FICCI Ladies Organisation Stresses Importance of Women in STEM

By: WE Staff | Friday, 31 October 2025

• FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) stressed the role of women in the STEM sector
• FLO connected women's progress in STEM with realizing the vision of 'Viksit Bharat 2047'
• The declaration emphasizes that gender equity in STEM is of social and economic concern to India

The integration and progress of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are imperative to enhance national innovation, enhance economic competitiveness, and fulfill the vision of 'Viksit Bharat 2047', FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), the premier organisation of businesswomen in India, said.

In a recent report, FLO had seen India's expanding talent pool of competent women in STEM as an untapped national resource.

"India is the world leader in the production of female STEM graduates, with women constituting approximately 43 percent of enrolments. Yet only 14 percent enter STEM professions," commented Poonam Sharma, FLO National President.

She added that this gap, in every case called the 'leaky pipeline', is a huge loss of human potential and a hindrance to innovation. Women only make up 16.6% of the workforce in major Research and Development (R&D) institutions.

Poonam further said that gaining greater representation of women in the workforce could contribute significantly to GDP growth, while enabling women's entrepreneurship could create 150–170 million jobs by 2030.

According to FLO, systemic barriers such as social and cultural norms, inequitable distribution of unpaid work, gender bias at work, and the persistent ‘glass ceiling’, continue to hinder women from advancing in STEM.

On the other hand, government initiatives aimed at boosting women such as WISE-KIRAN and GATI, and the success of women scientists in ISRO, the growing startup ecosystem supported by Startup India, have shown positive outcomes.

FLO recommends closing the gap between work and education, making gender-disaggregated data and gender pay gap information mandatory, and establishing a dedicated "Deep-Tech Women's Fund" to actively promote women’s participation and representation in STEM industries.