It has been more than a century since Women’s Day is being celebrated globally. With lots of feminist and women empowerment movements, the ‘fairer sex’ has got their due status and rights in the society. However, there is still a very long way to go. While a chunk of women feels free to do and choose anything, the larger section is still fighting for basic rights.
On the one hand, we have women proving themselves on every platform. However, on the other side, the increasing number of crimes against women, their school dropout rates, their minuscule participation in work force and representation in top positions in every sector, from the corporate world to politics, paint a totally different picture.
Even when we talk about bureaucracy, sadly, women are way behind men in numbers. They outdo men in topping the civil services exam, but if we look at the total successful candidates, they still hover around 20-30 %.
Take the example of UPSC CSE 2021. Out of 761 successful candidates, 216 are women. They are way behind in the total number, but in the top 25 positions, we find 12 women. The results were almost similar for UPSC CSE 2019. 202 women were successful against 720 men. However, their success rate was around 15% per cent, which was almost double the men.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022, few women officers holding top positions across the services – from IAS, IRS and IRTS – come together in a webinar organised by Indian Masterminds, and discussed why women are still not able to outnumber men in UPSC CSE, even when they have it all what it takes to clear the exam, intellect, passion, dedication, capability for hard work, and much more.
The speakers pointed out a range of factors like social dilemmas, stereotypes, lack of ambition, marriage, family, etc., that stop women from aspiring for more.
The participants of the webinar are:
Shubham Chaudhary, DM, Dungarpur, Rajasthan
Hari Chanadana Dasari, DM, Narayanpet (Telangana)
Dr. Sudha Kumari, Principal Commissioner Income Tax, New Delhi
Rohini Divakar, Additional Commissioner Income Tax, Chennai
Smita Singh, Additional Commissioner Income Tax, UP
Ity Pandey, IRTS officer, Central Mumbai Railways
Watch the webinar here:
