Women in Higher Education in India: Patterns of Exclusion

Women taking to higher education have been on the steady rise in India with many institutions of higher education having women in equal number to men if not more.  But there appears to be something more than what meets the eyes since this quantitative shift is not matched by the qualitative content. The present review article seeks to probe into gender considerations and their implications for higher education in Indian context. An attempt is made to analyse and substantiate the situation based on information available with various government and developmental agencies.  Having analysed 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 that several  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.