September 22, 2022
Promoting Gender Equity in Science
IITKGP Foundation
Do you wonder why our news features often feature the boys of Kgp? You know the answer — and we do not want to shy away from the fact that there have never been enough women in STEM education. The story is not very different globally.
Chandralekha Singh, Kgpian, eminent physicist, and distinguished professor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, investigated how gender experiences and career expectations factor into the gender imbalance in physics.
Singh and her collaborators observed women display a high magnitude of low self-confidence despite academic excellence. Their research also showed that in fields such as Physics, women feel a sense of gender bias in recognition of their caliber. This leads to many of them leaving the fields.
Taking inspiration from Eileen Pollack’s 2015 memoir The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club, Singh narrates her solivagant navigation in the world of physics and her research on the status of women in the field. She further shares insights into cultural and behavioral changes that could encourage better participation of diverse groups.
Read the full story authored by Singh on Nature Careers Community: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-00694-3