In Haryana colleges, nearly 54% of teachers are women, though a majority of them hold junior positions. The state has a total of 41,098 teachers, with 22,086 being women and 19,012 (46.3%) being men, as reported by the All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) for the 2021-22 academic session.
However, in higher-ranking positions such as professors, men dominate. Out of the 3,738 professors in the state for the 2021-22 academic session, 67.4% (2,519) are men.
There are only 1,219 (32.6%) women professors.
The report of the survey, which was conducted across 1,089 colleges in the state, was released last week.
At college level, educators are categorised into various posts, including professors, associate professors, lecturers, demonstrators or tutors, temporary teachers and visiting staff that may include professors or lecturers from other institutions. The survey, which was carried out by the Union education ministry, shows that most lecturer, demonstrator and even temporary teacher positions are occupied by women. In fact, 81.4% of demonstrators or tutors in the Haryana colleges are women, against only 313 men. Similarly, 66.3% (1,486) of 2,241 temporary teachers in these colleges are women, against 755 men.
Lecturers are those who are recruited based on a postgraduate degree, a BEd degree and the entrance exam conducted by state government or Centre. They don’t need to have a PhD in a specific subject. Of 28,763 lecturers in Haryana, 54.8% (15,770) are women.
When it comes to associate professors, the numbers are fairly even — of a total of 4,199, 51.9% (2,179) are men and 48.1% (2,020) women. The situation is similar for visiting teachers, with 53.5% (253) men and 46.5% (220) women.
In non-teaching college staff, however, there are more men employees compared to women. Colleges across Haryana have 36,114 employees, of whom 64.8% (23,390) are men and 35.2% (12,724) are women. Experts attributed the trend to fewer education opportunities provided to women, mostly due to family responsibilities, as well as the male-dominant structure of the society.
She added that men are not comfortable taking orders from their women superiors. “Even if women are at senior positions, there are times when men under them do not welcome taking orders from them. This might be the reason that despite having enough qualifications, not many women reach the top positions,” she added..
Dinesh Kumar, the Vice-Chancellor of GU, expressed optimism about an increase in the number of women college educators in the state in the coming years. He mentioned that the current predominance of men in senior posts, particularly among professors, is a result of historical factors where men had more opportunities for education and experience. Kumar anticipates a shift as more women now have increased opportunities for education, and the trend of having more women teachers has become noticeable in the past five to six years.