From the time the education of the girl child started, they were thought to be good at only humanities and English. Slowly and steadily, women emerged, breaking away from the shackles of myths and prejudices. They left their comfort zone, to face the barren truths and realities of the world. Women choose fields, other than the conventional ones and ventured into an unknown arena. Engineering is one of the many unconventional fields, women have been excelling in. Though the percentage of women doing engineering courses is increasing from one year to the next, women still represent a minority in this field.
In my college though the number of girls joining the various courses has been increasing rapidly, there are still only 7 girls for 50 boys, a ratio of about 1:7.When we question why is this so, we should look below the surface and find the loose strings which hint towards this issue. In many homes in India parents still decide the careers that their children should take up. Parents are skeptical about sending the girls to do engineering as it was primarily a male dominated area of study. Also passing out from the college, women face a lot of difficulty in the workplace as they are considered inferior to men. A survey by the daily, Hindustan Times found that women have to work ten times harder to prove that they are better or even at par with their male colleagues. Also the core engineering fields such as mechanical and electrical engineering are considered unfit for girls, as it requires a lot of physical exercise in machine labs and workshops. Though perceptions are changin!
g, it will require a lot of time before women and men are seen as equals in this field.
The MNCs and Indian companies are doing their best to ensure that women are given a fair chance to prove themselves at work. Unbiased and healthy working atmosphere, along with awareness about these facts can go a long way in increasing the number of girls taking up engineering. The newspapers can...