No Indians In 'Best Female Scientists 2023' List: What This Signifies

Indian women have accomplished extraordinary feats in science and technology over the years, with their remarkable contributions to healthcare, space, physics, computer science, and more. Yet Indian female scientists' achievements fall behind on the global stage. Although their historic achievements have been imprinted across the globe, they go unseen and underappreciated compared to female scientists from other countries.

This year's list of 'Best Female Scientists In The World', released by the research portal Research.com, has not recognised any Indian woman scientist in the index. This reveals the gloom-ridden representation of women in science in India that deems them insufficiently competent to be recognised globally.

Why Is India Falling Behind

While there is no lack of talent coming from India, the underrepresentation of women in the home country itself is a vital reason why Indian female scientists fail to get recognised worldwide. Not only is science male-dominated in India, but even the existing female scientists are subject to unappreciation and lack of support.

Although recognition for women scientists is slowly increasing, especially with awards and conferences specifically catered to women, there is still no difference in the gender skew in the overall science landscape of India. In fact, this 'female only' recognition approach is isolating women scientists from the overall landscape even more, because it deems them incapable of challenging male scientists. 

According to a report in ABP, women make up only 16% of Indian scientists. In another report in Nature, it was revealed that most science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) conferences in India are preceded by male academicians. The report also stated that 35% of these conferences have no women scientists present. Even most awards meant for scientists within our country mostly go to men, a report in the Indian Express stated.

Lack of support and resources for women-led research and development is one of the biggest concerns for women scientists in India, coupled with societal issues like gender bias, stigma, lack of family support, and insufficient education and awareness on available resources. When women scientists in India get recognition within our own country, that is when they can be confident to compete on a global level. 

Top Female Scientists Of The World

Research.com's ranking was based on the H-index (calculated by counting the number of publications for which an author has been cited by other authors at least that same number of times), the rate of the contributions made within an examined area of research, and also on the awards and recognitions of the scholars. The organisation stated that only the top 1000 scientists with the highest H-index are displayed in the ranking.

The USA's JoAnn E. Manson, from Harvard Medical School, is the top-ranked scientist, with an H-index of 297, over 3.3 lakh citations, and 2,031 publications. She is followed by Virginia M.-Y. Lee from the University of Pennsylvania, Tamara B. Harris from the US National Institutes of Health, Terrie E. Moffitt from Duke University, and fifth on the list, Kay-Tee Khaw of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

The ranking further lists more scientists from the US and the UK, with barely any representation from other countries, especially developing countries. Some of the developing countries that have made it to the list are Brazil, Argentina, Singapore, and Morocco, each having less than five scientists on the list.