Hyderabad: It is not just research institutions where gender disparity exists, it starts with the universities. Osmania University, which will be completing 100 years in 2018, has never had a woman as its vice-chancellor.
This holds true of the central universities in Hyderabad as well: University of Hyderabad, in existence since 1974, and the Maulana Azad National Urdu University established in 1998 had never a woman as vice-chancellor.
The English and Foreign Languages University has a woman vice-chancellor, but the Central university does not have a science department.
The gender gap is skewed even when it comes to the teaching faculty. At UoH, only about 27 per cent of the teaching staff women. There are four women teachers in MANUU's science department out of a total strength of 17.
Osmania University does better, where 40 per cent of the teaching staff comprises women. It is not as if there are fewer women in the science departments, the well-spring from where universities and resea-rch institutes draw their staff from. About 40 per cent of students at the graduation and PG levels is women.
Prof. Priya Hasan, astrophysicist and faculty member at physics department in MANUU, said, “There is a leakage between the number of women pursuing higher studies and the number of women coming to work. While getting married and in some cases moving to a different place does result in a decrease in this number. There is also an inbuilt discrimination against women when it comes to recruitment. The discrimination is more when it comes to physics and mathematics departments. This discrimination needs to be addressed if more women are to be seen in academia and research in scientific institutions.”
