Need of Support for
Women Scientists to Work from Home
Mamata Mishra
Department of
Sociology
School of Social
Sciences
University of
Hyderabad
E-mail-
mamatamis@gmail.com
In
India woman is appreciated on the name of Rani Laxmibai and on the other side
is always a victim of patriarchy. Let’s speak about woman on this occasion of
world TB Day. Although some locations in
this nation still observe child marriage till date, in this same nation we have
witnessed many women who have crossed the ordinary boundary of the world. For
instance Rani Laxmibai, Mother Teresa, Indira Gandhi, P.T. Usha, Kalpana
Chawla, Lata Mangeshkar, Kiran Bedi, Bachendri Pal, Priya Jhingan, Harita Kaur
Deol, Karnam Malleswari, Asima Chatterjee and so on. There is probably no area
or field where women have not gained excellence.
Science
is one of the key elements of an advanced society. Broadly speaking, science
and technological advancement is a sign of the growth and development of a
nation. The more advanced the science and technology area is, the more advanced
a nation is. Coming to the under-graduation and graduation level, women[1]
candidates are performing well in science education. In fact, if we look at
higher studies, they even do better, but what happens after that stage? How
many out of them are really able to proceed further in their career? Do they
select career and job according to their qualification? What are the possible
reasons behind this? The main reason according to me, is, age factor. By the
time they complete their higher studies, they will reach the age of marriage. In
many cases, she is forced to get married before she completes her education. Alarm
will start ringing each second to get ready for marriage and leave the career
at the back door. How many of these women stand firm and go ahead according to
their willingness? After giving so much of effort, if her talent could not be
utilized properly, then why did she study and come this far? Or can we say the
other way like why her parents allowed her to study according to her choice
before cutting down her legs? There are two possible answers to this. Firstly, she
opted to study science as she wants to be a scientist and work for the society
and herself as well. Secondly, parents have allowed her to come so far as they
might get a good standard son-in-law. Is not it a matter of shame? If she has
opted to take up her educational career so far, then where is her mental
strength to fight for her right to progress further? Why should she stop doing
science after her marriage? If it is her parent’s decision to give her higher
education, then why do they want to shatter her dreams latter? When we look at
these factors, one question came to my mind is that should women not get marry
then, if they want to continue their research and job etc?
Marriage
is not the only factor that puts a stop to women from doing science. There are
other factors such as, economic status of the parents. For example, by her
utmost effort, she has completed her graduation in science. She tries to get
some fellowship, but remains unfortunate in getting one. Once you complete your
post graduation, you have a number of fellowship options. Many parents can not
even afford till that period as they have to save a huge amount for her
marriage. This is one of the reasons why a girl has to stop her education in
the middle. What if her talent could still be utilized in a proper way? Another
ground is our rigid tradition. In many cases, a woman will have all the
resources she needs to pursue her education and career such as financial
assistance, no hurry at home for her marriage. Why is she still not able to
work as a scientist in our society? The reason is our rigid and conservative
tradition does not allow her to go for a job or work outside home.
Analyzing
the above factors, one can come to certain possible solutions. Marriage should
not be an obstacle for a woman scientist. After marriage her role should not be
confined to a wife, a daughter-in-law and a mother. If she is willing to work, do
research or job, then her willingness should be respected by her new family
members. Her new family should create a familiar environment for her to work.
In some cases, they do and in some they do not. Economy in a broader sense and
money in a specific sense should not close the door for higher education. Above
all, rigid culture should not cut he legs down and stop her from being
independent to pursue her dreams. During my recent conversation with one of the
scientists, he explained that it is difficult to change the system at once,
rather we can create another system, and its success will bring followers. What
can be possible solution for our women scientists? Marriage, economic
circumstances, and culture- all these are part of all of us; our society. It
may take decades to bring in a change. Here comes an alternative to this
present discussed issue, that is, make those women scientists work from home
itself.
This
initiative is an excellent one I came to learn about. This is the concept of
working from home itself, especially for women. We are of course, aware of the
initiative of working from home for moms in internet. At present there is
another initiative meant specifically for women is women scientists’ forum of
Open source Drug Discovery (OSDD) Initiative. The main motive of this
initiative is to bring together the creative talented women scientists those
who are interested to work for the cure of Tuberculosis disease by working in
an open space and on a common platform. As I have mentioned earlier, there are
many women who can not come out for job or research for many social factors. It
specially encourages them to join for this social cause. As a matter of fact,
it is not limited to a particular group of women, but welcomes any woman who is
voluntarily interested to join this forum and contribute. The functioning of
such forums is very important and needs to be supported by the Government, society
and nation in a broader sense. Here when I mentioned the word ‘support’, it
implies that the ‘strength’. This strength in the sense of support will
definitely lead to outstanding contributions to the OSDD initiative in general
and women empowerment in particular.
[1] In this article the
category of woman is specific to women scientists only. Although, the presented
arguments about education, occupation, economic and other issues are presented
by keeping women scientists in view, but broadly the same arguments are
applicable to any area such as social sciences, arts, humanities, and so on.
