Are female academics more research resilient? Evidence from South India’s engineering institutions

Bakthavatchaalam, Venkat

Abstract

This study explores the various factors that influence female academics to be able to conduct research and publish in a developing country scenario, specifically India. This ongoing study focuses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education, SDG5: Gender Equality and SDG8: Decent Work and Economic Development by looking at South India’s engineering academics, with the main purpose of identifying and exploring various factors influencing their employment and Research Productivity (RP).
The study uses a qualitative approach to understand the perceptions of the academics regarding the various hurdles faced by female academics in their research and the mechanisms they use to overcome them. Interviews were conducted with both male and female academics. Content analysis was used for data analysis. This research builds upon the quantitative results from a previous study on this topic by Bakthavatchaalam (2018), who identified that, as in many developing countries, Indian female academics face a considerable number of disadvantages, such as economic pressures, family duties, not being able to access adequate resources and interestingly, social and cultural factors vis-a-vis their male peers. Even with these disadvantages, the study revealed, rather surprisingly, that female academics had similar levels of research productivity with their counterpart male academics. This research examines how female academics are managing to achieve this level of productivity.

• Online Publication Date: Dec 8, 2020
• Publication Date: Dec 8, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 12, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 20, 2021
• Pages: 148-188
• Book Title: STEM Education for Girls and Women. Breaking barriers and exploring gender inequality in Asia
• Chapter Number: 8
• ISBN: 9789292236625
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6982306
• Publisher URL: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375106
• Contract Date: Dec 10, 2019