FINAL REPORT - Women’s Career Pathway in Chemical Sciences; a Multi-stage Investigation in Kerala, India
We are excited to share our final report with you all. This extensive report is based on responses from 262 women studying or working in the field of Chemical science from 99 institutions across Kerala. The broad coverage of the study encompasses women from various socio-economic and educational backgrounds and analyses their career pathways from primary school to the present career stage.
“We gathered the baseline data by constructing alarge database of more than 4000 institutions, research centres and industrial units related to Chemistry in Kerala, and randomly chosen women from these units were contacted for an online survey. Though our survey was initially planned to be conducted in person, COVID-19 made this difficult. Thus, we proceeded with a carefully designed online survey and telephonic interviews with the participants”, - P.M. Jasil
This report has been expert-reviewed independently by these amazing people:
Prof. Prajval Shastri, PhD. Adjunct Professor, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Australia; formerly with the Indian Institute of Astrophysics; Founder & Past Chair, Gender in Physics Working Group, Indian Physics Association
Ilyas Manakkadavan Doctoral Fellow, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India; Fulbright Doctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley, US
Anugraha Merin Rajan, PhD. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India
Vinod Arya, PhD. Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India
Krishna Rani S.D., PhD. Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, Farook College (Autonomous), Kozhikode, Kerala, India
“This is an excellent attempt to grapple with the complex causes of gender disparity in the chemical sciences in Kerala, which sets an example and will hopefully spur more and much needed such country-wide studies across all academic disciplines. Gender inequity is an obviously sociological phenomenon, and the fact that this collaboration included social scientists right from the conception stage puts it on a strong footing. The insights that have emerged deserve immediate attention by scientists, policymakers, and also communities and civil society” - Prof. Prajval Shastri
It’s been two years since we are working on this project, amidst all the challenges given by COVID-19. Without the help of these amazing people, we couldn’t have finished the work. We thank all of them wholeheartedly:
We thank Prajval Shastri, PhD., Anugraha Merin Rajan, PhD.; Ilyas Manakkadavan; Vinod Arya, PhD.; and Krishna Rani S.D., PhD. for their critical inputs during the study designing and review. We also wish to thank Ambika Aiyadurai PhD. (Assistant Professor-Anthropology, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India) and Deepa Khushalani PhD. (Professor in Materials Chemistry, Department of Chemical Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai) and for their insightful suggestions based on the preliminary results of the study.
We would like to put on record our deepest gratitude to the following people for their inputs in the study: Jaseemul Farhan K.P., (Dept. of Political Science), Abdul Wasih K.K., (Dept. of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University, India); Nadeeda Shada P.N., Femina Sherin O.V., Sahlath P. (Dept. of Chemistry, Farook College), Fida K.C. (Dept. of English, Farook College); Anaswar K. (Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kerala); Geetha K. (PKMMHSS Edarikode, Malappuram, Kerala); Noushad (IUHSS Parappur, Malappuram, Kerala); Vaishnav C. (Govt. Engineering College, Thrissur, Kerala); Rinsiya C. (Govt. Engineering College, Kozhikode, Kerala); Basil Ahamed E.A. (Alumni, Pondicherry University); Nupur Bhave (Research Consultant, The Habitat Trust). We thank Abdul Sathar C.P. and Muhamed Ali, E.K., PhD. (Dept. of English, Farook College) for proofreading an earlier version of the manuscript and Athulya P.S. (Research Scholar, Dept. of Malayalam & Kerala Studies, University of Calicut, Kerala) for translating the summary into Malayalam. Our sincere thanks to the mobile application development team headed by Jobin Sebastian (Managing Director) and C. Abdul Rahim (Solution Architect) at the Ralfiz Technologies, Kerala. We owe to thank Adhil Mohammed (Farook College, Kozhikode) for the illustrations and logo designs; and Xavier’s Association of Chemistry, St. Xavier’s college, Mumbai, India for their encouragement. We thank our families, mentors and friends for their constant support, especially Saanjbati Adhikari, Bonobithi Biswas, and Aswathi Anil.
Our heartfelt thanks to the Royal Society of Chemistry Inclusion and Diversity Team for their constant support during the entire project duration despite the challenges caused by the COVID-19 situation.
Hanan, P.T., Anu, P., Asmabi, K.K., Sreenath, T.C., Jasil, M.P. & Jithin, V. (2022). Women’s Career Pathway in Chemical Sciences; a Multi-stage Investigation in Kerala, India. Pp 88. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5178906; ISBN: 978-93-5620-171-2
We welcome your suggestions and comments on the report, do not hesitate to contact us! We also welcome anyone interested in translating the document into Malayalam to write to us.
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0)
