CheckTheGap
Analysis & Writing
Data-driven analysis of gender representation in Indian academia. Charts, findings, and context from the CheckTheGap dataset.
15 Years of Data: Is the Gender Gap in Indian Academia Closing?
Since 2010, the share of women among VIDWAN-registered faculty has risen from around 22% to 33%. Progress is real — but it is slow, and in STEM the numbers tell a more sobering story.
The STEM Divide Is Larger Than the Headline Number Suggests
The headline gender gap in Indian academia — about one in three faculty being women — conceals a much sharper split by field. In engineering and technology departments, the figure drops to roughly one in six.
A 30-Point Gap: How States Differ on Faculty Gender Diversity
The share of women among VIDWAN-registered faculty varies by more than 30 percentage points across India's states. The variation is not random — it maps onto distinct regional patterns.
Faculty Representation in the Old IITs
Lump every STEM department together and the seven oldest IITs already span 7.2% to 12.8% female faculty. Split STEM into Engineering and Science, and the picture changes again — sometimes in opposite directions at the same institute.
The Leaky Pipeline: How Women Disappear as Academic Ranks Rise
In 2025, 24% of assistant professors at Indian universities registered on VIDWAN are women. At the professor level, the figure is 16%. That gap — measured at the same institutions, in the same year — is what researchers call the leaky pipeline.