Engineering A Conducive Field For Indian Women & Nothing Must Dissuade Them From Joining In

By: Rachita Sharma, Managing Editor | Tuesday, 28 February 2023

Engineers are an integral part of India’s growth journey. But women form a considerably smaller part of the engineering community in India. But surprisingly, the gender ratio of engineering students across the country is nearly 50 percent. The research by the Society of Women Engineers found that in 2018, 49.6 percent of the science and engineering degrees were earned by women. But the number drops down to 29.4 percent when it comes to women enrolled in science and engineering jobs in the year 2019.

Jayita Sengupta, Co-Founder & COO, Treis Tek India, a prolific leader featured on the current edition of Women Entrepreneur magazine explains further, “Engineering is widely regarded as a male-dominated field. When it comes to choosing a stream such as civil, mechanical, or electrical engineering, women often hear things like ‘this field is not for you.’ The skewed gender inequality in the sector is still insufficient to dissuade women from pursuing engineering careers. All girls who want to pursue a career in civil engineering should not be discouraged. If one has the aptitude, nothing can stop them from attaining their goal”.

Jayati comes armed with an MBA degree in Marketing and Brand Management and has over 15years of enterprise experience, through which she enables businesses to achieve their growth, innovation, and performance excellence goals. Joining Jayita on the cover of the current edition is Sherry Rakhra, Founder, Rakhra Associates. She started her career just after her masters, Sherry has always been an achiever, be it in academics or her passion towards structural design. Her positive attitude and enthusiastic soul lead the company to greater heights.

The edition also features other prolific structral engineers Pragya Sanghavi, Director, Pentaspace and Sonali Dhopte, Chief Strategy Officer, Excelize. Passionate about construction and designing, Pragya and her team at Pentaspace are delivering creative architectural work. Along with her Architecture Degree, she has also completed her postgraduation in Advance Construction and was also a part of 10,000 women entrepreneur programme by IIM Bangalore and Goldman sacks.

“The perception is changing now in both Architecture and Engineering industries. Soon you can see more and more women in the forefront now,” she believes. Sonali earned her B Arch in 1993 and worked as an architect in India before moving to the US in 1995. She completed a Certificate in Interior Design from UC Berkeley Extension in the San Francisco Bay Area and worked with multiple architecture and interior designing firms in US. Furthermore, Sonali and her husband Pratap Dhopte launched Excelize in 2004 and have been working on several projects globally and developing the Excelize team for the past 18 years.

“I believe that a growing number of women have advanced degrees, yet this trend does not always translates into greater economic security for themselves. Perhaps there is no need for many of them to be financially independent”, she adds. Read through to know more about these illustrious women leaders and their shining professional careers. Do let us know your thoughts.