Enhancing academic performances of women undergraduates in engineering through cultural interventions

Abstract

This paper aims to find the impact of a program named ‘Shardanyas’ (meaning charitable organization of the goddess of knowledge) consisting of technical and non-technical events and special soft skill development programs on the performance of women pursuing technical programs.The paper opted for an exploratory study using both closed ended and open-ended approach consisting of 251 women students participating. In-depth interviews were conducted for 15 top performing students. The academic and extracurricular performance of students were measured every six months after implementing the program. The data was complemented by the feedbacks received from recruiting agencies also. The initial analysis shows statistically significant improvement over two years, in performance of female students, unlike male students, validating efficacy of the interventions. The program catalyzed acquisition of skills such as communication and public speaking skills, and leadership and management skills, as well as improvement in semester grade points of women students, which can augur well for the students’ professional excellence. The experiment was carried out at an institution and needs to repeat at multiple institutions to validate the findings. The work presented can help fellow educators to develop appropriate co-curricular programs that can pave the way to professional success of women students. Technical colleges and professions have been globally facing gender disparity. Researchers have identified the major reasons for the disparity in colleges as “leaky pipeline” and “chilly climate.” The study fulfils this identified need to improve the performance of women technical graduates.