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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Women are breaking genderstereotypes one degree at a time

By Arshad Yousafzai
November 13, 2018

It was a day to rejoice for 38-year-old Roohi Kanwal, a member of the academic staff at the University of Karachi (KU), when a doctorate degree was conferred on her by the Board of Advanced Studies and Research (BASR) for her research on Sindh’s freshwater turtles.

Roohi’s story is one of the countless tales of hard work and dedication of the female researchers who pursue their ambitions while taking care of things at home. “The moment came after years of tiring efforts, as I had to face challenges at various levels to fulfil my academic as well as familial responsibilities,” she told The News.

Her challenges included being a mother to two boys (year-five pupil Taha, and Hamza in his first year at school), teaching classes at KU and doing intensive fieldwork for her thesis. “It’s a hard-earned reward. Of course, there were failures and disappointments along the way, but it’s done now. And it couldn’t have been achieved without the support of my family, especially my husband.”

Besides the doctoral thesis, 18 of her research papers have been published in recognised national and international journals, while she also has two books on wildlife to her credit.  

A different trend

When forced to choose between familial responsibilities and fieldwork, it is believed that most women give up on their ambitions. KU’s official statistics, however, show a different trend: the number of female researchers exceeds that of their male counterparts.

Prof Dr Nasreen Aslam Shah, director of the Centre of Excellence for Women’s Studies, provides an explanation. “Since our society still encourages gender-based responsibilities, men need to be the breadwinners. That’s why their dropout rate is higher than that of women.”

-KU Board of Advanced Studies and Research data from 2013-2018 — Infographic by Faraz Maqbool

Then there’s the factor of increased awareness. “The changing environment encourages women to join the workforce and acquire higher education for well-paid jobs. Parents have realised that girls have an equal right to these opportunities. This translates into an increased number of women pursuing higher education and engaging in research.”

BASR data shows that KU has conferred 673 MPhil degrees between 2013 and 2018 in different disciplines, including Natural Science, Social Science, Education, Law and Management Science. Of these research fellows, 410 (61 per cent) are women. Similarly, 594 (57 per cent) of the 1,036 PhD degrees were conferred on women.

Islamic Studies seems to be the only discipline dominated by men, as only six (32 per cent) of its 19 MPhil degrees have been conferred on women in the past six years and just 19 (23 per cent) of its 84 PhD degrees.  

Of myth and bias

It is generally believed that women cannot continue higher education because of extensive fieldwork. But Prof Dr Khalida Ghaus, managing director of the Social Policy and Development Centre, disregards the idea as a myth. “The reality is quite different, as the available statistics clearly dispel this notion.”

She said that not only KU but the University of the Punjab also boasts more female doctorate holders and scholars. However, she pointed out, there are still some hindrances to women pursuing higher education.

“They have no access to research grants. They also have a lower outreach of discoveries compared to men. And there’s a bias within the system in favour of men.” But this is not all. “Female researchers also face problems related to mentorship and accessing data. And sometimes they also have to deal with gender discrimination. Even though female researchers take the least interest in politics on campus, they experience these issues. Moreover, their researches lack a proper dissemination system.”  

Walking a tightrope

Besides looking after their academic duties and fieldwork, KU’s female scholars are also taking care of things at home under different roles. Managing time and meeting deadlines can sometimes be difficult, but their research supervisors reject their manuscripts without taking account of their myriad responsibilities.

“It’s not easy keeping our balance,” said Alina Akbar, a research fellow at KU’s Department of Mass Communication. She said women are achieving excellence in the field of research, but their contribution to the scientific workforce has hardly been acknowledged. To bring a positive change, therefore, society needs to be made aware of women’s contribution, she added.

PhD scholar Madeeha Latif highlighted another problem. “Many girls are forced to drop out of their research studies and professions after getting married. This mentality should be changed. There are so many unemployed female doctors, engineers and researchers whose degrees are wasted.”  

Gender parity

On the increasing number of female researchers, KU spokesperson Muhammad Farooq said the university administration believes in gender parity. He also admitted that female scholars are more dedicated to research and higher education.

He claimed that KU is the only university in the country where female faculty members hold a number of key positions. “Karachi University believes in the capabilities of female scholars, and facilitates them without leaving any room for discrimination.”

The Karachi University Teachers Society recently elected three women to key positions: Prof Dr Anila Amber Malik as president, and Dr Solaha Rahman and Dr Uzma Ashiq as joint secretaries.

In the light of this, it is clear that female researchers, faculty members and students are leading in every field, which is quite an encouraging sign for the struggle against gender stereotypes.