- Shreya narrates her distressing experience on her first-ever visit to a factory shop floor
- Addressing the gender gap in her classrooms, Shreya speaks up on government initiatives for a gender-inclusive manufacturing sector
- Lack of awareness about Electrical Engineering has kept women away from joining the sector
Shreya Nadgouda is pursuing a master's in Electronic Engineering and diligently pursuing her childhood dream of becoming an industry professional. Belonging to a family of engineers, she had chalked her path in engineering right from the beginning. She was never afraid or hesitant to choose the core engineering sector of electronics. Ever since she embarked on her journey, she has held on to a positive attitude not knowing what her journey beholds.
There were people and relatives who were not completely in favor of Shreya’s interest in Electrical Engineering. “There were individuals who initially suggested me to take up information technology or biotech-related engineering but not core engineering like mechanical or electrical,” Shreya remembers how her decision was incongruous with her close family members who deemed males as the rightful heir to Electrical Engineering. Nonetheless, Shreya was determined to push on, inspired by the versatility in Electrical Engineering which opens door to domains like avionics, software, semiconductor industry automation, etc.
India’s Education Reeks of Gender Disparity
The gender ratio in engineering colleges is alarming, says Shreya. “In 2016, when I joined college for my Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering, in a class of 60 there were only 12 to 15 girls jostled to adjust to the learning environment.” “In my batch, there were just 5 girls in mechanical engineering.” The class population is a glaring proof of gender stereotypes that have not spared even the education institutions.
While pursuing her bachelor, Shreya wanted to do a certification course in Industrial Automation so she approached a renowned institution to acquire training certification details. “I was shocked when the individual offhandedly confessed that he wanted to be frank with her and tell her that corporates will not be willing to recruit in candidates like her especially for roles in industrial automation which involves traveling going to remote areas, and often alone with unfriendly hours,” remembers Shreya with an air of disappointment.
From what Shreya has observed, the trend in engineering is that women who take up core engineering courses eventually switch to other streams, such as the teaching domain. This partially explains why the ratio of women in core engineering is heartbreakingly bleak.
Horrific and disheartening shop floor experience
Shreya reminisces an extremely disturbing experience which tells us how gender discrimination is rampant in many companies even today. ”My friend and I had the privilege of visiting the shop floor of one of the world’s leading manufactures in Bangalore.” “We were treated as outsiders, with cold hostility. Not a single women employee came to our attention.” There was not a single female working there.” Shreya recalls the sheer oddity of the situation they faced as college students visiting the floor to gain hands-on experience of the floor duties. Floor members bid us a quick adieu explaining that we were bare novices with inadequate skills and training.
Lack of awareness about core engineering opportunities
Shreya tries to reason why women crack strenuous entrance exams only to leave engineering midway. “There is a dearth of awareness about opportunities in the core engineering sector. “Some people hastily generalize that electrical engineering is only about fixing of wires, they have no idea about the subdomains like power engineering, power electronics, electric vehicles, etc.”
Shreya believes that Government is taking initiatives to empower upskill women and smoothen the creases left by gender discrimination in Indian manufacturing in their own way. The manufacturing sector should cordially collaborate with the government and educational institutions to whip up genuine enthusiasm towards engineering among women.
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