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Anjali Prayag

Girls do better than boys in academics. But at the cross roads of professional courses and careers, most prefer to take the back seat. Why does this happen and will this situation change?

While delivering the Second International Women's Day Lecture at National Aerospace Laboratories in Bangalore, Dr Manju Sharma, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, made a loaded statement: "The media calls me an aggressive secretary and I don't mind it.''

Is aggressiveness one of the factors that directly makes a person successful and is the lack of it seen as failure? Why do girls so rarely make it to the top positions, especially when they have been consistently outperforming boys in the Class X and Class XI examinations?

Every year, the State Board and the Central Board examination results always say, `As usual, the girls fared better than boys in the X standard examinations this year.' What happens to these bright girls, say 10 years later? Why are they in the shadows and very rarely in the limelight?

Is it lack of aggressiveness at a later age that pushes them to the rungs? Why do management schools have only 30 girls out of 120 students and engineering colleges have only 20 girls out of 100 students in every batch?

A simplistic explanation lies in the fact that not as many women pursue higher studies, as do men. But the problem is more complex than this. Even the ones that do pursue tend to drop out or lose the pace in a few years' time.

While a few argue that it's a social challenge, some women that we spoke to agreed that it's a psychological reaction to what's happening around them.

"Yes, it's true that girls work at a feverish pitch when they enrol for a doctorate. They are hardworking and very very motivated. But towards the end of the first year or the second, the slackening starts and I have noticed it in batch after batch of students,'' says Dr Anjali Karande, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Endorses Dr M S Shaila, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, "In my experience, this sentiment runs very deep in South India. And things don't seem to have changed much since my time.'' The consensus that girls start out much better than boys is true, says Dr Shaila. "The commitment is much higher, but the path ahead is not as straightforward for them as for the boys.''

This can be attributed to one major social event in their lives: marriage. According to her, unfortunately the social fabric of India has not changed much and the same pattern continues to wrap generations after generations.

Answering Dr Sharma's question about why there are not any women directors in science institutes, she says, even in campus marriages, it's the girl's career that takes a backseat. "If it's locational change, it's almost always the woman scientist who gives up her research to accommodate her husband's aspirations.'' It naturally hinders her potential to be a topper.

Surprisingly, not many women protest this break in their career. Both Dr Karande and Dr Shaila agree that most girls opt out voluntarily. "That's because they have been taught to play down their ambitions to suit their husband's persona.''

Says Padma Madhuranath, Deputy Director, Flight Mechanics and Control Division, NAL, "It's usually the individual girl's decision to be aggressive or not.'' Most of them want to balance their two roles of career woman and homemaker without upsetting the social norms. And they end up blanking out some of their professional desires and ambitions.

Most often this happens voluntarily and at a sub-conscious level without feelings of frustration about the sacrifice they are making. It's only when their right to go to work is curbed that they protest. Once they are onto a job, things just fall into place, though most of the decisions are influenced by socio-psychological factors.

Padma, who has reached the level of Deputy Director in a male-dominated field such as aerospace, says, "If you want to reach the top, that extra effort is imperative. You can reach the middle level without greasing your elbows much. That's when most women decide to opt out of the rat race. While some women opt to reach the top, some do not."

Most of the times it's a woman's judgement of her status in society, her organisation and her family life that determines her motivation to climb the next rung.

This aviation engineer says this does not mean that women lack aggressiveness or the will to succeed. It's just that their definition of success may be different. "Take the case of women who are running dance and art schools so well. Are these women any less successful? It's just that they have chosen to be in this field and make a mark there.''

So, she opines, "If you have chosen a field and achieved a milestone there, it's good, if you have not, that's because it's inconvenient for you.''

Dr Shaila agrees. "The hesitant mindset is in our upbringing. Most of them prefer to be sacrificing and silent about it. We always prefer the softer option.''

This female psyche of `letting the male do better than us' is a result of parental attitude toward daughters, feels Dr Karande. "We are three daughters and my parents never made us feel that we lack talent or ambition. I have two sons and they are being brought up the same way as we were.''

Dr Manju Sharma agrees that it's not aggressiveness that women lack, but they are weighed down by the load of playing dual roles. "Whatever time is left for them after official work, they devote to their families.'' Another factor that Padma feels goes in favour of men climbing higher and faster on the career ladder is the fact they have plenty of time for networking with their colleagues and peers. "We women like to rush home after work. It's not that I'm not invited to dinners and lunches but after a conference or a seminar, we start thinking of home and just have to leave.''

This is where most women lost out, especially in a corporate career. Says Neena Giri, who's a marketing executive with a telecom services company, "Most of the boys in our group meet after work. Interaction with industry colleagues helps a lot as most job offers are made there.'' She cannot afford to keep long hours for obvious reasons.

Padma says that many women in her field lose out on exciting project offers because they have chosen not to network with peers. "We always weigh our decisions, even if it's simple ones such as having dinner with a colleague. We want the ideal situation and are therefore balancing our lives all the time. So, if we lose out, we cannot blame men for it.''

Dr K B Akhilesh, Professor, Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science, hits the nail on the head when he says the circle of decision making for girls is defined. He has seen boys pursue their career with a single-minded determination. "Education — job — career, the train is well on its tracks, but for the girls, there are many stops.'' He says, it's usually like this: Education is a must for girls. Job is okay, but career depends on several other factors.

But when it comes to academics, he points to a peculiar problem. He says girls outperform boys in schools because there they are in a protected environment. "When they are thrown into professional courses, they face tremendous pressure. And with a slight pulling factor, they tend to give up. Boys just cannot give up. They are expected to not only survive but also succeed.''

Prof. J Philip, Chairman, Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, however, does not subscribe to this view. He says, "There is no glass ceiling for the girls.'' In his institute, the present batch has 29 girls out of 60 students and they are doing as well if not better. "In temperament, steadiness and organising events, they always score better than the boys and this requires a lot of energy and aggressiveness.''

He talks of the days when he was Director, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. "Then there were eight girls out of 120 boys and the year I left, I made sure the number went up to 33.''

But are companies resolute about employing women for certain jobs and certain positions? Does this make or mar a woman's spunk? Says Dr Akhilesh, "Yes, girls do bring some of their problems to the table. Like working late, transfers, travel, which may influence the decision of the company to employ her or not.''

But there are a few exceptions, he feels. Some women have created a place for themselves and individual attitudes matter a lot in career growth.

Prof Sadagopan, Director, Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Bangalore, is emphatic that girls are not losing out. "It's just that in technical education, only 20 per cent of the students are girls and that explains why there are less number of girls in IIIT-B. But the drop out rate is zero,'' he says.

Padma concurs, "There are many engineers in the IITs who have the aggressiveness that the previous generation lacked. You have to persevere and believe me, it will change.'' She talks of the interview panels. "In my time, there were hardly any women. Now there's at least one, if not a couple of them on the committee.''

Dr Aparna Bhoj, Human Resource Consultant, Eduquity Career Technologies, a competence assessment firm, says this is a manifestation of the way people have socialised. "It's definitely not a problem as many people make it out to be.''

Commenting on the fact that there are less number of men in the social sciences and more in the technical fields, she asks, "Now you can ask me why there are so few men achievers in the social sciences.'' When Dr Bhoj, a psychologist, does career counselling, she finds that girls are more interested in job prospects than the boys. They are able to handle real world problems better. Dr Shaila agrees, "Girls can handle failures better than boys.''

On the other hand, there's one theory that says women are afraid of success. Dr Bhoj explains, there's a social image created for women that they have to be submissive. "They have to be on the rungs and not forerunners.''

Generally success in career and aggressiveness is associated with lack of feminity which influences most women in their career choices. Then there's an adage that you are alone at the top. Women fear this more than the men, though it's true for both sexes.

Other factors that are crucial in a woman's success graph are territorial behaviour of men (where men feel they have a certain role to play and are resentful of anyone entering their domain) and biological cycles of women. Generally, the industry does not accept prospective candidates after the age of 30. But, according to Dr Bhoj, most women peak in their careers between the ages of 30 and 50, while for the men it's between the ages of 20 and 40.

"But will the industry employ anyone over 30 and working for the first time in her life?'' asks Dr Bhoj, who has been studying the sex role orientation of children says compared to 10 years ago, present-day children (age group 13-15) are more androgynous in nature. "That is, you find a mix of both feminine and masculine traits among these children.'' Ten years back, girls had feminine traits and boys, masculine traits that may have played some part in their career choices. This new phenomenon is because parents are not very rigid about sex role orientation. Hopefully, this will have an effect 10 years from now and you may just see more girls topping in technical and science courses.

Picture: Shaju John

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