Gender parity in STEM higher education in India: a trend analysis

ABSTRACT

Gender disparity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in higher education is a matter of concern across the world. Expansion of the higher education sector in the early twenty-first century in India has enabled to bring attitudinal changes in Indian families especially towards females’ STEM higher education. The present study aims to understand the trend in gender parity in STEM disciplines at various levels of higher education in India through All India Survey on Higher Education, Government of India (2010-2011 to 2018-2019). The study uses the Gender Parity Index (GPI) method to calculate the status of female in STEM higher education. The results show that there is gender parity in overall disciplines at under-graduation, post-graduation, and M.Phil. levels. In STEM disciplines, enrolment of female is higher than male in biological sciences at all levels, but physical sciences show lower enrolment of female. Computer engineering, information technology, and electronics engineering have shown improvement in enrolment of female within the engineering and technology category. Gender parity is poor in mechanical engineering, civil engineering, and electrical engineering at all levels of higher education. The complex and multi-layered gender relations in wider society impact females’ access to STEM higher education and employment.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering
• gender parity
• higher education
• mathematics
• science
• technology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Article 341 and 342 of constitution of India defines who would be under Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes respectively. According to population census 2011 (the recent last) there are 1241 scheduled castes and 705 scheduled tribes in India (Ministry of Law and Justice, 2020; Chandramouli, 2013).

2 AISHE was established to collect data on various aspects of higher education in India by the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (currently Ministry of Education), Government of India since 2010–2011.