dna special: Women faculty members surge at IIMA, however they form a mere 16%

Politics and academics may be poles apart. But they have one thing in common. That is below-par representation of women. While participation of the fairer sex is woefully unequal in the first, they are way behind in academia, too, probably the oldest profession in the world. And, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) seems to bear testimony to this. For, women are yet to catch up with the menfolk at least as far as faculty is concerned.

In fact, participation of the fairer sex seems to be skewed, making up less than 15% of the faculty. But the premier B-school seems to be coming out of this as the total number of women faculties has swelled to 15 in a total of 95 faculties.

This amounts to women faculty’s representation being nearly 16%, highest in the past six years. In the last few years, women faculties’ representation has been as low as 11.36% in 2010-11 when there were only 10 of them in a total of 88 faculties. After new director Ashish Nanda took over, IIMA has added 10 faculties, including some from renowned universities abroad.

Even when faculties claim that IIMA might be one of the few such institutes to dole out responsibilities without bias, what could be the reason for lesser participation? “One of the reasons could be not enough participation of women in courses like fellow programme management and PhDs. When there are not enough number of women applicants, how is it possible for institutes to recruit a large number of women faculties? And, any institute like IIMA focuses primarily on the best and not on having faculty from specific gender only,” said IIMA professor Meenakshi Sharma.

The institute might be more than five decades old. But it is yet to see a woman director taking up the tough job despite there being many contenders for the post. IIMA, however, had a woman as dean earlier and charge of placement officer. One of the crucial posts at B-schools is also assigned to a woman faculty, professor Kirti Sarda, currently.

While dean of faculty at IIMA, G Raghuram, was not available for comment, dean of program Ajay Pandey said the increasing number of women participation seems to mirror the social perspective.

“Generally, participation of the women in the workforce is increasing with women opting for higher education. The scenario, where the participation of girls in courses like engineering and management has been less in the past, is changing worldwide and India is not going to be an exception,” said Pandey.

So, do women faculties bring in a different perspective? “To some extent, I think they improve the sensitive side, be it internal management or programme,” he reasoned.

Prof Chitra Singla
Faculty of business policy
“One of the challenges for IIMA is disadvantage of location. Not many faculties’ spouses get bright career choices and so, many a time, people hesitate to be in Ahmedabad, preferring cities like Bangalore, instead. IIMA is probably the best place to work for any academician. I am married to an IPS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre. I continue to teach here and do not wish to leave this campus in the near future, keeping in mind the bright career opportunity it offers”

Prof Sharon Barnhardt
Faculty at Public System group
“Why am I at IIMA? So, it has a lot of it because of the public system group. It begins with the question on why in India as my dissertation and research in India. IIMA has a wider focus. It is more than a business school. It professes to be a school of management and from its formation, IIMA has this idea that commerce is the way that you empower yourself individually and a way that country develops. And this is where IIMA is different from traditional business school. Coming from public policy background, it attracted me”