News - When will India have its own Madame Curie
Almost 20 years ago, when Dr Rupamanjari Ghosh, a young rookie then, walked into the new building of the physical science department at Jawaharlal Nehru University, a rude shock awaited her. The building didn't have a women's loo. "I couldn't have shared the loo with my male colleagues. I was the only woman in the department then," recalls Ghosh. So Ghosh had no choice but to use the dean's private toilet. "The dean's washroom became my personal loo!" she laughs. You may dismiss this particular incident as a silly joke, but it actually is an indicator of the larger picture. It is not just about the ladies room - in actual fact, there is still very little room for ladies as far as science and technology is concerned. The Women's Task Force Report, brought out by the Centre's department of science and technology (DST) earlier this year, clearly states that women are still a minority in the area. Professor Ghosh is one of the few women scientists who managed to squeeze into this male-dominated field and carve a niche for herself. Ghosh worked hard to become the dean of the physical science department - she is now the director of the Academic Staff College at JNU.
"Science (especially research) is a demanding field for both men and women. For a woman, it's doubly difficult. She has to work harder than a man to prove herself," she says. Being a woman in a male-dominated field has its pros and cons. "Because there are few women, you are noticed and this could work in your favour. But sometimes it did feel like an animal in a zoo," recalls Ghosh.
DROPPING OUT
And the reason why there are very few women in her field? Ghosh says she has seen many women opt out midway for marriage and children. Dr Vineeta Bal, professor at the National Institute of Immunology, agrees: "Women who enter the profession are often just waiting for a prospective groom." Bal, who was a member of the Women's Task Force Committee, points out that after marriage, PhD notwithstanding, a woman tags along with her husband. "Child-bearing takes a toll too and her career is severely compromised till the child grows up," says Bal. Ghosh has been on several interview panels and has seen one question being repeated several times. "What does your husband do?"
This may sound sexist but interviewers feel compelled to ask it because of a woman's track record. The outcome: Poor productivity. "She loses out on several opportunities of pursuing a research job," Bal says. Though many women enter the scientific field, even up to the PhD level, the numbers fall steeply at the time of recruitment as a faculty member, says Bal. Dr Rohini Godbole, professor, Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has discussed the bleak scenario in many of her presentations. "There haven't been any woman directors or a Director General at the Centre of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and the Indian Academy of Science (IASc) haven't had a woman president either. Though the Indian Academy of Science had founding woman members, the participation of women is low," says Godbole, adding that only 10 women out of 333 recipients have received the CSIR's prestigious Bhatnagar Prize since 1958.
LACK OF SUPPORT
"For women, combining a happy family and a successful science career requires a large dose of luck. The lack of institutional and social support makes it very difficult," says Godbole, who has been in the research field for 35 years. Godbole was married to a German colleague for 12 years till they decided to part ways. "The marriage was across two continents and we decided to postpone having children till we could find jobs to live together... in the end, children never happened," she writes in Lilawati's Daughters, a compilation of autobiographical essays by woman scientists brought out by the Indian Science Academy. "Women give up their career very early," says Godlbole. At Stony Brook University, New York, where she did her PhD, only three women in a class of 45 completed their PhD.
Godbole wasn't the only woman scientist living away from her husband. Dr Tanusree Saha Dasgupta recalls living away from her husband for seven long years. "I was brought up in a typical Bengali middle-class family, very protected... it was my husband who encouraged me to pursue my career after my PhD from Calcutta University," says Dasgupta, associate professor at S.N. Bose National Centre, Kolkata. "I went to Paris for post-doctoral studies while my husband stayed in Germany. Every weekend he would take a train to visit me in Paris," she says. "Even after moving to India, we lived separately as my husband got a job in IIT Mumbai and I got a position as a lecturer at the S.N. Bose National Centre for
Basic Science in Kolkata," says Dasgupta, adding, "And now we have finally settled together." A career in science could mean a tough road ahead. "You have to be ready to make compromises," Dasgupta warns.
NO ROOM FOR A GROOM
Compromises on the personal front is a given, agrees Parul Katoch, 25, who is pursuing her PhD in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, USA. "I am yet to see a man who is okay with a woman giving her career more importance," she says. Such men are truly a rare species. Twenty-nine-year-old Dr Hema Kundra's father had started looking for a prospective groom for her while she was completing her
MSc. "Fortunately, he put his plans on the backburner when I said I wanted to complete my PhD first. Now the search is on again," she says. But now, she just might be over-qualified for marriage - going by the account of an ICAR scientist, who chooses to remain anonymous. "A PhD man would be okay with a woman who is less qualified. A PhD woman, on the other hand, would want a man who is as qualified as she is, if not more. So the search narrows," she says. Ghosh, who is single, admits her parents were concerned. "But then I was independent and doing better than most men. So marriage didn't happen. However, staying single wasn't a conscious decision," she says. Nevertheless, she has more responsibilities than any married woman - she tends to sick animals and children of construction workers at the JNU campus.
DR (MISS) OR (MRS)?
It's unfortunate but true that people still fumble while addressing a woman who has a doctorate degree. 'Dr' Godbole recounts her experience: "The mail IIT's distinguished alumni group would address me as 'Dear Sir' until I pointed it out to them." Godbole's woman colleagues receive letters addressed to 'Mrs' and 'Kumari' instead of 'Prof' or 'Dr'. Ghosh, who doesn't mention her first name in her scientific papers, says: "When people first came to know I was a woman, they were amazed." Now it's different, of course. Having published several papers on quantum physics, everyone knows who R.
Ghosh is. But Ghosh has this to say: "Men are often referred to as being 'brilliant', but a woman of the same calibre would just be called a 'hard worker'. The 21st century hasn't much changed mindsets about woman scientists."
YOUNG GUNS
Despite societal pressures, a new brigade of young woman scientists is all set to embark upon their journey. But will they make the necessary 'adjustments' a woman is supposed to in this society? Dr Pratibha Pandey, 29, is married but is already an assistant professor at ARSD College, Delhi University. She is planning to submit an independent project at DST soon. "We do have to work long hours in research and in a place like Delhi, you have to be extra-cautious while travelling alone at night. But then we get summer and winter vacations - that's when we work on independent projects," she says.
Pandey loves her job but admits that things will change once she has children. After marriage and children, one needs to prioritise between personal and professional life, advises Dr Rupali Walia, 32, postdoctoral research fellow at the department of biochemistry & molecular biology, University of Calgary, Canada. "Being single, I can walk into my lab any time, not having to worry about my kids feeling hungry. Postmarriage, it is a difficult situation that all women face in their career," says Walia. Different countries have different solutions for it. Many European universities have childcare facilities on the campus or mothers are allowed to bring their kids to the lab. Woman scientists in India too need this kind of a choice.
THE ROAD AHEAD
Committees and websites are being formed, surveys being conducted, and initiatives being taken to improve the situation. But will that help? "In India data collection on all fronts is poor, data on women scientists is no exception. Even when a special effort was made to collect data on the science-trained population (published as India Science Report a few years ago), getting gender-segregated data was hard to come by," says Bal. "The recent report, published by the Task Force on Women in Science, has made some effort in data collection but even that is sketchy. And there is no data in it about the private sector!" The Task Force has given a list of recommendations, including flexi timings and work-from-home facilities. Women in Science (WiS) headed by Godbole at the Indian Academy of Science is also looking into similar issues. There are plans in place, but will they be successfully implemented? Now that's rocket science!
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