better for women but don’t deliver. Spurred by such inaction, Vineeta Bal, a member of the Indian government’s task force for women in science, wrote a forceful commentary on Nature India recently outlining what needs to be done immediately to turn things around for our lab ladies.  Read more

All-women tech school

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There are murmurs in Vigyan Bhavan about a proposal to set up the country’s first all-women engineering and technology institute in President Pratibha Patil’s hometown in Maharashtra. The HRD ministry is mulling over the proposal for this exclusive women’s technology school in Amravati near Nagpur on Patil’s recommendation. The country’s first woman president was apparently worried about the small number of girl students getting into the IITs.  Read more

Lab ladies

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Good news for all you women scientists in India. Here’s a gender sop that’s sure to get more women back into labs — flexible work hours, work-from-home options, more awards, campus housing and creche for kids. The recommendations of a government task force on women scientists set up two years ago are finally being implemented. We had some very good insights from scientists — both men and women — on the gender divide in science on the Nature India forum. Let’s wait and watch how much action follows these pathbreaking announcements.  Read more