With a view to encouraging girls taking up STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses and entrepreneurship, San Francisco-based Girls In Tech has opened its Indian chapter, with Hyderabad as its headquarters.
The GIT has lined up a series of events that include hackathons, investment pitching events, workshops and interactions with mentors for girls. “Our aim is to support and raise the visibility of women in STEM, entrepreneurship and innovation,” Sree Divya Vadlapudi P, Managing Director of GIT in India, has said.
Addressing the inaugural here on Monday, she said the GIT would work with the US government, the Telangana State and the industry.
Quoting a 2013 research, US Consulate General (Hyderabad) Michael Mullins said that four out of 1,000 young students in India opt for science and technology.
Earn more “This figure does not tell us how many of these are women, but that is not difficult to guess. The comparable figure was 110 for Japan, 76 for Germany and Israel, and 46 for South Korea,” he said.
Stating that unintentional biases sub-consciously keep women away, he said women in STEM jobs in the US earned 33 per cent more than those in non-STEM occupations and experience a smaller wage gap relative to men.