The fantasy concerning ladies
In Focus reveals the parable concerning ladies and women in science in Bangladesh
I am at a research lab at national capital University wherever no lady is crying or talking concerning love. With a steely resolve and monastic devotion, they're operating shoulder to shoulder with the boys to see the extent of contamination in foods. one in every of them is analyzing chemical residue in vegetable samples whereas another is estimating sulfur medicine in chicken and beef.
Nothing they're doing here supports the outrageous quip Tim Hunt, the award-winning English chemist created concerning ladies scientists at a global conference last year in Seoul: “Let Maine tell you concerning my hassle with women … 3 things happen after they area unit within the laboratory … You fall gaga with them, they fall gaga with you and once you criticize them, they cry.”
This sexist perspective is exactly why ladies stay underrepresented in Physics, Chemistry and arithmetic in virtually each country within the world. consistent with the foremost recent United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization Science Report, ladies account for less than twenty-eight p.c of science researchers across the globe whereas the amount is concerning fourteen p.c in Bangladesh. MA Aziz, prof of Physics and Dean of the school of Sciences at DU says, “In the Ph.D. and MPhill programs we have a tendency to like ladies students as they're additional serious concerning their studies. In Physics, Chemistry and science ladies secure high positions within the advantage list on a daily basis. They additionally do fine as college members.”
We are also off from the proportion that's ideal, however, ladies and women area unit abundant higher levels of success in science than fiction tells North American country. Nilufar Nahar, prof, and chairwoman of Department of Chemistry of DU says, “30-40 p.c of our students' area unit women World Health Organization pass the doorway communicating on the idea of advantage, not any quota. additional ladies area unit finding out sciences at the university level in Bangladesh than within the North American country, the united kingdom, and different European countries.”
This is news to me. What then explains the low number of female researchers? Professor Nahar says, “It's not lack of merit or discrimination in the allocation of funds and opportunities in research, scholarship or admission, it is the societal attitude and lack of family support. There is a misconception that women do not do well in physical sciences. And research demands long hours in the lab. Sometimes families do not like them to stay away from home for such long hours. Women have to juggle full-time research and homemaking.”
The students I talk to echo the professor's view. Jannatun Noor Beauty, a final year student who is conducting research on microplastic says, “The teachers and the staff are very supportive of us. We have to work in the lab till late in the evening. We don't face any problems.” Rehnuma Tabassum, a Masters student who is doing research on the pollution of the waters in the Sundarbans is thankful to both teachers and the staff for making them feel safe and secure at the department. Rafa Islam, a Ph.D. student working on antibiotic residue in foods says she is being able to carry out her research without worry due to her husband's support.
Bright, motivated and committed, most of them want to go to the US or Europe for higher studies and then return to give back to the society. And they are. Tanvir Muslim, a Professor at the department says, “Our students have a 100 percent success rate in securing a visa. The number of female students going abroad, however, is low. Family members want them to be married and have kids.”
The female students of other science related subjects are doing equally well. Rafiqul Islam, Professor of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Former Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Technology says, “Girls constitute one-third of our total students while one-fourth of our faculty members is female. I have given lectures at universities in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, China and Japan and I can say that the number of women studying sciences in our country is higher than that in these countries. They do better in research.”
Why is this remarkable accomplishment of women little known to the public? What has caused the false myth of girls' intrinsic unsuitability for science? “I think the media have an important role to play here,” Professor Rafiqul Islam says. “Our women are doing better than those in the developed countries. For the past three years, they have been securing the top position in my department. They usually do better in research. However, their participation in engineering is lower.”
Now that's a sad reality. Take a walk around engineering universities and colleges—not only in this country but anywhere in the world—and you will see an overwhelming percentage of males studying there. When our girls outnumber boys in medical education and biological sciences, why are there so few female students in the engineering sciences? Alia Rahman Papri, a final year student of mechanical engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) says, “When I enrolled, there were only 15 girls out of a total of 180. The notion that women do well in the medical sciences but not in engineering is a fallacy. The number of girls is relatively low in engineering sciences not because they are less qualified, it's because a fewer number of girls takes the entrance exam.”
The obvious question is why. Alia Rahman says, “There is a myth that one has to lift heavy things and do laborious physical work while studying mechanical engineering. People express their surprise when I tell them that I am studying mechanical engineering. What people don't understand is that mechanical engineers are not mechanics or technicians. It is true that fewer girls go for engineering after passing HSC but once they get in they do better than 60 percent of the boys.” Alia is conducting research in biomedical engineering and is planning on going to the US for further studies.
How are women doing in other universities of the country? Md Nurul Alam, Professor of Physics and former Dean of the faculty of Science of Jahangirnagar University says, “Ours is a residential university. We admit students according to the number of residential seats available each year. I would say, in the undergraduate program, out of a total of 70 students at least 25 are women each year.”
Again, the numbers are encouraging as they translate into 35 percent of the total number of students in physics. Elsewhere in the country in Rajshahi University, in the physical sciences, 14 percent teachers and 26 percent students are women. In the biological sciences, the percentages are 16 and 47 respectively, consistent with Arun Kumar Basak, prof retired at the Department of Physics. “Girls have several limitations obligatory on them by society,” says prof Basak, Associate in Nursing internationally celebrated nuclear and atomic man of science. “After the wedding, their analysis is usually interrupted. If our society must advance keeping with the time we have a tendency to area unit in, additional women got to get into science and that they ought to be inspired to try to, therefore. we have a tendency to as a society ought to create it straightforward for them to check science instead of producing barriers for them.”
Identifying the foundation causes of women's unequal participation in science is hardly straightforward. like any complicated issue there's no clear soft spot, no single underlying reason that explains it. The barriers area unit multilayered. Shamima K Choudhury, prof of Physics at the University of national capital says, “Women area unit neglected in terms of recognition even once doing exceptionally well. ladies in scientific professions face discrimination in terms of employment, promotion, and retention. Barriers that limit women's entry to careers in science embody lack of grants and funding, reconciliation family and career, gender biases, scarceness of job openings, having and rearing kids, lack of mentors and role models, kid care support, laboratory area and lack of confidence. it's aforesaid that girls got to work doubly as exhausting as men to indicate that they're equally competent. Encouraging ladies to require science ought to begin at the secondary level.”
As the country takes the breakthrough to additional prosperity, Bangladesh desires science and science desire additional ladies. And as for the young ladies at the research lab at national capital University, I would like they notice love on or off laboratories while not paying any attention whatever to Tim Hunt's absurd remark.
