Hyderabad: Over a hundred astrophysicists gathered for scientific deliberations on the third day of the Astronomical Society of India’s conference held at Osmania University on Wednesday to discuss why there is a persistent gender gap in astrophysics profession in India.
Women involved in astrophysics in India is limited to around 30-40 per cent of PhD students and around 20 per cent in university departments and further around 10 per cent in the elite research institutes.
Reasons for this gap are not well-understood and are clearly complex but the patterns reflect both the global trend and the trends in physics academia as a whole. The Astronomical Society of India responded to the problem by constituting a working group in 2015 to gather statistics, increase awareness and facilitate a more equitable work environment in astrophysics in the country.
Presenting a preliminary analysis of a survey of participants in the Astronomical Society of India meeting held in 2013, Dr Preeti Kharb of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) - Tata Institute of Fundamental Research showed that gender-based discrimination was clearly acknowledged by junior astrophysicists as well as senior faculty, and more so, by the women.
But the PhD students were largely unaware of any gender-based discrimination in the field.
