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Exclusive IIM to Set Right Faculty Gender Balance

By simrat00001, Section Education
Posted on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 03:22:59 AM EST

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has decided to do something about its faculty's male female ratio, which is heavily tilted in favour of men. Of the 70 teachers here, only seven are women. But the institute has now decided to recruit more women teachers, provided the candidates fulfil the requisite criteria for the advertised post.

"With the Indra Nooyis dominating the corporate world, we at IIMC have become more conscious about our poor sex ratio. Recruiting more accomplished women in senior positions can definitely get us a new perspective in an institution that is rather male dominated," Professor Anindya Sen, dean.

In a recent recruitment drive, four of the eight people hired were women. Two of them, according to Sen, are teaching subjects that have never been taught by female teachers. "Manju Jaiswal and Kaushiki Choudhury will teach finance and marketing, respectively. One of them quit a highprofile corporate job to come and teach at IIM. This is certainly a very encouraging trend," said Sen. Choudhury - a Tata Steel executive who took a 10 per cent pay cut to join IIM-C - said she was very comfortable teaching marketing as she had spent over five years as a marketing professional. "In fact, it is my experience as a woman in a management job that will come in handy when I am teaching at IIM. I also plan to introduce some special courses at a later stage," she said. Choudhury did her Masters from Penn State University and a PhD from IIM-C.

The IIM-C administration believes that if more women join the faculty, gender ratio among students too will improve. "Ten to 15 per cent of our stu- dents are women. That is low, but we hope that once more women teachers join, more women students will show interest," said Sen.

Manisha Chakraborty, who has joined IIM-C as professor of econometrics, says: "I chose IIM-C as I hope to get the same academic freedom I enjoyed in the UK. As for the male-female ratio, I am used to working in a male dominated environment."Things are no different at IIM-Lucknow. Female faculty members constitute only 10 per cent of the total workforce. But Professor Neerja Pande only has good things to say about women: "Women bring an amliation orientation that men lack. Men are more achievement-oriented and their attitude is different."

Source (The Hinduatan Times 29/03/07)

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