Gender, Subject Choice and Higher Education in India

Abstract

The increased participation of women in higher education in India since 1947 has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Since independence, there have been shifts–dispersal and clustering of women students in various disciplines in higher education. There is a need to understand the processes of decision making regarding schooling, subject choice and access (physical and social) to higher education. The article examines the factors affecting the subject choices of women in higher education and how diverse contexts of gender consideration influence choices made at the post-secondary and undergraduate levels. This exploratory study of women students at a university in Delhi showed that the family and the school were the key institutions that shaped their choice of subjects. In the family, the father played a prominent role in deciding the subject choice, and gender mediated the entire decision-making process. At the undergraduate level, women’s subject choice was compromised by concerns related to their gender. Priority was given to the institution, to its location and to the availability of an attached hostel, rather than to the subject or discipline.

Gender Equity in Education

“…Similar findings are recorded by Gautam (2015) from her study that involved interviews with female students in a university in India about their choice of disciplines/subjects. The study analyses the nature of structural limits and constraints to female education that are in turn closely tied to the construction of their gendered identities.…”

“…Another feature in tertiary education that has been remarked about is the clustering of female students in select disciplines of higher education. It has been noted that girls are found in greater numbers in the disciplines of Humanities and Social Sciences, which are perceived as feminine (Chanana 2007;Gautam 2015;Gunawardena et al 2006). The "choice" of these subjects has implications going forward for the employment opportunities of the girls.…”

Selection of An Engineering Institution: Students’ Perceptions of Choice Characteristics and Suitability under the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Mansfield & Warwick (2006) recognized gender discrepancies in several institutional attributes due to different ecological conditions. Studies segregated the evaluation of gender differences in educational benefits/outcomes (Malgwi et al, 2005a), finance aspects (Cattaneo et al, 2017), influence and human support (Mishkin et al, 2016) (Kelly et al, 2019), cultural aspects (Salami, 2007a), safety and security (Calitz et al, 2020), physical and social atmosphere (Mansfield & Warwick, 2006) (M. Gautam, 2015), socioeconomic context (Gupta, 2012), information sources (Veloutsou et al, 2005b), and behavioral and psychometric settings (Kolmos et al, 2013) while selecting an institution of their choice. These reflections are analogous in the case of making choices for engineering colleges.…”

Mobilität und Zeitgestaltung

“…Für die Familien ist die Investition in die Bildung der Kinder wiederum an die Aspiration vom gesellschaftlichen Aufstieg geknüpft (Jeffery 2005: 35). Schon in der Schulzeit werden Töchter und Söhne auf bestimmte (berufliche) Laufbahnen vorbereitet, die über ein Studium von Fächern wie Medizin, Ingenieurwissenschaften oder Jura zu Erfolg führen sollen (Säävälä 2010: 33;Gautam 2015). Vor allem junge Männer werden unter Druck gesetzt, da von ihnen erwartet wird, Hauptverdiener und Oberhaupt ihrer eigenen Familie zu werden (Donner 2015: 143;Jeffrey 2010b).…”

“…Von Seiten der Eltern wird nicht nur Druck ausgeübt, sondern auch starke Kontrolle, die auf Überlegungen basiert, wie aus den Investitionen der größte Erfolg generiert werden kann. Dies bedeutet unter anderem, dass die Eltern versuchen, auf wichtige Entscheidungen wie die Wahl des Studienfaches Einfluss zu nehmen, da angenommen wird, dass nur Fächer wie Medizin, Ingenieurwissenschaften oder Jura Erfolg garantieren (Säävälä 2010: 33;Gautam 2015). Im Fall von Nathin wird deutlich, wie die Eltern versuchten, auf die Fächerwahl einzuwirken: My dad always wanted me to be a computer engineer, but then I realized I'm really not good in maths like my dad -or computers.…”