Why it is (still) difficult being a woman in science?

In India, as almost everywhere in the world, women constitute a distinct minority among scientists. Why is there this gender imbalance? Does it hurt science, and does it hurt women in science? Can efforts be made to correct this imbalance? What role is played by biases, either explicit or (more insidiously) implicit ones? How does the situation in India compare to that in other countries? These are some of the issues I will address in my talk.

About the Speaker:
Shobhana Narasimhan got an MSc from IIT Bombay in 1985, where she was the Institute Silver Medallist. Prior to that in 1984 she was a student in the VSRP programme at TIFR. In 1991, she obtained her PhD from Harvard University, USA. After postdocs at Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, and the Fritz Haber Institut, Berlin, Germany, she joined the faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, in 1996, where she still works as a Professor in the Theoretical Sciences Unit. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition to her research in computational nanoscience, she has a strong interest in promoting the cause of women in science, and in teaching physics in developing countries.