Nurture or Nature? How to make more verbal participation of Girl students in a classroom (UG Engineering)? Role of Women Faculty, Special Women Sections & Women Colleges! Read this Interesting perspective!

Dear Friends and Students

• Are you a Girl student studying in an Engineering College?
• How many times have you responded to your professor’s question in a classroom in the last 1 month?
• Are you always the first girl to respond to your professor’s question (right or wrong)?
• Did you observe any of your Girl classmates participating in more verbal conversation after you started the participation?
• Are you responding more to a female professor than a male professor?

Interesting questions right? Yes, these questions help in devising a strategy for closing the participation gender gap in engineering courses! Last month IEEE Transactions on Education published (phys.org) interesting research on this topic. Without any bias and prejudice, I am trying to present.

Regardless of western or conservative society, student identities are playing an important role in how they speak up in a classroom.  Princeton University Research says women speak less than men in UG Engineering classes. However, it is not true in case the instructor is a woman. The research found that women are much more likely to speak after another woman has spoken in class.
In 2018, the University of Cambridge also published a similar article. It found women are two and a half times less likely to ask a question in departmental seminars than men. “This engagement has a domino effect, when a woman asked the first question, there was a 7.6% increase in the proportion of following questions asked by other women.”
If this is true in western classroom settings, I am sure the same or more percentage in Indian classroom settings too. Somebody has to take up this research to corroborate this fact.
Having said that, in spite of this phenomenon in the classroom setting, In contrast, the Indian IT industry is attracting more women than men. In 2011, the women's workforce was 21%. Now it has increased to 34%. This year more women received higher packages than men in Campus Selections.
At this stage, I asked the following question to Google. What percentage of engineering students in India are female? It says as follows.
Canada 21.8% (2017), UK 17.57% (2017), USA 19.7% (2016), whereas India stands at 30% (2018). I am sure it might have increased further by 2022. I am not making any conclusion based on these facts but I observe Indian UG Women Engineering students are making a distinctive attempt.
Summary: More Indian girls are showing interest in STEM courses. More Indian girls are getting selected for IT/ITES Jobs. However, a large proportion of women tend to exit the industry after the first five years of employment (the print, Feb 2020). I feel there is also less verbal participation of Girl students in a classroom.
How do we solve this issue?  
Dear Teacher, Identify a girl who bells the cat in a classroom setting. She helps other fellow girl students to speak more.
Dear Govt. and Managements, Recruit & identify women faculty who can make the classroom more participative and drive meaningful conversations. Increase and strengthen Women Engineering Colleges.
Nancy Gray, President of Hollins University, Virginia published an interesting article- “Women’s colleges help young women find their voices, learn how to “lean in,” and develop the confidence to push back against the challenges”
While we appreciate and accept the modern culture, we cannot discount and discourage our traditional approach. A fine balance between modern thoughts and our traditional values makes Indian girls outshine in STEM education and in engineering work. We are on the way, however, there is more to do!
Nurture or Nature? I think both are needed and to be preserved!!

Ravi Saripalle

About the Author

Dr. Ravi Saripalle, Director, Center for Innovation and Incubation, Gayatri Vidya Parishad College of Engineering, Vizag, AP, India., Founder, Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement, Former Program Manager, Wipro Technologies, 23 of Experience in Industry, Mentoring, Research, and Academics.

Note: Opinions expressed by authors are their own.