In this present world ,there is a vast change and improvement in the life style of women and their approach towards education.Women are coming up in different fields and Women are nowadays pursuing engineering which is considered as one of the prestigious professional qualification.But despite the progress in other fields ,women represent a minority in engineering.There are different reasons for minority of women in engineering and this situation can be improved.
Firstly , there is a meagre encouragement given for taking up engineering as a professional course.This is the effect of education becoming costly and parents want to save money for the girl's marriage. Once the parents find their girl children performing poor in academics there is a big NO for engineering eventhough the girls are interested.There is also a wrong connotation that if women has a professional qualification getting a bridegroom is difficult.Secondly, girls who feel they are not good at science or maths automatically divert their qualification away from engineering and they want to do a simple course which does not give much strain.
Very less number of students who are girls are entering IIT;the ratio is very less.Moreover there are not even handful of civil and mechanical engineers as girls.Again there is a negative connotation that women cannot sustain in this field and its difficlut for them to perform well.Its becoming rare to find women in streams like aeronautical engineering and the support given to this kind of courses is less.This situation needs to be changed.Number of women in engineering has to increase so that many budding women engineers come out in flying colours with their unique skills and innovativeness.
The girls should get away from fear that maths and science are difficult and they must face competitive entrance tests with courage. Counseling can be one of the outreach effort taken to openly hold talks with women.This can help them in many ways to get rid of their fear and boost up their confidence level.Women can express their problems to those counseling them.The awareness about what is engineering all about and the disciplines under the course can be conveyed to the school students since there is an illusion that pursuing engineering is very difficult and women cannot cope up with it.The parents must also take up counseling and they must also keep themselves well informed.
Engineering and the streams related to the course can be exhibited to encourage. Various competitions related to the same can be conducted for women and awards can be distributed which make them to self analyse their talents and skills.Organizations like IEEE has a separate body called "Women in Engineering" to encourage women to become engineers and get into relative jobs.Other ladies club members can join hands with this type of technical body to spread the message and to motivate more women to enter into engineering.This can be taken up as one of the social services even by the corporates who can give more clear picture about the course by sharing their experience and demonstrations as well.
Guest lectures can be conducted by eminent women personalities (who pursued engineering), to know some pragmatic examples about women who are successful engineers at present.This can help in building up role models who can influence the girls.Paper presentations and Design contests can conducted to motivate the girls.These outreach efforts can augment the percentage of women as engineers.
"Who is the next Kalpana Chawla?How many?"
