‘ISRO experience shows gender has no role to play’

It would be disingenuous of me to say I was always interested in space or science because I totally was not — I quit maths and physics very willingly in Class 12! But a chance invitation sent to me by the Indian Women Network of CII for a women empowerment summit in September 2016 listed three names of the ISRO women scientists who worked on Mangalyaan . Curiosity about Mars — always a guaranteed topic of wonder — and the role of these women prompted me to attend the conclave.

Once I listened to Ritu Karidhal, Minal Sampath and Moumita Datta talk about their experiences in launching the Mars Orbiter into the Martian orbit, in a record time frame, cost and execution, I was hooked!

The numbers are low across the world, as I have said in the book, not just India and ISRO, despite indications that representation is on its way up. The ISRO experience clearly shows that gender has no role to play when it comes to assigning and successfully completing complex assignments.

The women who worked on the Mars Orbiter Mission (and I had access to only some of them, there were many more who played key roles in the mission) as well as veteran women scientists such as TK Anuradha, who was the first woman project director for GSAT-12 (communication satellite) and N Valarmathi, who was the project director for the first indigenous radar imaging RISAT-1 satellite, Seetha Somasundaram, who led space science satellite Astrosat — all of these scientists played roles equal to their male colleagues.

The competency was never in any doubt, as reiterated by male bosses in ISRO. Unlike a private company, ISRO follows a strict hierarchy when it comes to promotions, nobody can jump the queue — is what I was told by one of the senior scientists. This is the reason most of the younger or mid-level women scientists at ISRO are confident that in perhaps a decade or so, with the representation numbers equalising, women at the top would be a natural outcome.

Absolutely. That is, in fact, the main aim of writing this book, profiling case studies of women scientists coming from smaller towns and cities or even villages. Most, if not all, of the stories I have told are aspirational, how these scientists overcame initial reluctance, and sometimes outright opposition, to pursue higher studies in science and then leave their homes to join ISRO centres far away. The fact that they went on to succeed at their work and work out a harmonious work-life balance makes them role models for countless young girls who face gender stereotyping about science ‘not being for girls’, or that ‘family demands’ will prove stumbling blocks in pursuing a career in science.

I personally intend taking this book to coaching classes, schools and colleges in smaller towns and cities; have informal chats with young students on the brink of deciding their future course of action and share the game-changing stories of the ISRO women scientists

Almost all of the ISRO women scientists/engineers denied wanting any special treatment related to gender, in fact several of them told me they were waiting for the day that they would not be called women scientists, but just scientists.

While acknowledging that highlighting the contribution and success of women scientists would help young girls realise that all of this is possible, they reiterated the fact that inside ISRO, under the scientific garb they don, literally and otherwise, there is absolutely no difference based on gender.

That exploring unfamiliar territories and entering alien worlds (the ISRO women scientists’ certainly was one for me) can lead to fresh perspectives. That there are a lot of people (male and female scientists) doing innovative path-breaking work in a quiet manner, juggling deadlines and pressure without anyone on the outside even being aware till a mission is launched.

That failures don’t count, you have to find a niche and do something that others have not done earlier and you have to have the rigour to keep at it till you succeed. Personal learnings for me were aspirational ones — a cool, calm temperament, ‘nerves of steel’, the ability to be unfazed by high-pressure, ‘one-chance-only’ targets. All essential pre-requisites to being a space scientist but of equal benefit and value to the rest of us too!

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