At first look, India seems to be like a world outlier in relation to gender parity in science and allied fields: in 2024, girls made up 43 p.c of all awarded science-technology-engineering-mathematics (STEM) levels. However upon nearer statement, the pipeline is leaking on the very spot the nation says it wants expertise probably the most—engineering. Within the flagship IIT system, solely one in 5 first-year seats go to a girl. Throughout all engineering schools in India, the share hovers at one-third.  

This sample will be noticed even on the faculty degree. Primarily based on knowledge from 650 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs)—a community of government-run residential faculties for high-achieving college students from economically marginalised communities and rural areas—throughout India, we discovered that 37 p.c of ladies select the physics-chemistry-maths (PCM) stream after class 10. Lower than half of those ladies even register for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), which is an all-India standardised examination for admission to numerous technical programs, together with engineering, on the undergraduate degree.  

Though JNVs nurture a number of the nation’s most academically promising college students, together with many first-generation learners, the gender hole in STEM selections stays stark. The query then isn’t merely why ladies drop out, however why they don’t enter STEM fields within the first place, and what elements have an effect on their decision-making. 

Why accomplish that many ladies keep away from engineering?  

Women’ choices round schooling are hardly ever pushed by a single issue. At Avanti Fellows, we now have noticed that as ladies enter senior secondary education at school 9, private and societal beliefs, classroom experiences, and household concerns overlap and infrequently reinforce one another, finally informing how they proceed with larger schooling. 

Avanti Fellows works with college students in authorities faculties to assist them in gaining admission to STEM programs on the undergraduate degree. Over the previous three years, we now have launched focused programmes for women to know and deal with the precise challenges they face in pursuing STEM. Primarily based on our interactions with college students from courses 9–12, these are some key the explanation why this occurs:  

1. Maths and physics really feel summary and indifferent from actual life 

In lots of our focus group discussions with ladies at school 9 throughout JNVs, they shared that whereas they believed that they had been as able to being good at maths and physics as boys, they discovered biology extra attention-grabbing. This curiosity was primarily pushed by the notion that physics is ‘too summary’. We noticed that the sudden leap to extremely conceptual content material nudges ladies in the direction of biology, which they understand as extra grounded. Over the course of taking part in STEM golf equipment, class 9 ladies shared that their curiosity in a topic is without doubt one of the foremost standards for choosing the course they want to research sooner or later. In consequence, their lack of curiosity in physics and maths prevents them from pursuing engineering in faculty.  

2. Engineering is seen as much less ‘purposeful’ than medication 

Nearly all the women who aspire to be docs say that they’d accomplish that to assist their communities. As a scholar from Arunachal Pradesh shares, “Healthcare is one thing that my village doesn’t have sufficient of. I’ve seen individuals lose their lives to diseases that might have been handled or prevented if we had correct services. Changing into a physician isn’t only a private purpose for me; it’s a method to assist my individuals reside more healthy, longer lives.” These aspirations are sometimes deeply rooted in private experiences and pushed by the necessity to deal with and overcome the challenges that ladies could witness round them. 

Conversely, a scarcity of interplay with position fashions—that’s, girls who’re from comparable backgrounds and are at present pursuing careers in STEM—has been a deterrent for women to pursue engineering. They’re unable to ‘see themselves’ in tech.  

Analysis additionally reveals that ladies gravitate to careers they consider will fulfill communal values of care, and engineering is commonly judged to fall brief on this account. That is additionally rooted in how girls are socialised from an early age to prioritise care-based roles that embody values of serving to and therapeutic. By societal and familial expectations, media illustration, and academic experiences, ladies are persistently directed in the direction of careers similar to medication, educating, or social work, that are framed as inherently nurturing and oriented in the direction of serving to others. Our focus teams mirror this: ladies describe medication as ‘serving society’, whereas concurrently not giving a lot thought to the position that engineering may play in positively impacting society by means of improvements in expertise or infrastructure, as an example.  

