Science has no gender, say top women scientists

Hyderabad: Declaring that science has no gender, a top DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) scientist said that the participation of women in the premier defence research institute has increased manifold in the last couple of decades.

“DRDO had just one or two per cent of women working with it when I joined it. Now women make up 12 to 15 per cent of DRDO’s staff and they are now leading from the front. The system is slowly evolving. Science has no gender,” DRDO’s aeronautical systems director general Dr. Tessy Thomas said on Friday.

She was speaking at a seminar organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)’s Ladies Organisation (FLO) on ‘Stellar Journeys’. Apart from Dr Thomas, Kalpana Kalahasti of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) participated in the seminar.

Talking with FLO chairperson Priya Gazdar, Kalahasti said, “While women scientists and engineers have been contributing to every project of Isro, men and women, boys and girls have played equal roles. It was a team effort. The success of Chandrayaan-3 was the culmination of the teamwork of men and women.”

She said it was her childhood dream to work on missile development. “I was fascinated by the missile world. I used to run out of the house and watch the sky aeroplanes soaring high,” she said.

The Isro scientist said, “In a world that valorises brute force and aggressive competition, FLO and organisations like FLO, stand as harbingers of change.”