The word ‘Spoorthi’ in Sanskrit means inspiration, enthusiasm or spark. Celebrating this spark that each woman carries within her, we decided to put together an e-booklet featuring conversations with women from many different science professions and compiling resources that they may find useful. These conversations touch upon various ideas, issues, challenges, and experiences that are an intrinsic part of being a woman in science in India.

Featured in this booklet are articles on mentorship and harassment, leaky pipelines and bystander training, rewards of a scientific career and challenges of balancing science with motherhood, and finally, various suggestions on building an inclusive and nurturing environment for people of every gender.

In addition to this, the booklet also includes a list of grants and awards for women in science in India, a section on laws and redressal mechanisms for sexual harassment in the workplace, and a timeline featuring ten iconic women in the history of science in India.

We hope you will enjoy reading through this compendium that aims to celebrate Indian women in science and serve as inspiration for the young women of tomorrow.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Conversations

• Q: What has helped you the most in reaching where you are today?
• The leaky pipeline: A social scientist’s perspective by Anitha Kurup
• Q: Who are some of the female role models or mentors that you have looked up to?
• The sum of the parts of a mentor by Sreelaja Nair
• Q: What is your favourite part of being in science?
• Science as a rewarding career choice – Is it?By Sandhya S Visweshwariah
• Q: What were the biggest challenges you faced in your journey to this point and how did you overcome them?
• He is not a gender-neutral pronoun by Rashna Bhandari
• Improving gender equity in academic workspaces by Sunil Mukhi
• Q: What does success mean to you?
• Scientist and mommy by Shubha Tole
• Q: What changes do you believe will help future generations of women in science the most?
• Plugging the leaky pipeline by Vaishnavi Ananthnarayanan
• Bystander training in academic spaces by Sandhya P Koushika
• Q: Is there any message that you want to pass on to the young women of tomorrow?

Ten Iconic Women in Indian Science

Resources

• Funding and awards for women in science in India
• Understanding Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
• Sexual harassment of women at the workplace- redressal mechanisms

Acknowledgements

The Life of Science documented this session held during the Indian Society of Developmental Biologists Biennial Meeting (InSBD) 2018 at IIT Kanpur, supported by IndiaBioscience.

A report on "Gender-sensitization in Indian science: attitudes and action items" emerging from a session on sexual harassment in the workplace at YIM2018, written by Shubha Tole and L.S. Shashidhara and supported by YIM2018 participants from 47 different institutions was published in Current Science and can be found here.