3. Dad and mom hedge for security and social respectability 

In a rural Karnataka faculty, one of many college students we spoke to mentioned that her mother and father had informed her, “Hospitals want docs all over the place; factories are far-off and infrequently unsafe.” Parental calculations relating to their youngster’s security, logistical considerations round journey, mixed with elements similar to familiarity with different girls who could also be pursuing comparable profession targets, typically are likely to nudge ladies in the direction of biology and even the civil companies, away from the perceived dangers of engineering schools.  

4. Classroom cues nudge ladies in the direction of biology 

Lengthy earlier than the subject-choice types arrive, many ladies have already internalised a quiet message about the place they belong in science. In on a regular basis classes, academics typically reward ladies for the neatness of a cell diagram whereas complimenting boys on having a ‘logical maths mind’. They typically encourage extra boys to take up initiatives on robotics or to resolve trickier physics issues. Whereas these micro-signals are often unconscious, when clubbed with a scarcity of feminine role-models in engineering and parental preferences for seemingly safer and extra proximate careers, they make biology really feel like a path the place ladies usually tend to succeed.  

What we tried to do 

In 2022, Avanti Fellows began engaged on focused STEM engagement primarily based on steady studying and adaptation. We started with a 20-hour life expertise programme centered on constructing ladies’ company and confidence for knowledgeable profession decision-making. In 12 months two, we expanded to 450 ladies throughout eight faculties, incorporating gender-focused conversations right into a blended programme. Nonetheless, whereas ladies reported elevated confidence, this didn’t translate into totally different topic selections for sophistication 11.  

In 12 months three, this important perception led us to pivot in the direction of hands-on STEM golf equipment that instantly addressed why ladies keep away from maths at school 11. By coding and electronics workshops, problem-solving periods, knowledge analytics modules, and significant interactions with engineers, we aimed to make STEM extra tangible, accessible, and related to real-world affect.  

What labored, and what didn’t  

1. Getting an experiential really feel of the stream helps  

Roughly 60 p.c of the women throughout 5 JNVs the place we ran STEM golf equipment shared that the immersive expertise of various careers similar to knowledge analytics, structure and concrete planning, electronics, and coding made them rethink their profession plans. Participating in hands-on actions that used physics and maths, similar to making playing cards with LED bulbs, helped college students see themselves as builders and creators. 

2. Early publicity sparks curiosity, however decision-making requires steering  

Our expertise has proven that whereas many ladies at school 9—particularly after a 12 months of STEM membership engagement—expressed a robust curiosity in engineering and started to see it as a viable profession path, this preliminary enthusiasm didn’t all the time translate into selecting maths at school 11.  

That is why well timed steering and intervention are essential, notably through the transition to senior secondary faculty when college students choose their topic streams. Profession counselling at this stage performs a pivotal position in serving to ladies make knowledgeable and assured selections. 

Complete discussions concerning the alternatives that arithmetic can unlock, together with clear, factual details about obtainable programs, schools, and placement prospects, could make a major distinction. Most significantly, on-line or offline interactions with girls who’re engineering college students or working within the subject can function a supply of inspiration and steering.  

3. Elevated curiosity and confidence will not be sufficient to bridge rating gaps 

Whereas STEM golf equipment can spark curiosity, they aren’t sufficient to stop educational slippage, particularly in aggressive exams. For example, we noticed a five-point distinction within the JEE outcomes of sophistication 12 ladies and boys from the JNV faculties that we work in. This indicated that regardless of finding out in the identical residential faculties and receiving the identical check prep and profession steering interventions, ladies had been scoring decrease than boys within the JEE.  

Even when ladies enter class 11 with comparable baseline scores, they have an inclination to fall behind by the point the ultimate JEE examination is held. This underscores the necessity for classroom educating that actively works in the direction of equal outcomes. Academics should make the appliance of ideas express, encourage ladies to talk up and ask questions, and use check knowledge to determine and deal with studying gaps. Common small-group counselling periods primarily based on this knowledge can supply focused suggestions and assist, serving to ladies keep on observe and construct confidence. 

