Gender Gap in engineering and medical Colleges in India

Abstract

Gender gap in Engineering streams is not new. More number of males are seen enrolling for these streams compared to females. In a developing country like India, the population is predominately young and this gap can make a large impact. Interestingly, a noticeable gender gap is also witnessed in students opting for medicine in India. The number of females opting to study medicine is higher compared to males. The large population also creates a surging demand for admissions into reputed institutes and these institutes are few in number, to make it an even ground for students to enter these institutes, National level examinations are conducted every year like the NEET and the AIEE. This present study looks at the statistical data from past five years of these National-level exams conducted for students interested to pursue medicine or engineering. These exams determine student’s admission into IIT’s and other reputed institutes. A significant and a constant gap was observed in gender. In a large democratic country, professional courses like engineering and medicine should not be exclusive for a single gender. Policies and further studies should be made to create these exams and courses gender inclusive