Gender diversity rises to 50% among doctoral research applicants at IIMs

Efforts to enhance gender diversity by the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are reaping benefits in their doctoral programmes. The share of female doctoral graduates has risen from around 10 per cent in 2015-2016 to 50 per cent in 2017-2018 at IIM Ahmedabad. And from around 10 per cent to 40 per cent at IIM Bangalore.

According to IIM-A, the positive development is a result of a shift in the number of doctoral research applicants. "The increasing gender balance in the graduating class indicates women are rising faster than men in acquiring high levels of specialisation in management education at IIM-A," said Amit Garg, chairperson, Fellow Programme in Management. According to him, the programme has seen a shift from around 10 per cent females graduating in 2016 to 25 per cent in 2017 and 50 per cent this year.

According to its annual report, in 2013-2014, there were at least three female Fellow graduates (their term for Ph.Ds) out of seven. The number grew to at least six out of 18 Fellow graduates in 2014-2015 and to 10 females out of 20 in 2015-16.

In the past three convocations, IIM Kozhikode has seen 11 male and five female fellow students graduate.

IIMs have also seen a rise in the overall number of doctoral candidates graduating. For instance, while IIM-A saw the number almost double from 10 in 2013-14 to 18 this year, IIM-B has seen a rise from seven in 2013-14 to around 20 this year.