When requested what would assist them succeed, ladies in our programmes persistently spotlight particular wants: they need academics to pause and examine if college students are in a position to sustain what’s being taught moderately than speeding by means of content material, and provides extra working examples that join summary formulation to real-world purposes. Many categorical that mixed-gender research areas typically make them hesitant, as they fear about being teased or judged for giving unsuitable solutions, preferring to ask questions after class or in a small group after they’re uncertain.  

Women additionally worth academics who normalise errors as studying alternatives and affirm and encourage curiosity. One scholar famous, “When the instructor says ‘good query’ even after I suppose it’s a fundamental one, I really feel like asking extra.” 

Within the 12 months 2025–26, our crew has developed a framework and guidebooks for academics to construct their mindsets and capacities to handle the precise wants of ladies of their lecture rooms, together with by sharing gender-disaggregated check outcomes knowledge with academics and serving to them conduct small-group counselling with college students.  

4. Dad and mom play a significant position 

Most of our work within the Women in STEM programme has up to now centered instantly on college students. By this, we realised that oldsters play an important position in shaping their daughters’ aspirations, self-belief, and finally their selections of programs and careers. We additionally noticed that parental affect tends to be stronger on ladies in our programmes than on boys. Constructing on this perception, we are actually planning to work carefully with mother and father—each by means of in-person workshops and on-line periods—to lift publicity and consciousness about skilled choices. These periods will even deal with misconceptions about additional schooling and careers STEM, and spotlight the important position mother and father play in supporting their daughters’ educational journeys, together with selections that will contain finding out away from residence.  

The journey is ongoing, and so is the training  

We don’t have all of the solutions but. Our work over the previous three years has been a technique of experimentation and discovery. 

No single issue can clarify why ladies don’t go for engineering. These choices are formed by an online of influences—educational efficiency, classroom dynamics, parental expectations, peer behaviour, publicity, and self-doubt—that usually reinforce one another. Addressing only one barrier in isolation is unlikely to create lasting change. As such, what is required is a complete strategy that tackles a number of challenges without delay, and an effort to strive totally different interventions to know which of them can transfer the needle most successfully. 

We started with a life expertise strategy, shifted our focus to gender and aspiration-building, after which moved in the direction of fostering confidence and curiosity by means of hands-on STEM golf equipment. Alongside the best way, we now have realised that having the ability to maintain pursuits all through the high-pressure years of courses 11 and 12 is important. 

At current, we’re specializing in senior secondary interventions and exploring whether or not a robust, centered profession steering programme initially of sophistication 11 might help extra ladies—particularly those that have already chosen science—to not drop maths. We’re additionally partaking mother and father extra deliberately to assist make engineering really feel like an aspirational and attainable alternative. Furthermore, it’s equally vital to construct the capability of academics to have the ability to facilitate equal outcomes for each ladies and boys. For this, we’re working with academics to assist college students as they put together for aggressive exams by means of small-group mentorship periods. These conversations are designed to assist college students construct readability on long-term targets, handle the stress of balancing board exams with JEE/NEET preparation, and mirror on their progress. The small-group periods additionally give attention to enhancing time administration, leveraging assist methods similar to mother and father and friends, overcoming educational backlogs, and sustaining motivation.  

By creating house for reflection and confidence-building, we purpose to make sure that college students, particularly ladies, can navigate challenges and pursue larger schooling. The journey is way from over. However with every initiative, we’re getting slightly nearer to understanding what it should take to actually degree the enjoying subject in STEM.  

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Know extra 

• Study extra concerning the gaps and challenges that affect ladies’ entry to STEM schooling. 
• Perceive the significance of early and inclusive profession steering for schoolchildren. 
• Learn about the elements influencing girls’s participation in STEM fields in India.