Engineering gender equity: A quota for women in IITs is unlikely to work

The bigger doubt is whether this "quota system" will further the cause of female engineers in any meaningful way

The diktat of the ministry of human resource development to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to ensure that at least 14 per cent of their seats go to women in the session starting July 2018, rising to 20 per cent by 2020, is imbued with the best of intentions. But, as a solution for ensuring gender equity in higher engineering education, it is flawed. This is not to deny the skewed gender ratio in engineering courses, in general, and the IITs, in particular. The world over, engineering, like economics, has traditionally been a “guy thing” and India is no