Gender and Higher Education in India

The present review article seeks to probe into gender considerations and their implications for higher education in Indian context from cultural perspective.  There appears to be fierce debate among the educationists and educational planners about the persistence or otherwise of gender bias, discrimination and the resultant gender inequalities in higher education in India. This article is an attempt to analyse and substantiate    both the arguments based on supporting information available with various governmental and developmental agencies.  Having analysed the debate in the light of contemporary social reality pertaining to the state and status of higher education and the major limitations and constraints in achieving the envisaged and aspired levels of  expansion, excellence, quality and access for its inclusivity, the article   reveals  diverse ways in which gender considerations come to condition the statics and dynamics of higher education, including access, exclusion, distribution and composition and even the governance of institutions of higher education and  the centres of excellence.  An attempt is made to ascertain how the quantitative growth in women taking to higher education alone could be misleading and a misconception about the status of women’s education without a corresponding change in the qualitative aspects such as relative importance and value  of the courses in terms of opportunity for employment, importance of the sector that the courses offered can open for women, that is, the extent to which the  higher education being accessed by women can empower them in true sense of the term.