WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The necessity of the book emerges out of the fact that the largest democracy in this Globe i.e. India holds 42 percent of female faculties in Higher Education against 58 percent of their male counterparts. Despite the Well-decorated gender friendly policies in different universities, colleges or the stand-alone institutions, the participation of women leaders is very low. It is mostly due to the glass ceiling approach that stops women from holding leadership positions in Indian academia. The presence of 7 female Vice Chancellors in 54 Central universities across the country indicates the alarming status of gender discrimination in Higher Education (Jain, 2022). Human history has witnessed the intolerance of men towards female leadership.  The father of all sciences, Aristotle, remarked on the inferior status of women, hence he kept females aside from authority. By denying their civil rights, he affirmed, ‘women’s rightful place is the household chores’. This established myth has still dominated the present trends. Although women have made remarkable development in academia however it is very difficult to quantify. Family responsibility, motherhood, lack of social acceptance and self motivation, lack of gender friendly policies, sexual harassment at work place, and most importantly male chauvinism against women leadership are the guiding factors behind the poor leadership roles of women in higher education. The institutional formalism between the female friendly policies and their real applications has a serious shortage of female leaders in the higher education sector. COVID-19 has widened the gender disparity in various regular sectors including academics. Women faced more terminations from men during the pandemic. ‘Women are incapacitated for leadership’ myth has further accentuated the gender stereotype among the patriarchs.

The book gives an effort to evaluate the role of higher education institutions in India to empower women both as students and teachers. The main purpose of the book is to actualize gender specific structure to ease the path of equality for the female stakeholders.