Girls and women make up half of the world’s population, but their participation in scientific research is lagging. In many countries, this differential contribution starts at school. In the US, for example, girls are less likely to take advanced calculus, physics, math and biology in high school.
In many other countries, the number of girls choosing to study science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) is significantly lower than that of boys. Women make up only 35% of STEM graduates worldwide and earn only 40% of STEM PhDs. Furthermore, based on data from 146 countries, women scientists make up only 30% of the STEM workforce, which includes academic and faculty positions. This systematic decline of women at various stages of STEM education and careers is commonly referred to as the “leaky pipeline.”
And India at first glance seems to be an exception.
Where are the “leaks”?
At school level, almost all students have “science” as a compulsory subject, and girls participate (at least unofficially) in science quizzes, Olympiads, summer schools, hackathons and hands-on DIY challenges. After Class X, enrollment of girls in the “science” stream can be as high as 60%, with girls accounting for 46% of all pass-throughs of all Class XIIs. In 2025, the Ministry of Education announced that for the first time in more than ten years, it passed the XII exam. science classes more girls than arts stream. This indicated a significant increase in the participation of girls in science education: according to data from 2014, 7.5 thousand more girls graduated than in science. As a result, India boasts the highest percentage of female STEM graduates in the world, with 43% of female science graduates at the bachelor’s level and nearly 50% at the master’s and doctoral levels.
But aside from the encouraging statistics, India really has a gaping pipeline for women in STEM – except that it looks different from the rest of the world.
Although it produces the highest number of female STEM graduates, women make only 18% research and development workforce in the country. A report by the Ministry of Science and Technology reveals that women made up less than 30% of scientists in India’s national research agencies; the highest representation was in the Indian Council of Medical Research at 29% and the lowest in the Defense Research and Development Organization at 14%. Women also make up only 8% of teachers at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and 11-13% of scientists at the IITs. While university settingboth government and private, show a higher representation, the numbers are still below 30%.
Typical Indian environment
This means that while women in India are entering STEM education in large numbers, they are underrepresented in scientific research positions. This “leaky pipe” persists due to a combination of social, structural and systemic problems.
In schools, girls in India are often encouraged to pursue science, and those interested in science are seen as “good” or “smart” girls, with teachers, peers and parents looking favorably on “wanting to be a scientist”. Yet as women progress through their science education—which can take years of training and dedication to complete—social expectations pose obstacles to their career plans. Completing a PhD often coincides with finding a job in research, as well as family instructions to ‘settle down’, have children and ‘focus’ on the household. In a typical Indian socio-cultural environment, women often move to their husband’s place of residence, adjust to the new family structure, and handle a greater share of childcare and domestic responsibilities, all of which pose significant challenges in finding lucrative scientific research positions and positions.
Scientific recruitment in government research organizations has strict age restrictions, especially for entry-level positions, in addition to erratic recruitment practices, shortage of positions, and specific mandates for certain areas of research. For women, given geographic constraints and family responsibilities, accessing these long-term jobs means doing so within age eligibility and in a defined location, factors that lead to a limited set of options. Academic jobs also do not allow telecommuting; while certain roles may allow for flexible and hybrid working models, they typically do not directly involve research or teaching.
Position gap
At the level of the research ecosystem, some of these social and structural problems are being addressed through special recruitment drives and funding programs for women scientists. Despite these measures, institutions lag behind in ensuring gender parity at the time of recruitment and gender equality initiatives either were limited to pilot projectsthey are not properly motivated or are associated with minimal responsibility.
As a result, most female STEM PhD holders in India find themselves unable to secure long-term, lucrative and prestigious research positions. This results in a position gap where women scientists often have to contend with short-term, contract, insecure and unstable positions, such as positions in quasi-academic initiatives, entities funded by grants, fellowships or “soft money”, positions without full benefits, promotions or increments, and roles with limited career progression.
The large “leakage” in India’s STEM pipeline, as seen in the steep attrition of female scientists during the transition from science education to the research workforce, is the result of social, structural and systemic issues – and is reflected in the status gap that prevents most trained women scientists from long-term and sustained participation in scientific research.
Karishma S Kaushik is a physician-scientist and scientific consultant. She recently published a book for girls and women pursuing STEM education and careers.
Published – 8 March 2026 08:00 IST
