Journey through the Gender Prejudices

Post liberalization era caused a spurt in the pace of industrialization, urbanization and globalization. This growth created the need for a greater pool of technical manpower to form a support base. Students cutting across the various divides got attracted to technical education. Engineering education hitherto considered a domain of the male, gradually saw the advent of women. However, the entry of girl students in technical education was never a quantum jump, given the phenomena of conservative mind sets in operation.This work is based on extensive research on women students in Technical Education in Odisha involving the nature of enrollment, sustainability and socialization of women students in Technical Education. The gender disadvantage resides at social, cultural, psychological and economic layers of life with representation in technical education constituting only one such dimension. It is hoped that this work would lead in a modest manner to overcome the proverbial "glass ceiling" and work towards achieving a balanced representation.